2 Ejected From Bush Speech Posed a Threat, Lawyers Say http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/us/15eject.html?_r=2&en=a5e627c00&ex=1334289600&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
Lawyers for two men charged with illegally ejecting two people from a speech by President Bush in 2005 are arguing that the president’s staff can lawfully remove anyone who expresses points of view different from his. Lawyers for the two, Michael Casper and Jay Klinkerman, said the men were working as organizers for a public presidential forum on Social Security at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver on March 21, 2005, when they were involved in ejecting two audience members, Alex Young and Leslie Weise. Mr. Young and Ms. Weise filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court here, saying they were ejected shortly after they had arrived in a car that had an antiwar bumper sticker, although they had done nothing disruptive. The suit charged Mr. Casper and Mr. Klinkerman with violating Mr. Young’s and Ms. Weise’s First Amendment right to free speech. Mr. Casper and Mr. Klinkerman lost their motion for dismissal, and this week their lawyers filed an appeals brief arguing that their clients had the right to take action against Mr. Young and Ms. Weise precisely because the two held views different from Mr. Bush’s. “They excluded people from a White House event because they posed a threat of being disruptive,” said a lawyer for Mr. Casper, Sean Gallagher. The brief filed by Mr. Gallagher and other lawyers refers to a 1992 case involving a woman who wore a button supporting Bill Clinton for president as she tried to enter a campaign rally in support of George H. W. Bush and Dan Quayle. She was denied entry until she removed the button. A lawyer for Ms. Weise and Mr. Young, Martha Tierney, said that case was different because the event was sponsored by the Strongsville, Ohio, Republican Party, a private entity. “I think if the court adopts this argument, they’ll essentially gut the First Amendment in terms of viewpoint discrimination,” Ms. Tierney said. Earlier this year, Mr. Young and Ms. Weise filed a separate lawsuit against three White House staff members who were also working at the Denver speech, saying they were responsible for their removal and thus had violated their right to free speech.
US proposes 'new ideas' to Russia on missile defense: official http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_proposes_new_ideas_to_Russia_on__04172007.html
The United States presented "new ideas" here Tuesday for cooperation with Russia on missile defense systems, a senior US official said. "We brought with us some new ideas for cooperation and made it clear that we were open to cooperation with Russia across a broad range of missile defense activities," US Assistant Secretary of State John Rood told AFP following talks with Russian diplomatic and military officials.
Top U.S. general says Iranian weapons in Afghanistan
http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSN1741166020070417
Iranian weapons headed for Taliban fighters were intercepted in Afghanistan in the last month, according to the United States' top general on Tuesday. Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, stopped short of saying Iran's government had provided the weapons. Instead, he said he was not sure which Iranian "entity" was responsible. His comments mark the first U.S. accusations that Iran's Shi'ite government could be helping the Sunni Taliban. The Bush administration regularly accuses Iranian forces of supplying and training insurgents in Iraq. During the years that the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, Iran supported Afghan groups fighting the group, including the Northern Alliance which played a crucial role in toppling Taliban after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. In 1998, Iran almost went to war with Afghanistan after the Taliban government killed 10 Iranian diplomats. Pace said Iranian-made mortars and C-4 explosives were intercepted in Kandahar by coalition forces. He did not provide further details, saying he knew only that the weapons were made in Iran and were on their way to the Taliban.
12 Nigerian police killed ahead of vote http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4722860.html
Gunmen attacked a police station on Tuesday in northern Nigeria, killing 12 officers and torching the building despite the government's attempts to increase security for weekend presidential elections meant to cement civilian rule. Residents said they believed the attackers were members of an outlawed Islamist movement that has clashed briefly with security forces in recent years.
South America oil, gas summit to open in Venezuela http://rawstory.com/news/afp/South_America_oil_gas_summit_to_ope_04172007.html
The two-day summit on Margarita island is expected to focus on big-ticket regional projects promoted by Venezuela, the only Latin American member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Besides Chavez and Lula, slated to attend the meeting on Venezuela's Caribbean island Margaritas are Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia, Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Nicanor Duarte of Paraguay, Alan Garcia of Peru and Tabare Vazquez of Uruguay. The presidents will tackle other projects, such as a gas pipeline between Venezuela and the Pacific Coasts of Colombia and Panama, expected to provide 10 million dollars to improve the quality of life in villages along the pipeline route. The South American leaders will also discuss ethanol, a biofuel produced mainly by Brazil from sugarcane and the United States from corn. Aides said Lula would reiterate his commitment to the expansion of ethanol, which he highlighted in talks last month with US President George W. Bush. Both Chavez and his Cuban ally Fidel Castro have warned that increased ethanol production would fuel global hunger by using up arable land needed for food production. But the Venezuelan president insisted he would not pick a fight with Brazil's moderate leftist leader. "We will never fight with Lula. We will never fight with Brazil. Our enemy is the US empire," Chavez said.
