Taiwan researchers unlock reishi mushroom's cancer-fighting secret

Want China Times, CNA 2013-08-31

Scientists at Academia Sinica have cracked the mystery of how the polysaccharides in the reishi mushroom act to activate the human immune system and fight cancer, and have shared their discovery with the world.

A research team headed by institute president Chi-Huey Wong and assistant research fellow Wu Chung-yi has proven that a crude extract of fucose-containing polysaccharides from reishi or lingzhi mushrooms, named F3, can induce antibodies to recognize tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens on cancer cells and kill them.

According to Academia Sinica, Taiwan's top academic research institute, the research on reishi polysaccharides' cancer-fighting effects was started by a group headed by National Yang-Ming University professor Hsu Hsieh-yeh, which injected F3 into mice with lung cancer and discovered that the extract could slow tumor growth, although it did not know how the mechanism works.

Thanks to a glycan array, a sample-screening method, designed by the Wong-Wu team, it was found that the sera from mice immunized with F3 contain the antibodies that recognize the tumor antigens known as Globo H, as well as related structures.

The research team also found that inhibition of tumor growth is directly related to the amount of these types of antibodies. In other words, the larger the amount of Globo H-recognizing anitibodies, the smaller the tumor, Academia Sinica said.

With the finding, the team separated F3 into a fucose-enriched fraction called FMS for immunization and found that FMS can induce even more anti-Globo H antibodies and thus, more effectively inhibit tumor growth.

The study further demonstrated that the fucose residue is the key to the reishi mushroom's cancer-fighting ability, proven by the finding that the cancer-fighting activity was reduced dramatically when the fucose residue was removed.

With assistance from other research teams, the effective structures of the fucose-containing saccharides were elucidated. This research thereafter established the molecular mechanism of reishi polysaccharides with regard to their cancer-fighting activity, the institute said.

The research results were published in the current issue of the US's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, under the title immunization of fucose-containing polysaccharides from reishi mushroom induces antibodies to tumor-associated Globo H-series epitopes.

The first authors of the paper are named as Liao Shih-fen, a PhD student at the Institute of Biochemical Sciences of National Taiwan University, and Liang Chi-hui, who is conducting post-doctoral research at the Genomics Research Center of Academia Sinica.

US will not challenge state marijuana legalisation laws

BBC News, 29 August 2013

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The US government has said it will not sue to stop the states of Colorado and Washington from legalising recreational use of marijuana.

The justice department said it would focus on preventing underage access to the drug and keeping drug cash from criminals, but declined legal action.

Voters in Colorado and Washington state legalised possession and use of small amounts of marijuana in November.

Federal law forbids marijuana use and possession.

'Surrender'

In addition to the two states that outright legalised the drug, 20 states and Washington DC allow medical marijuana use, a stricter standard.

"For states such as Colorado and Washington... the department expects these states to establish strict regulatory schemes," the justice department said in a statement.

The department said it was "deferring its right to challenge legalisation laws at this time" but said it challenge the eventual regulatory schemes in the states.

Dan Riffle of the Marijuana Policy Project, a pro-legalisation group, called the policy change "a clear signal that states are free to determine their own policies".

The executive director of a group called the Drug Free America Foundation said Attorney General Eric Holder, an appointee of President Barack Obama who oversees the justice department, had "surrendered".

"He is essentially setting up a tsunami that will no doubt result in far too many of America's young people being subjected to chemical slavery," said Calvina Fay.

Wave goodbye to global warming, GM and pesticides

Radio wave-treated water could change agriculture as we know it. Its Irish pioneers meet Tom Prendeville

Independent.ie, 25 August 2013

MIRACLE GROW: Treated water results
 in larger, healthier crops, says Professor
Austin Darragh of Limerick University

A GROUNDBREAKING new Irish technology which could be the greatest breakthrough in agriculture since the plough is set to change the face of modern farming forever.

The technology – radio wave energised water – massively increases the output of vegetables and fruits by up to 30 per cent.

Not only are the plants much bigger but they are largely disease-resistant, meaning huge savings in expensive fertilisers and harmful pesticides.

