Scientist who discovered Ebola says he'd happily sit next to infected person on the train

Ninemsn - AFP, July 31, 2014

A nurse sprays preventives to disinfect the waiting area for visitors at the ELWA
Hospital during an outbreak of the Ebola virus in Monrovia, Liberia (AFP)

The scientist who helped discover the Ebola virus said the outbreak in west Africa was unlikely to trigger a major epidemic outside the region, adding he would happily sit next to an infected person on a train.

But Professor Peter Piot told AFP that a "really bad" sense of panic and lack of trust in the authorities in west Africa had contributed to the world's largest-ever outbreak.

The Belgian scientist, now based in Britain, urged officials to test experimental vaccines on people with the virus so that when it inevitably returns, the world is prepared.

Since March, there have been 1,201 cases of Ebola and 672 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned that the crisis is set to get worse and that there is no overarching strategy to handle the crisis.

Piot co-discovered the Ebola virus as a 27-year-old researcher in 1976.

He is now director of the prestigious London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and was previously executive director of the United Nations' HIV/AIDS program UNAIDS.

Even if someone carrying Ebola were to fly to Europe, the United States or another part of Africa, "I don't think that will give rise to a major epidemic," he told AFP.

"Spreading in the population here, I'm not that worried about it," he said.

"I wouldn't be worried to sit next to someone with Ebola virus on the Tube as long as they don't vomit on you or something. This is an infection that requires very close contact."

His insights are born of deep experience in the field, highlighted by his impressive CV and the mementos from around the world that dot his office in London.

Piot helped identify Ebola when the laboratory where he was working in Antwerp was sent a blood sample from a Catholic nun who had died in what was then Zaire and is now DR Congo.

From the blood, they isolated a new virus which was later confirmed to be Ebola.

He later went to Yambuku, a village in Zaire's Equateur province, where an epidemic had taken hold.

"People were devastated because in some villages, one in 10, one in eight people could die from Ebola," he said.

"I was scared but I was 27 so you think you are invincible."

Researchers noticed most of the infections were among women aged between 20 and 30 and clustered around a clinic where they went for pre-natal consultations.

It turned out that the virus was being transmitted through a handful of needles which were being reused to give injections to pregnant women.

There were also a string of outbreaks linked to funerals.

"Like in any culture, someone who dies is washed, the body is laid out but you do this with bare hands, without gloves. Someone who died from Ebola, that person is covered with virus because of vomitus, diarrhoea, blood," he said.

"That's how then you get new outbreaks and the same thing is happening now in west Africa."

He said recent history in Liberia and Sierra Leone was complicating efforts to tackle the deadly virus, which kills as many as nine-tenths of the people it infects.

"Let's not forget that these countries are coming out of decades of civil war," he said.

"Liberia and Sierra Leone are now trying to reconstruct themselves so there is a total lack of trust in authorities, and that combined with poverty and very poor health services I think is the explanation why we have this extensive outbreak now."

Staff are also often poorly equipped with no protective gear or gloves, he added.

While there are a couple of experimental Ebola vaccines and treatments which have shown promising results in animals, these need to be tested on people, he added.

"I think that the time is now, at least in capitals, to offer this kind of treatment for compassionate use but also to find out if it works so that for the next epidemic, we are ready," he said.

"It is quite clear that new viruses will emerge all the time and Ebola will come again -- hopefully not to this extent."

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WHO Launching $100 Million Plan to Combat Ebola

China court hears first gay 'conversion therapy' case

Yahoo – AFP, 31 July 2014

File photo taken in October 2012 shows a couple lighting a lantern for the

 Mid-Autumn Festival before their same-sex wedding ceremony in China's Fujian

province (AFP Photo)

Beijing (AFP) - A Beijing court began hearing a landmark case on "gay conversion" treatment Thursday, as an activist in a nurse's uniform knelt over a patient, wielding a giant needle, outside.

"Homosexuality doesn't need to be cured!" chanted about a dozen supporters. "Haidian Court, oppose conversion therapy!"

Homosexuality was de-classified as a mental disorder in China in 2001 but widespread intolerance toward gays and lesbians remains, and activists hailed the unprecedented case as a significant step forward.

The plaintiff, who is gay and has given his name only as Xiao Zhen, says the Xinyu Piaoxiang clinic in Chongqing traumatised him when he was electro-shocked after being told to have sexual thoughts involving men.

He is also taking action against China's top Internet search engine, Baidu, for running advertisements by the facility.

Those who come out to friends and family in China often face significant pressure to undergo sexuality "treatment" or marry a partner of the opposite sex.

"It's the first case about anti-conversion therapy in China," said Xiao Tie, 28, executive director of the Beijing LGBT Centre, which is backing the legal action.

"In China, most people who undergo 'conversion therapy' do so because they are pressured by their family. Parents, once they realise their child is gay, urge him or her to go to a psychiatric hospital or undergo treatment," she said.

Most people who claim that they have been successfully "converted" by the therapy only say so in order to stop the distressing treatments, she added.