Leaders at the summit also planned to discuss another ambitious pipeline project that would extend 5,000-miles (8,000-kilometers) and deliver natural gas from Venezuela to Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. Brazil and Venezuela agreed in January to move ahead with the first stage of the project, which would take the pipeline to the Brazilian city of Recife. Chavez is also certain to highlight his country's Petro-America project, which sells crude at preferential prices to impoverished countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Buoyed by high oil prices, Venezuela is also building refineries in Cuba, Brazil, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay. Venezuela, together with Iran, is promoting the creation of an OPEC-like cartel for natural gas-exporting countries. Both countries' energy ministers discussed the idea during a two-day gathering in Doha earlier this month.
Organic Thailand takes root http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Organic_Thailand_takes_root_04162007.html
Rai Plook Rak Farm, in Ratchaburi province, is one of many certified organic farms that have sprung up across Thailand in recent years hoping for a slice of the burgeoning market for all things chemical-free. Once considered a niche market for eccentrics, "organic" has exploded into an international phenomenon worth an annual 26 billion dollars. And Thai farmers are cultivating the trend. In 2005 the Thai organic market was estimated at 805 million baht (23 million dollars), up 145 percent from 2002. In 2005, about 21,700 hectares (53,600 acres) of farmland was certified as organic, a 900 percent increase from four years earlier.
EPA proposing limits to lawnmower emissions http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/4722626.html
Polluting engine-powered mowers that are a staple of suburban lawn care would become much cleaner under emission limits being proposed today by government regulators. The proposal follows a long-running dispute between California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Missouri Republican Sen. Kit Bond, who sought to block the change in order to protect a small-engine maker in his home state, Briggs & Stratton. Engines under 50 horsepower, which are mostly used to power walk-behind and riding mowers, account for up to 10 percent of summertime smog emissions from mobile sources in some parts of the country. The Environmental Protection Agency has been considering a proposal that would cut smog-forming emissions from the engines by roughly 40 percent. This would likely be achieved by installing catalytic converters that reduce pollution from exhaust. The final proposed rule was to be released this afternoon, an agency spokeswoman said. Adding catalytic converters will make mowers more expensive, according to the California Air Resources Board, and some in the industry resisted the change. California already has enacted the rule. The nation's most populous state has unique authority under the Clean Air Act to establish its own pollution rules if it's granted a federal waiver, and California got the small-engine waiver last December.
Passengers fume as sleepy crew delays flight
http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSDEL22288420070417
Passengers on a British Airways flight from New Delhi to London faced a 13-hour delay as the pilot felt he was too sleepy after a noisy night in a New Delhi hotel, newspapers reported on Monday. Angry passengers were offloaded from the plane early Sunday morning after the pilot refused to fly until he caught up with his sleep. The flight, BA 142, finally took off 13 hours later to the fury of passengers who were sent to city hotels to wait out the delay as the crew rested, newspapers reported.
"Liver holiday" may do drinkers some good
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSCOL76307620070417
The study included 89,000 middle-aged men and women who were followed for up to 13 years. At study entry 68 percent of the men and 11 percent of the women were regular drinkers. The analysis was confided to the men because the number of female drinkers was so small. The investigators found that men who drank relatively heavily on most days of the week had a heightened risk of dying from any cause. In contrast, men who drank roughly the same amount alcohol each week, but drank less frequently, showed no increase in their mortality risk. The findings, which appear in the American Journal of Epidemiology, give some credibility to the widespread social belief in Japan that a "liver holiday," a few days off from drinking each week helps counter the ill effects of alcohol. However, the findings don't suggest that a few binges each week will do no harm, the study's lead author cautioned.