Extensively tested in Ireland and several other countries, the inexpensive water treatment technology is now being rolled out across the world. The technology makes GM obsolete and also addresses the whole global warming fear that there is too much carbon dioxide in the air, by simply converting excess CO2 into edible plant mass.

Developed by Professor Austin Darragh and Dr JJ Leahy of Limerick University's Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, the hardy eco-friendly technology uses nothing but the natural elements of sunlight, water, carbon dioxide in the air and the minerals in the soil.

The compact biscuit-tin-sized technology, which is called Vi-Aqua – meaning 'life water' – converts 24 volts of electricity into a radio signal, which charges up the water via an antennae. Once the device is attached to a hose, thousands of gallons of water can be charged up in less than 10 minutes at a cost of pennies.

Speaking about the new technology, Professor Austin Darragh says:

"Vi-Aqua makes water wetter and introduces atmospheric nitrogen into the water in the form of nitrates – so it is free fertiliser. It also produces the miracle of rejuvenating the soil by invigorating soil-based micro-organisms.

"We can also make water savings of at least 30 per cent. When the water is treated it becomes a better solvent, which means it can carry more nutrients to the leaves and stem and percolate better down into the soil to nourish the roots, which in turn produces a better root system. Hence the reason you need less water and why you end up with larger and hardier crops," explains Professor Austin Darragh.

Extensively tested in Warrenstown Agricultural College, the technology is being hailed as a modern day miracle.

Harold Lawler is Ireland's foremost Agricultural Specialist. As Director of the National Botanical Gardens and former Master of Agricultural Science at Warrenstown Agricultural College, he has carried out more research on Vi-Aqua growth-enhancing technology than perhaps anyone else in the world:

"In the bedding plants we really saw a difference in the results; they were much hardier and tougher. You could drop a tray of these plants on the ground and they would not shatter, like ordinary plants.

"We also noticed that the treated plants needed far less fertiliser than the untreated ones. The roots took the nutrients in better whereas with other normal plants leaching of minerals occurs," explains Harold Lawler.

Impressed, Harold Lawler's research team carried out further extensive tests on a wide variety of vegetable plants:

"The iceberg lettuces were far superior with faster germination, and with carrots for example, the crops were on average 46 per cent heavier," explains Harold Lawler.

During recent successful tomato crop field trials in Italy, three of the country's largest Agricultural Co-op's were so impressed with the results that they have now decided to recommend the technology to the country's farming community.

Elsewhere, the Indian government have now concluded their own tests, which confirm that they are able to boost tea (plant) production by over a third while using far less water.

In recognition of the groundbreaking technology, the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, London, recently took the hitherto unheard-of step of granting Professor Austin Darragh and his team the right to use their official centuries-old coat of arms on the new technology – the first time ever that Kew Gardens has afforded anyone such an honour.

The Kew Gardens botanists were not just impressed with the research; they used the technology to restore to life a very rare orchid which had been lying dormant and practically dead in a greenhouse bell jar since 1942. Amazingly, the orchid is now flourishing once again.

Intriguingly, chickens and sheep fed the energised water turned into giants. . . but that's another story!

Limerick University off- campus company ZPM Europe Ltd, who are based in the National Technology Park, Limerick, is now manufacturing the Vi-Aqua technology.

Sunday Independent

Miniature 'human brain' grown in lab

BBC News, James Gallagher, Health and science reporter, 28 August 2013

Cross-section of miniature human brains termed cerebral organoids

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Miniature "human brains" have been grown in a lab in a feat scientists hope will transform the understanding of neurological disorders.

The pea-sized structures reached the same level of development as in a nine-week-old foetus, but are incapable of thought.

The study, published in the journal Nature, has already been used to gain insight into rare diseases.

Neuroscientists have described the findings as astounding and fascinating.

The human brain is one of the most complicated structures in the universe.

Scientists at Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have now reproduced some of the earliest stages of the organ's development in the laboratory.

Brain bath

They used either embryonic stem cells or adult skin cells to produce the part of an embryo that develops into the brain and spinal cord - the neuroectoderm.

This was placed in tiny droplets of gel to give a scaffold for the tissue to grow and was placed into a spinning bioreactor, a nutrient bath that supplies nutrients and oxygen.