Conversion therapy has more than a century of history around the world, but has fallen out of favour with medical authorities.

Nonetheless the lucrative industry persists in countries from Singapore to Britain and the United States -- where reports of electro-shock use have added to momentum for a ban.

Zhang Rui, 21, who is in charge of the Beijing LGBT Centre's psychological counselling programme, said advocates hope the case will help change Chinese public perceptions of gays as suffering from mental illness.

"We're here to tell even more people that conversion therapy is not scientific," she said. "Homosexuality can't be 'cured."

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Gay Pride & Gay Rights in China: a Dutch Perspective (Liveblog) - New

Gay conversion therapy should have no place in NHS, says health minister

‘Pray away the gay’ therapies quickly losing ground in the United States

‘Gay cure’ no longer reimbursed: Dutch health minister

(Photo: Alexandria)

"The Akashic Circle" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)  - (Text version)

“… Gender Switching

Old souls, let me tell you something. If you are old enough, and many of you are, you have been everything. Do you hear me? All of you. You have been both genders. All of you have been what I will call between genders, and that means that all of you have had gender switches. Do you know what happens when it's time for you to switch a gender? We have discussed it before. You'll have dozens of lifetimes as the same gender. You're used to it. It's comfortable. You cannot conceive of being anything else, yet now it's time to change. It takes approximately three lifetimes for you to get used to it, and in those three lifetimes, you will have what I call "gender confusion."

It isn't confusion at all. It's absolutely normal, yet society often will see it as abnormal. I'm sitting here telling you you've all been through it. All of you. That's what old souls do. It's part of the system. …”

Mass DNA swap with Belgium may solve hundreds of crimes

DutchNews.nl, Thursday 31 July 2014

(NOS/ANP XTRA)

A ‘mass exchange’ of DNA profiles between the Netherlands and Belgium may have helped solve hundreds of crimes, Belgian media report on Thursday.

In total, 1,745 matches were found when crime scene DNA held in data banks in the two countries was compared. In 576 cases, DNA found at a crime scene in one country could be linked to someone who had been forced to give a sample in the other.

‘We do not know the person whose DNA was found at the site is the perpetrator, but it does give detectives new routes to follow and possible suspects,’ Jan De Kinder of the Belgian national criminology institute is quoted as saying by Het Laatste Nieuws.

Belgium will also soon make DNA exchanges with German and French DNA banks.

Since 2005, everyone convicted of a crime punishable by four years or more in jail in the Netherlands must give a dna sample. This is kept on the data base for 20 years.

Related Article:

'Hundreds of Dutch Moroccans involved in gangland killings'

McDonald's Japan unveils 'tofu nuggets' after China meat scandal

Yahoo – AFP, July 30, 2014

McDonald s Japan unveils tofu nuggets after China meat scandal (AFP)

Tokyo (AFP) - McDonald's restaurants in Japan are turning to time-honoured Asian soul food -- tofu -- as the chain scrambles to minimise the damage from an embarrassing tainted meat scandal in China.

The fast-food giant's more than 3,000 restaurants in Japan on Wednesday started selling "Tofu Shinjo" nuggets modelled on a traditional side dish that meshes tofu, vegetables and fish.

For 249 yen ($2.40), customers can sink their teeth into four pieces of the chicken-free creation.

The rollout comes days after the firm said that its Japanese restaurants had stopped sourcing poultry products from a nugget supplier in Shanghai, in response to a scandal that saw expired meat sold to fast food giants.

On Tuesday, McDonald's Japan President Sarah Casanova made a televised apology, as she warned the "appalling" incident -- and subsequent switch to chicken suppliers in Thailand to plug the gap -- would depress company profits.

The disgraced factory and other Chinese distributors had supplied nearly 40 percent of the chicken used for McDonald's Japanese restaurants.

A company spokeswoman said Wednesday that, despite its fortuitous timing, the tofu offering had been in the works before China's latest food safety scandal.

"It is a part of wider, limited-time-only offering for the summer featuring a Japanese-style menu," she said.

At the chain's restaurants in mainland China, notices posted at every cash register told customers in Chinese and English: "We regret to let you know that currently we will only be able to provide a limited menu at our restaurant.

"At McDonald's we strictly comply with the applicable laws, regulations and the related standards. Thank you for your understanding."

In Shanghai, where the factory at the heart of the scandal has been shut down by authorities, the chain?s trademark Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets were unavailable.

"It's the same situation, only fries and drinks -- that sort of food -- are available," an operator from the McDonald's delivery hotline said, adding: "It's the same nationwide."

In Hong Kong, the chain said it has disposed of 43 tonnes of food products produced by the closed factory since Monday.

"The food products were first sealed before they were sent to the city's landfills under the inspection of the authorities," said a company spokeswoman.

Related Article:

OSI applied laxer food safety standards in China: report

China vows zero tolerance for GM rice

English.news.cn   2014-07-29

A Greenpeace report says 24 Chinese

 kids have been used for a U.S. GM rice

experiment. (China.org.cn)

BEIJING, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities have vowed zero tolerance and harsh punishments for illegal sales and growing of genetically modified (GM) crops days after media exposure of GM rice on sale at a supermarket in central China.