Chimps more evolved than humans http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070417_chimps_evolve.html
Since the human-chimp split about 6 million years ago, chimpanzee genes can be said to have evolved more than human genes, a new study suggests. The results, detailed online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contradict the conventional wisdom that humans are the result of a high degree of genetic selection, evidenced by our relatively large brains, cognitive abilities and bi-pedalism. Genes act as instructions that organisms use to make proteins and thus are integral to carrying out biological functions, such as transporting oxygen to the body’s cells. Different versions of the same gene are called alleles. Changes in DNA that affect the making of proteins are considered functional changes, while “silent” changes do not affect the proteins. The researchers found that substantially more genes in chimps evolved in ways that were beneficial than was the case with human genes.
There is still much to learn, the scientists say, about human and chimp evolution.
China rejects caps, aims to cut 'carbon intensity' http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news/archives/international/2007417/107326.htm
China aims to nearly halve by 2020 the amount of greenhouse gases it emits for each dollar of its economy, but will reject strict caps for decades, a copy of a national global warming assessment seen by Reuters shows. Beijing has been reticent about what the world's number-two carbon emitter is prepared to do to tackle global warming. While the report shows officials believe it is a serious threat, it suggests they do not want to take preventive steps that could hobble economic growth. China's first review of the problems posed by a hotter planet proposes an even more ambitious goal of an 80 percent cut in "carbon intensity" by 2050, from 2000 levels, but states that emissions per person are likely to top projected developed-nation levels before starting to fall. The "First National Climate Change Assessment" is not the last word in how China intends to address global warming, but it was drafted over four years in consultation with powerful ministries, suggesting a broad official consensus. The final version, which gives no figures for total current or future emissions, has not yet been approved for publication. It is separate from a national plan on climate change that Beijing is expected to unveil on April 24. The concept of cutting emissions for each unit of national income represents a rare convergence of views in the world's top two carbon dioxide producers, China and the United States. President George W. Bush has repeatedly insisted that carbon emissions be measured in conjunction with U.S. economic growth, and urged industry to voluntarily cut its emissions intensity by 18 percent by 2012. But some states such as California are planning emissions trading schemes without federal backing.
U.S. scolds Russia for breakup of anti-Kremlin protests http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2007-04-16T194924Z_01_N16165785_RTRUKOC_0_US-RUSSIA-USA.xml&src=rss&rpc=22
The United States scolded Russia on Monday over a police crackdown on anti-Kremlin protests, calling it a heavy-handed response that raised new questions about Moscow's commitment to democracy. The U.S. reaction marked the sharpest criticism of President Vladimir Putin's government since he accused Washington in February of trying to impose its will on the world, and could further strain bilateral relations. Germany, holding the rotating presidency of the European Union, said Russia's crackdown was "unacceptable" and demanded Moscow explain its actions. Police also took journalists, including German television reporters, into custody. U.S. officials over the past year have accused Putin of rolling back democratic reforms and using Russia's vast energy resources to pressure its neighbors. Such verbal attacks had tapered off as U.S. President George W. Bush sought Russian support for curbing Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs. The Bush administration was measured in response to Putin's tirade at a Munich conference in which he accused Washington of pursuing policies aimed at making it "one single master." Many Russians have voiced suspicion that U.S. efforts to spread democracy in former East bloc countries is actually an attempt to encroach on their traditional spheres of influence.
Russian gas giant moves in on British consumers http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2449870.ece
Gazprom is planning to sell energy direct to UK households using its own brand name, undercutting British Gas and other gas and electricity suppliers. The Russian gas giant already provides a quarter of Europe's wholesale gas to domestic suppliers. But in a move that will alarm other gas and electricity retailers, Gazprom intends to cut out the middle man and sell straight to households in Britain - the only fully liberalised energy market in Europe. Significantly, the group wants to use its "Gazprom" brand. By offering lower bills, this would improve its battered image. The move will also underline how reliant the UK is becoming on Russian energy. Gazprom owns vast gas fields in Russia and controls much of Europe's pipeline network, which pumps the gas west.