A cerebral organoid - the brown
pigments are a developing retina

The cells were able to grow and organise themselves into separate regions of the brain, such as the cerebral cortex, the retina, and, rarely, an early hippocampus, which would be heavily involved in memory in a fully developed adult brain.

The researchers are confident that this closely, but far from perfectly, matches brain development in a foetus until the nine week stage.

The tissues reached their maximum size, about 4mm (0.1in), after two months.

The "mini-brains" have survived for nearly a year, but did not grow any larger. There is no blood supply, just brain tissue, so nutrients and oxygen cannot penetrate into the middle of the brain-like structure.

One of the researchers, Dr Juergen Knoblich, said: "What our organoids are good for is to model development of the brain and to study anything that causes a defect in development.

"Ultimately we would like to move towards more common disorders like schizophrenia or autism. They typically manifest themselves only in adults, but it has been shown that the underlying defects occur during the development of the brain."

The technique could also be used to replace mice and rats in drug research as new treatments could be tested on actual brain tissue.

Mindboggling

Researchers have been able to produce brain cells in the laboratory before, but this is the closest any group has come to building a human brain.

The breakthrough has excited the field.

Prof Paul Matthews, from Imperial College London, told the BBC: "I think it's just mindboggling. The idea that we can take a cell from a skin and turn it into, even though it's only the size of a pea, is starting to look like a brain and starting to show some of the behaviours of a tiny brain, I think is just extraordinary.

"Now it's not thinking, it's not communicating between the areas in the way our brains do, but it gives us a real start and this is going to be the kind of tool that helps us understand many of the major developmental brain disorders."

The team has already used the breakthrough to investigate a disease called microcephaly. People with the disease develop much smaller brains.

A much smaller brain develops with microcephaly

By creating a "mini-brain" from skin cells of a patient with this condition, the team were able to study how development changed.

They showed that the cells were too keen to become neurons by specialising too early. It meant the cells in the early brain did not bulk up to a high enough number before specialising, which affected the final size of even the pea-sized "mini-brains".

The team in Vienna do not believe there are any ethical issues at this stage, but Dr Knoblich said he did not want to see much larger brains being developed as that would be "undesirable".

Dr Zameel Cader, a consultant neurologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, said he did not see ethical issues arising from the research so far.

He told the BBC: "It's a long way from conscience or awareness or responding to the outside world. There's always the spectre of what the future might hold, but this is primitive territory."

Dr Martin Coath, from the cognition institute at Plymouth University, said: "Any technique that gives us 'something like a brain' that we can modify, work on, and watch as it develops, just has to be exciting.

"If the authors are right - that their 'brain in a bottle' develops in ways that mimic human brain development - then the potential for studying developmental diseases is clear. But the applicability to other types of disease is not so clear - but it has potential.

"Testing drugs is, also, much more problematic. Most drugs that affect the brain act on things like mood, perception, control of your body, pain, and a whole bunch of other things. This brain-like-tissue has no trouble with any of these things yet."

GlaxoSmithKline case: China charges British-American couple

Private investigators Peter Humphrey and Yu Yingzeng were arrested as part of investigation into bribery scandal

theguardian.com, Staff and agencies, Tuesday 27 August 2013

Peter Humphrey and Yu Yingzeng had worked as private investigators
for GlaxoSmithKline. Photograph: PA

China has given the first official confirmation of charges against a British-American couple embroiled in the GlaxoSmithKline bribery case.

An announcement by the Xinhua News Agency said Peter Humphrey and his wife, Yu Yingzeng, who both operate private investigation firm ChinaWhys, had been detained since July on charges of illegally trading in personal information about Chinese citizens.

Xinhua said reports prepared by their agency included information that infringed the privacy rights of Chinese citizens. ChinaWhys says its services for corporate clients include screening potential employees or business partners.

The couple's arrest had earlier been announced by their family and the British embassy in Beijing.

GSK has been accused by China of funnelling up to 3bn yuan (£312m) to travel agencies to facilitate bribes to doctors and officials. It remains unclear whether the couple's arrest relates directly to that case but they were apparently arrested as part of the GSK investigation.

Humphrey and Yu's ChinaWhys had done work with drug companies including GSK, according to sources of the Reuters news agency where Humphrey worked as a journalist in the 1980s and 90s. The ChinaWhys website says he has been a risk management specialist and corporate detective for 14 years.

Humphrey, a Briton, and Yu, an American, were detained in Shanghai on 10 July by police investigating bribery allegations against GlaxoSmithKline.

In China an arrest typically means police believe they have enough evidence for a case to be brought to trial. Detentions can last for weeks and end in release without charges being filed.

Related Articles:

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Multinational pharmas go ever further to secure business in China

Texas church linked to measles outbreak

BBC News, 27 August 2013

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• Q&A: Measles and MMR

Eagle Mountain is led by the daughter
 of one of the most prominent
televangelists in the US

A large Texas church has offered free measles jabs after it was linked to an outbreak among families who had declined to be vaccinated.

Eagle Mountain International Church has had 21 cases since a church visitor contracted measles while overseas.

Those afflicted range from four months to 44 years old, and a majority of those infected had not been vaccinated.

In recent sermons, the church's pastor encouraged those who had not yet been vaccinated to do so.

"I would encourage you to do that... Go do it... And do it in faith,'' Terri Pearsons, daughter of televangelist Kenneth Copeland, said from the pulpit on 14 August at the church in Newark, Texas.

Ms Pearsons had previously been sceptical of measles vaccinations, USA Today reports. The disease spread among families who had chosen not to vaccinate their children, health officials said.

The church held immunisation clinics over the weekend.

Texas Department of State Health Services spokeswoman Christine Mann said Texas has had 27 cases of the measles this year, with five of those cases having no links to the church and one unclear case.

There were no cases in the state last year and six the year before.

"If [measles] finds a pocket of people who are unimmunised, and the majority of our cases are unimmunised so far, then if you are around a person with measles, you will get sick,'' said Russell Jones, chief epidemiologist for Tarrant County Public Health.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends children have two doses of the combined vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella.

Measles is spread by coughing, sneezing and close contact with infected people. Symptoms include a fever, cough, and a rash on the face.

The fatality rate for the disease in children is one or two in every 1,000 cases, according to the CDC.

A statement from Eagle Mountain International Church said their position regarding any medical condition was "first seek the wisdom of God, His Word, and appropriate medical attention from a professional that you know and trust".

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Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon, I have a new grandson. He's going for his first vaccination in the next few weeks. If we're beginning to transmute toxins with reconnections to our endocrine system through our DNA, then what happens to our babies, who by law have to be vaccinated? What are your thoughts on this subject?

Answer: First, know that vaccinations are a God-given science that humanity earned. They're a tried and proven homeopathic method that have been with you for years. You were probably vaccinated yourself, and it worked.

We have three answers: (1) God is not in a vacuum. Even the vaccinated Human Being who's older can modify and rework their DNA. So there's no time limit, and there are no rules that say "Once vaccinated, you're ruined." (2) The Human who is of the age of awareness can say, even as they are vaccinated, "Let nothing inappropriate enter my chemistry." This is a conscious instruction given to your "intelligent cellular structure" (the same one responsible for kinesiology and homeopathic results). This will result in your cells only using what they need and casting away everything else. (3) Finally, about babies: There has been a push by your science lately to vaccinate against many things at the same time. You'd be advised to seek out a doctor who will only vaccinate your child for only the basic diseases that have been known in the last 40 years. Eliminate the vaccinations for the new ones. This leaves you with approximately seven or eight - the very ones that have been used for years. What your science is not appreciating yet is the results of combining all the vaccination substances together. There's a problem that will show itself in time. Stick with the basic ones.

Eli Lilly also accused of bribing doctors in China

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-08-22

The Chinese website of the American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.
(Internet photo)

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, one of the world's biggest insulin producers, has been accused of systematically bribing physicians and hospitals in Shanghai to promote the sales of two of its insulin products, reports the Guangzhou-based 21st Century Business Herald.

The news has raised the number of foreign pharmaceutical giants accused of indulging in corrupt practices to promote sales in China to four, with the others being Britain's GlaxoSmithKline, France's Sanofi-Aventis and the Swiss firm Novartis.