Soros adds voice to debate over Israel lobby http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/15/AR2007041501261.html
In the current issue of the New York Review of Books, George Soros takes issue with "the pervasive influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)" in Washington and says the Bush administration's close ties with Israel are obstacles to a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. AIPAC has consistently declined comment on such charges, but many of its supporters have been vocal in dismissing them. The long-simmering debate bubbled to the surface a year ago, when two prominent academics, Stephen Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, published a 12,500-word essay entitled "The Israel Lobby" and featuring the fiercest criticism of AIPAC since it was founded in 1953. The two academics said that pressure from Israel and its lobby in Washington played an important role in President George W. Bush's decision to attack Iraq, an arch-enemy of Israel, in 2003. In his contribution to the debate, Soros said: "A much-needed self-examination of American policy in the Middle East has started in this country; but it can't make much headway as long as AIPAC retains powerful influence in both the Democratic and Republican parties." AIPAC now has more than 100,000 members and is rated one of the most influential special interest groups in the United States, its political clout comparable with such lobbies as the National Rifle Association. Its annual conference in Washington attracts a Who's Who of American politics, both Republicans and Democrats.
U.S. Consulate closes in Morocco over security concerns http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/16/africa/web-0416morocco.php
With the Moroccan police tightening security around the consulate and other foreign consulates here, the closing underscored American concerns expressed here and in Algeria about further attacks and possible dangers to Americans. On Wednesday, suicide bombings killed 33 people in Algiers, the capital of Algeria. The attacks, the first large bombings there in years, were aimed at the prime minister's office and a police station, and were claimed by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The day before in Casablanca, a port city and the commercial heart of this nation, which depends heavily on tourism, three men blew themselves up and a fourth was shot dead in a police raid on a safe house in the poor Hay Farah quarter. Then on Saturday, the rich downtown, filled with cafes, upscale shops and hotels charging as much for a night as many workers earn in a month, was hit. Mohammad Maha, 32, blew himself up across a palm-lined boulevard from the United States Consulate. About a minute later, his younger brother, Omar, 23, detonated a suicide bomb a few hundred yards away, near the American Language Center, one of a chain of privately owned schools. The bombings on Saturday caused some measure of puzzlement: the attackers killed only themselves and struck early Saturday morning, when the streets were largely empty. In the working-poor neighborhood of Derb Sultan, the dead brothers' sister, Khadija, described her brothers — one of whom sold electronics, the other who printed T-shirts — as "normal," and not unusually religious. She said they were not acting suspiciously when they left the house on Saturday morning. "My heart is broken to lose two brothers at once," she said. "Obviously someone manipulated them."
Central bank rejects IMF yuan advice http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-04/16/content_850945.htm
Officials and economists at the IMF, which has a mandate to safeguard the global economy and render advice to member countries, said that Beijing should pursue a more flexible exchange rate, for the sake of both the Chinese economy and a more balanced global economy. However, China did not seem to see the advice as being appropriate. In July 2005, China abandoned the renminbi's decade-old peg to the US dollar and let the currency appreciate by 2.1 per cent. Since then, it has gained almost another 5 percent against the dollar. However, there has been a persistent international chorus, led by the United States, arguing that China has not been moving quick enough in letting its currency rise. US lawmakers have said that the country's trade deficit was partly caused by what they believed an undervalued Chinese currency. Chinese officials say the yuan's flexibility would gradually increase but argue that radical steps would generate shocks in the Chinese economy which could spread to the rest of the world. Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said the IMF should strengthen surveillance over the soundness of economic policies of countries whose currencies are used as major instruments in other countries' foreign exchange reserves. She was clearly referring to the US, whose low savings rate, and fiscal and trade deficits are agreed to be a key cause for global economic imbalances.
Sudan agrees to let UN force in Darfur http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-04/17/content_852213.htm
Sudan agreed Monday to let 3,000 UN peacekeepers deploy in Darfur with attack helicopters. After five months of stalling, the government in Khartoum called for a speedy deployment and hinted it could approve an even larger UN force that has been demanded by the UN Security Council, the United States and others. But experts were cautious about chances for creating that 20,000-strong force, noting Sudan's leaders have reversed course previously after announcing vague agreements for action in Darfur. The Security Council reacted swiftly, welcoming Sudan's decision and calling on Khartoum to facilitate "the immediate deployment" of the force. It also called for "an immediate cease-fire, a reinvigorated political process, (and) an improvement in the humanitarian situation." Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, whose Arab-dominated government has been accused of aiding Arab militias fighting ethnic blacks in Darfur, had long opposed a UN force to help the weakly armed 7,000-soldier African Union peacekeeping mission. But he came under increasing pressure from the US, the European Union, some Arab and African countries and China. The State Department said the announcement omitted several key provisions for the UN force's effective operation, including leaving its command and control unspecified and limiting the participation of non-African troops.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was in Sudan over the weekend to discuss Darfur. Speaking at the end of his three-day visit, Negroponte told reporters in Khartoum that Sudan faced "continued and possibly even intensified international isolation" if it did not move quickly to implement UN plans to strengthen the AU peacekeeping mission, improve aid agencies' access to Darfur and beef up the region's transitional authority. Darfur's war began when groups based in black farming communities rebelled, accusing Khartoum of discriminating in favor of nomadic Arab tribes in disputes over land and water. The AU force arrived in 2004 but is too weak to impose calm, even having seven of its own men killed this month. Sudan's agreement came after China applied pressure on its trading partner. During a visit in February, Chinese President Hu Jintao urged Sudan to give the UN a bigger role in Darfur, and China's assistant foreign minister called last week for Sudan to accept UN peacekeepers. Under a November agreement, the UN already has deployed a small force of UN police advisers, civilian staff and additional resources and technical support in Darfur. Now that the second force has been accepted, UN and AU officials will focus on negotiating a third stage of deployment - creating a joint AU-UN force with 17,000 soldiers and 3,000 police officers. Although that was part of the November agreement, Al-Bashir has backed away from the third stage, saying he would only allow a larger AU force, with technical and logistical support from the United Nations.
Gonzales' hearing postponed by campus shootings http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2007-04-16T221604Z_01_N16350414_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-PROSECUTORS-GONZALES.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsArt-L3-Politics+NewsNews-3
NASA's secret settlement of Columbia disaster uncovered http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-04/16/content_5981598.htm
NASA paid 26.6 million U.S. dollars to the families of seven astronauts who died aboard the space shuttle Columbia in a secret settlement, which was covered for more than two years, according to media reports Monday. The space agency recruited former FBI Director William Webster, also a former federal judge, to act as a mediator and adviser in negotiating the out-of-court settlements, said documents released to the Orlando Sentinel through a federal Freedom of Information Act request. Columbia's astronauts died Feb. 1, 2003, when the shuttle broke up on re-entry. An investigation determined chunks of insulation damaged Columbia's left wing, causing the accident.
US pet food recall raises questions about safety of imported food http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/16/america/NA-GEN-US-Imported-Food-Safety.php
Just 1.3 percent of fish, vegetables, fruit and other food imported into the U.S. are inspected — yet those government inspections regularly reveal food unfit for human consumption. Last month alone, FDA detained nearly 850 shipments of grains, fish, vegetables, nuts, spice, oils and other imported foods for issues ranging from filth to unsafe food coloring to contamination with pesticides to salmonella. Imports account for about 13 percent of the annual diet. Consider this list of Chinese products detained by the FDA just in the last month: frozen catfish tainted with illegal veterinary drugs, fresh ginger polluted with pesticides, melon seeds contaminated with a cancer-causing toxin and filthy dried dates. While the European Union, Canada and Mexico still top the list of food exporters to the U.S., China is coming up fast. Since 1997, the value of Chinese food imports, including commodities like wheat gluten, has more than tripled, to $2.1 billion (€1.6 billion) from $644 million, according to Agriculture Department statistics. It accounts for 3.3 percent of the total food the U.S. buys abroad. About one-quarter of fruit, both fresh and frozen, for sale in the U.S. is imported. For tree nuts, it is about half. And for fish and shellfish, more than two-thirds come from overseas. Even as the amount of imported food increased, the percentage of FDA inspections declined — from 1.8 percent in 2003 to 1.3 percent this year to an expected 1.1 percent next year. The FDA and the USDA have adopted a "risk-based" inspection philosophy, focusing on specific foods, sources or producers that they believe represent the largest potential risk to the public's health.