According to Lilly's 2012 budget plan, the company had allocated 9.5 million yuan (US$1.5 million) to promote two of its insulin lispro injections, marketed under the name Humalog.

The fund was used specifically to sponsor sales-oriented international, national and district-level medical conferences. About 2.5 million yuan (US$408,000) from the fund was used to target the pharmaceutical market in Shanghai.

Wang Wei, a former executive at Lilly, told the daily that another fund used to bribe physicians in Shanghai for recommending Humalog to patients was estimated to be about 30 million yuan (US$5 million).

The practice was common in the company, and mirrored practices carried out by competing firm GlaxoSmithKline, he added. Lilly said in a statement that the company will look into the matter, adding that the accusations were not in keeping with its company policy or the way it trained its employees.

Wang told the daily that Lilly's major competitor in China was Denmark's Novo Nordisk, the world's biggest insulin producer. Lilly's sales lagged behind Novo Nordisk's in China, Wang pointed out, therefore executives at Eli often encouraged sales representatives to bribe physicians to promote the company's medications.

For each new patient using Lilly's insulin products, a physician received a 200 yuan (US$33) bribe in Shanghai, while areas in which the company was fiercely competing with Novo Nordisk doctors were paid as much as 300 yuan (US$49) as a kickback.

Indonesia Launches Five-Disease Vaccine

Jakarta Globe, SP/Dina Manafe, August 22, 2013

A young girl cries as Indonesian health workers draw blood before administering
 a new dengue fever vaccine in Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta, in this file photo.
(JG Photo/Safir Makki)

Indonesia officially launched a pentavalent vaccine on Thursday, which will immunize newborns against five diseases, though there were no details forthcoming on the extent of availability of the vaccine in the country’s clinics.

“We are grateful now that pentavalent vaccine has been added to our national immunization program which also will prevent HIB [haemophilus influenza type B], by using this compete package our children will be protected from many diseases,” Minister of Health, Nafsiah Mboi, said Thursday during the launching in Karawang, West Java.

The vaccine will inhibit five common diseases: diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B and HIB.

The current vaccines used in Indonesia’s national immunization program are designed to prevent three of those ailments. At present, the DPT vaccine is administered to protect children from diphtheria, polio and tetanus.

With the pentavalent vaccine, all five antigens will be given in one injection, making it more convenient for the baby and the mother, and lowering the cost to the state.

The previous vaccines used in Indonesia’s national immunization program were not designed to prevent HIB, a cause of meningitis and pneumonia, which combined to cause 17.2 percent of infant deaths in Indonesia.

The Ministry of Health reported that only about 87 percent of Indonesian children are subject to routine immunizations, and there are at least 1.6 million children in the country that have no access to the national immunization program — mostly in remote areas.

Indonesia and India are the only countries in the region that have obtained WHO pre-qualification certification to manufacture vaccines on a large scale. India introduced the pentavalent vaccines in 2009.

Related Article:

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon, I have a new grandson. He's going for his first vaccination in the next few weeks. If we're beginning to transmute toxins with reconnections to our endocrine system through our DNA, then what happens to our babies, who by law have to be vaccinated? What are your thoughts on this subject?

Answer: First, know that vaccinations are a God-given science that humanity earned. They're a tried and proven homeopathic method that have been with you for years. You were probably vaccinated yourself, and it worked.

We have three answers: (1) God is not in a vacuum. Even the vaccinated Human Being who's older can modify and rework their DNA. So there's no time limit, and there are no rules that say "Once vaccinated, you're ruined." (2) The Human who is of the age of awareness can say, even as they are vaccinated, "Let nothing inappropriate enter my chemistry." This is a conscious instruction given to your "intelligent cellular structure" (the same one responsible for kinesiology and homeopathic results). This will result in your cells only using what they need and casting away everything else. (3) Finally, about babies: There has been a push by your science lately to vaccinate against many things at the same time. You'd be advised to seek out a doctor who will only vaccinate your child for only the basic diseases that have been known in the last 40 years. Eliminate the vaccinations for the new ones. This leaves you with approximately seven or eight - the very ones that have been used for years. What your science is not appreciating yet is the results of combining all the vaccination substances together. There's a problem that will show itself in time. Stick with the basic ones.

Judge Calls For Drug Addicts to Be Rehabilitated

Jakarta Globe, Amir Tejo, August 22, 2013

An Indonesian soldier stands guard as inmates stand inside a burning room at
 the Labuhan Ruku penitentiary in Labuhan Ruku, North Sumatra on August 19, 2013.
(AFP Photo/Irwansyah Putra Nasution)

Surabaya. A senior judge in the Surabaya Court District has conceded judges are partly to blame for prison overcrowding, as rampant drug-related cases often lead to drug addicts being put behind bars instead of in rehabilitation centers.

“The penitentiaries have become full because of drug cases. Many judges continue to sentence drug addicts to prison time instead of rehabilitation, when in fact a prison sentence is no longer the solution for addicts,” said Suwidaya Abdullah, deputy chief of the Surabaya District Court.

He said judges are in a difficult position because police and prosecutors continue to charge offenders under articles 111 and 112 from the 2009 Law on Drugs, which carries a minimum of four years in prison.

“As judges we cannot sentence them with different charges from what the prosecutor has demanded,” Suwidaya said, adding that if a rehabilitation sentence is given, the public questions the decision.

Suwidaya said there needed to be some public education to allow people to recognize the difference between drug addicts, dealers and producers.

Addicts are considered victims by the law and are therefore required to undergo a rehabilitation process to rid themselves of the addiction, while dealers and producers get a mandatory jail sentence.

Rudhy Wedhasmara from Orbit, an institution focusing on harm reduction, said he appreciated the judges’ openness toward the option of a rehabilitation sentence for addicts.

“The ball is now in the hands of the National Police chief [Gen. Timur Pradopo]. Does he want to issue a ruling for the rehabilitation for addicts so they get charged with lesser offenses?” asked Rudhy.

Rudhy emphasized that the police had the final say as the attorney general has issued a warrant regarding the placement of drug addicts in medical rehabilitation, but there was a lack of awareness on the ground.

According to data from the East Java Justice and Human Rights Regional Office, there are at least 25 detention centers and penitentiaries prone to disorder because of overcapacity.

Indro Purwoko, head of the regional office, said the Medaeng Detention Center was in the worst condition, with 1,549 inmates being held in facility only built to accommodate 504 inmates.

“It is only guarded by 142 wardens. Clearly there is a recipe for future disturbances,” he said.

However, he said at least 10 other detention centers and prisons in East Java are not overpopulated.

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Female students in Indonesia may be forced to undergo 'virginity tests'

Indonesia's education chief Muhammad Rasyid has drafted plans to 'protect children from prostitution and free sex'

TheGuardian, Kate Hodal, Bangkok, Wednesday 21 August 2013

Schoolgirls in Sumatra: the plan for mandatory virginity tests has been
denounced by MPs, activists and rights groups. Photograph: Heri Juanda/AP

A plan to make female high school students undergo mandatory virginity tests has been met with outrage from activists, who argue that it discriminates against women and violates their human rights.

Education chief Muhammad Rasyid, of Prabumulih district in south Sumatra put forward the idea, describing it as "an accurate way to protect children from prostitution and free sex". He said he would use the city budget to begin tests early next year if MPs approved the proposal.

"This is for their own good," Rasyid said. "Every woman has the right to virginity … we expect students not to commit negative acts."

The test would require female senior school students aged 16 to 19 to have their hymen examined every year until graduation. Boys, however, would undergo no investigation into whether they had had sex.

The plan has met with some support from local politicians, who said the test would help cut down on "rampant" promiscuity in the district.

"Virginity is sacred, thus it's a disgrace for a [female] student to lose her virginity before getting married," Hasrul Azwar of the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) told the Jakarta Post.

The proposal seems to be in response to increasing cases of premarital sex, local website Kompas reported, including the recent arrest of six senior high school students for alleged prostitution.

It is the third plan of its kind in Muslim-majority Indonesia, where similar drafts were proposed in West Java in 2007, and again in Sumatra in 2010, but dropped after a public outcry.