Venezuela's Chávez Announces World Bank Debt Has Been Paid Off http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2270
The Venezuelan head of state declared that he felt "happy" about the end of this obligation, after reminding the audience that Venezuela helped the "sister Republic of Argentina pay its debt to the International Monetary Fund." Thus he highlighted it during a ceremony that was held around the Palace of Miraflores, right at the heart of Caracas, to commemorate the 13th of April of 2002, the day when a civic-military rebellion restored the constitutional order in Venezuela. This Friday, on the 13th of April, Venezuela was a scene of popular and military ceremonies presided over by President Hugo Chávez, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the civic-military response that "squashed" the coup d'état of April 2002, which had interrupted for 47 hours the mandate of the Venezuelan president. The commemoration is made under the motto "Every 11th Gets Its 13th," to remember that the coup of the 11th of April of 2002 got its response on the 13th of the same month, when loyal forces and thousands of followers of the revolutionary process that is alive in Venezuela made the triumphant return of the president possible.
Ecuador pays off IMF debt, says will sever ties with institution http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/16/america/LA-FIN-Ecuador-IMF-Debt.php
Ecuador's leftist president said Sunday the country has paid off its debt to the International Monetary Fund and will sever ties with the financial institution. In a news conference in the port city Guayaquil, Rafael Correa said it was a "happy coincidence" that Ecuador made the US$9 million (€6.7 million) payment to the "international bureaucracy" the same week fellow leftist country Venezuela said it had paid off its remaining debt with the IMF and World Bank. "We don't want to hear anything more from that international bureaucracy," Correa said, brushing off suspicions that "we are imitating brother nation Venezuela." Correa, a staunch ally of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, has frequently criticized the "unacceptable conditions" of IMF loans, and said Sunday that the institution has "been harmful for the country."
Brazil violence spreads to war of "telenovelas" http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N02268745.htm
Brazil's hugely popular television soap operas usually deal with tear-filled romance. But the violence engulfing the country has upstaged the melodrama and taken one "telenovela" to the top of the ratings. "Vidas Opostas" (Opposite Lives) is a hit with residents of Rio de Janeiro, where it is set, and around the country, despite complaints that people are weary of the real-life bloodshed and gory newscasts. The prime-time telenovela on the Rede Record network, shot partly in a real slum, has beat leading network Globo in the ratings several times when pitted against big league soccer games -- an undeniable sign of popularity in Brazil.
Mysterious illness strikes teenage girls in Mexico http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/16/america/mexico.php
The first isolated cases of the illness, which affected the girls' walking and made them feverish and nauseated, appeared in November and December. After the girls came back from Christmas break, the illness spread. Mexico's public health authorities have concluded that the girls, 600 out of an enrollment of 3,600 at the Children's Village School, are suffering from a mass psychogenic disorder. In layman's language, they have a collective hysteria. Founded in 1990, the school is one of 10 in Asia and Latin America operated by a charity called World Villages for Children. It is run by nuns from the Sisters of Mary, an order founded in South Korea in 1964 by an American priest, Monsignor Aloysius Schwartz. The school here offers three years of middle school and two years of technical high school to girls from 12 to 17. The girls themselves say they do not know what has caused their illness
New Views in Desert Culture on Fat Women http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MAURITANIA_LOVING_FAT?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME
In Mauritania, to make a girl big and plump, 'gavage' - a borrowed French word from the practice of fattening of geese for foie gras - starts early. Obesity has long been the ideal of beauty, signaling a family's wealth in a land repeatedly wracked by drought. A quarter of the 1.5 million women in Mauritania - a barren, dune-enveloped country more than twice the size of Texas - are obese, according to the World Health Organization. That's lower than the 40 percent of American women who the WHO says are obese, but surprisingly high in a country that has not a single fast-food franchise. To end the brutal feeding practices, the government has launched a TV and radio campaign highlighting the health risks of obesity. Because most Mauritanian love songs describe the ideal woman as fat, the health ministry commissioned catchy odes to thin women.
Mint (not her real name) was 4 when her family began to force her to drink 14 gallons of camel's milk a day. When she vomited, she was beaten. If she refused to drink, her fingers were bent back until they touched her hand. Her stomach hurt so much she prayed all the animals in the world would die so that there would be no more milk. By the time Mint was 10, she could no longer run. Unconcerned, her proud mother delighted in measuring the loops of fat hanging under her daughter's arms. Although few women are force-fed today, many feel pressured to be bigger-than-average. Like many, Bilkhere has turned to a more scientific method of weight gain, using foreign-made appetite-inducing pills such as Anactine, a Moroccan-made antihistamine. The pills, commonly prescribed for hay fever, also induce hunger. They and similar drugs replace a more blunt instrument, recently outlawed by the government: animal steroids intended for fattening camels.
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