Local and national MPs, activists, rights groups and even the local Islamic advisory council have all denounced Rasyid's plan as potentially denying female students the universal right to education, in addition to targeting girls for an act that may not have even been consensual, such as sexual assault.

"There are female students who may have lost their virginity due to an accident − it is not their fault," South Sumatra legislative council deputy speaker HA Djauhari told local media.

The National Commission for Child Protection also denounced the plan as an attempt to curry "popularity" among religious conservatives, and called the move "excessive".

"Loss of virginity is not merely because of sexual activities," said Arist Merdeka Sirait of the commission. "It could be caused by sports or health problems and many other factors."

Just how the test would be implemented − and what consequences it could incur were it to be passed − is not yet clear, prompting local teachers to question whether those without intact hymens would still be allowed to attend classes.

Indonesia's education and culture minister, Muhammad Nuh, condemned the plan and said the district needed "a wiser way to address the issue of teen sex".

Virginity is a prized possession among many Indonesians, particularly in rural areas, and rapidly changing mores in a population of 240 million can sometimes create tension among the country's more conservative elders and its large, more moderate youth.

Last year saw lawmakers propose a ban on miniskirts because "provocative clothing makes men do things", while in the shariah-law province of Aceh, women have been ordered to sit side-saddle on motorbikes in order to better obscure the "curves of a woman's body".

Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Agung Laksono speaks

 with reporters at a press conference. The minister urged the Ministry

 of Education to shoot down a plan by a South Sumatra education

board to test girls’ virginity before allowing them to attend school.

JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal)

Related Article:

Agung Shoots Down School Virginity Test Plan

Beijing moves to shift infant formula sales to pharmacies

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-08-20

Infant formula at a supermarket in Beijing. (Photo/CNS)

Beijing plans to permit sales of infant formula in drugstores nationwide as a part of its efforts to ensure the quality of the products, reports Guangzhou's 21st Century Business Herald, citing a Chinese official at a seminar.

The measure is aimed at boosting public confidence in domestic and foreign formula producers and their products, said Xu Jing, a director at the Chinese Society of International Trade under the Ministry of Commerce.

Representatives from several milk powder suppliers, such as Nestle, Dumex, Mead Johnson, Wyeth, Abbott and Beingmate were invited to attend the seminar, along with individuals from noted pharmacy chains including China Resources, Jingxiang, Cachet and Sinopharm.

The ministry plans to implement the project in three phases from 2013 to 2015, and adopt a model of strategic procurement and unifying distribution and sales.

The first stage will be launched in Beijing and eastern China's Jiangsu province between October this year and the next Lunar New Year holiday at the beginning of next year, the paper said. Milk powder aisles will be set up at 20 pharmaceutical stores in Beijing and will be expanded to 10,000 stores in 100 cities after the Lunar New Year holiday. By 2015, another 10,000 stores will be added, and the total number of the cities covered will be 400.

"We hope to capture 20% of the market share in two and half years. In other words, we are targeting a share at least 15 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion) in a market estimated to be worth 70 billion yuan (US$11.4 billion)," Xu said.

Supermarkets, baby stores and online websites are currently the three main channels used to purchase infant formula in China. However, in European countries and the United States, the products are mainly sold at pharmacies to monitor the quality and safety of the products. Meanwhile, 60% of infant formula products in Hong Kong are also sold at drugstores.

Xu said that an international brand center will be in charge of the procurement and distribution, and this will help verify the origins of the products and ensure its safety.

Based on the ministry's data, there are around 420,000 pharmacies in China and 150,000 of them are drugstore chains. Considering their wide coverage across the country, they are ideal for milk powder sales. An insider working at Dumex said that customers buy infant formula at pharmacies in Europe because of the strict quality controls and convenience.

The law that empowered Ecuador's disabled

BBC News, Irene Caselli, Quito, 19 August 2013

As vice-president, Lenin Moreno (L) fought for the rights of disabled people

Disabled people in Ecuador were once marginalised, shut up in their homes and considered unemployable. Since 2007, a single government initiative has transformed many of their lives.

Before his accident, Angel Quevedo worked as a house painter in Ecuador's capital city Quito.

He was originally from a farm in the Andean highlands, but had moved to the city to find a job.

During a party at his cousin's house in 1989, a fight broke out. As he got involved to break it up, he was pushed and fell from a terrace on the second floor.

The impact left him paralysed from the waist down.

Pain confined him to bed for eight months, while his family had to sell seven cows to pay for medical expenses.

"It was tough," he says. "All of a sudden I had to depend on other people's help to live."

Slowly Mr Quevedo learnt how to get around in a wheelchair, while he resigned himself to live off the charity of family and friends in a city that became hostile.

"People looked at me strangely," he says. "They called me 'cripple'. They thought I was good for nothing."

Back in 1989 it was unthinkable that a person with a disability could find work in Ecuador.

They were often confined to their family's homes, hidden from society. Those who ventured out in their wheelchairs had to roll next to cars in order to move around the city. Unable to find work, many would beg at traffic lights.

Things started changing in 2007, when Lenin Moreno took over as vice president after winning the elections as Rafael Correa's running mate.

Mr Moreno, who became paraplegic after being shot in the back in 1998, set out to make a difference.

Since taking office, has has implemented the Ecuador without Borders programme, which turned the rights of disabled people into state policy.

The same rights were later included in the 2008 constitution and became an all-encompassing law in 2012.

Gaining independence

The government launched programmes to research the causes and numbers of disabilities across the country. Ecuadorean doctors, helped by their Cuban peers, visited every village in Ecuador to establish how many people had disabilities, and what help they needed.

The government recognised that approximately 295,000 people have a disability (just over 2% of the total population) and sent out technical assistance to those in need - free wheelchairs were handed out, as well as health and housing support.

Moreover, starting in 2010, it became compulsory for companies with over 25 employees to fill at least 4% of staff positions with people with disabilities.

For people like Mr Quevedo, this was the most important step in what he, and a majority of Ecuadoreans, deem as the most successful set of policies under the administration of President Rafael Correa.

Mr Quevedo, who had not had a full-time job since his accident, was hired by a furniture shop looking to comply with the new law.

"When I started working, I felt so much better," says Mr Quevedo, now 53. "I can earn my own money and not depend on anyone."

"For me it was a joy to see other disabled people working too."

Angel Quevedo spent two decades
without work

Atu, the company he works for, employs 15 people with disabilities.

Sporting achievements

At the beginning, it was not easy to find employees, says Paola Cueva, the manager who was in charge of hiring new staff at the furniture factory.

This had been a worry for several businesses, who had initially complained that quota would be difficult to comply with it.

Some companies were fined for not meeting the 4% quota, and there is still concern that some businesses are not complying.

Ms Cueva explains that it was hard to find a good fit for a factory where manual work can be tough, but she still approves of the regulation.

"It's been an enriching experience. They are all very hard-working and responsible," she says. "If the law didn't exist, companies would have never hired disabled people in such a massive way."

In an interview with the BBC's Outlook, Mr Moreno said the legislature's greatest achievement was to give visibility to a part of society that had previously been isolated.

"Visibility means being able to say: 'I am a human being. There are things I cannot do because I have a disability, but I remain a human being,'" he said.

"Now disabled people can be proud when they go out into the streets."

Pride is felt strongly among Atu's disabled workers. Many of them are also athletes.

Wilson de la Cruz, one of Ecuador's most decorated athletes, works at the factory. He participated in three Paralympic Games and played basketball professionally in the United States.

Mr Quevedo also has an impressive record. He has competed in many events, including the world's longest wheelchair race in Alaska.

Their sporting achievements did not earn them much fame or money in Ecuador, but they have become a great bonding mechanism in the workplace.

Mr de la Cruz organises a weekly basketball game, and many participate, including Luis Aguayo, 27, whose leg was amputated in 2007 following a work accident.

"Wilson motivated me to keep going," says Mr Aguayo. "Now I feel like a normal person, because I can work with other non-disabled people."

After leaving a very successful legacy, Mr Moreno retired from politics in May. But his career may not be over, as the Ecuadorean government is promoting him as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Disability.

If that were to take place, it would be a reason to celebrate, says Mr Quevedo.

"We could show other countries that here in Ecuador we disabled people can do anything we set out to do," he says.