"The ministry will punish any companies or individuals who illegally grow or sell GM grains, and there will be no tolerance for these practices," said a statement sent to Xinhua on Tuesday by the office in charge of GM food safety with the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA).

China Central Television (CCTV) found GM rice, which is illegal to sell or grow commercially in China, on sale in a supermarket in Wuhan, capital city of central Hubei Province, the broadcaster reported on Saturday.

CCTV commissioned tests on five packs of rice picked at random from the supermarket's shelves. Three were found to contain a GM variety.

CCTV also found evidence that GM rice was being sold in neighboring Hunan, Anhui and Fujian provinces.

While working to develop modern biotechnology, China has taken a wary approach to GM crops, fearing possible risks.

It has allowed several GM crops to be grown, including cotton, peppers, tomatoes and papayas, and has authorized imports of GM soybeans and corn.

However, it does not allow commercial production or sale of GM grains, including rice, although the authorities have approved the experimental planting of two strains of pest-resisted GM rice.

The safety certificates issued for this experimental planting in 2009 expire this year, and commercial production is yet to be started.

Authorities have stressed that this approval of experimentation does not equate to a broader official favoring of GM grains.

"The granting of safety certificates for GM food is not equal to allowing commercial production," Tuesday's statement quoted an anonymous official as saying.

Approval is needed for GM crops, be it production of seeds, testing or growing, the official added.

The ministry has ordered all provincial agricultural authorities to strengthen oversight and fight illegal production and sale of seeds for GM crops, according to the statement.

Chen Xiaohua, deputy minister of the MOA, said earlier this year that China would continue to take an "active and cautious" policy toward GM crops and had set no timetable on the commercial production of GM products.

Gaza doctors save baby from her dead mother's womb

Yahoo – AFP, Mai Yaghi, 28 July 2014

A Palestinian baby girl, Shayma Sheikh al-Eid, lies in an incubator at Nasser

 Hospital, two days after surgeons delivered her after her 23-year-old mother died,

on July 27, 2014, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip (AFP Photo/Said Khatib)

KHAN YUNIS (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - When the doctors gently pulled the tiny newborn from her mother's womb in an emergency Caesarian section, the woman had already been dead for an hour.

Twenty-three-year-old Shayma al-Sheikh Qanan was eight months pregnant when an Israeli tank shell hit her home in the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah, reducing it to rubble.

She was left in critical condition and her husband, a local radio journalist, was also badly wounded.

"Her body was brought in after an Israeli shelling at 3:00 am on Friday," said Doctor Fadi al-Kharti, who was at Deir al-Balah hospital when she was rushed in.

"We tried to revive her but she had died on the way to hospital."

Before paramedics managed to dig her out, she had been stuck under the rubble of her home for an hour.

"Then we noticed movement in her stomach, and estimated she was about 36 weeks pregnant," he says.

Doctors performed an immediate Caesarian section and saved the baby, who was named after her late mother.

For 43-year-old Mirfat Qanan, it was a tragedy to lose her daughter, but she was delighted at becoming a grandmother for the first time.

"God has protected this child for me. My daughter Shayma is dead, but I now have a new daughter," she said.

"She'll call me 'mummy' just like her mother did."

For the time being, the tiny baby was being looked after in the intensive care unit in another hospital in Khan Yunis to ensure her survival.

Just four days old, she was breathing through at an oxygen mask in the hospital's maternity ward.

Joy pierced with grief

Abdel Karim al-Bawab, head doctor at the maternity ward, said staff were keeping a close eye on the baby to monitor her condition.

"The child is in serious condition, and needs to be constantly hooked up to a breathing machine since she was oxygen-deprived between her mother's death and her birth," he told AFP.

"Her vital signs are stable, but she must stay here in this state for at least three more weeks," he said.

Qanan's eyes filled with tears.

"She had really been looking forward to being a mother," she said, her voice cracking.

"What did Shayma do to deserve to die and lie under rubble for an hour without being recovered?

"What did she do to Israel to make it destroy her house on top of her without any warning?" she asked.

"She was just a young wife who had only been married a year."

Relatives said F-16 warplanes had fired two missiles at the house which was located in a densely-populated neighbourhood.

Israel began a crushing military operation to stamp out rocket fire and destroy tunnels used by militants to infiltrate southern Israel on July 8.

In the ensuring three weeks, more than 1,050 Palestinians have been killed and over 6,200 wounded.

UN figures show more than three quarters of the victims were civilians, among them more than 230 children and around 120 women.

In Israel, at least 50 people have been killed, most of them Israeli soldiers killed in the fighting in Gaza.

Related Articles:

Documenting death: the man who counts the bodies in Gaza

Documenting death: the man who counts the bodies in Gaza

Yahoo – AFP, Adel Zaanoun, 27 July 2014

Palestinian volunteers at Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital load a body bag with
 the remains of children on a stretcher, on July 21, 2014, after an Israeli air
strike in Gaza City (AFP)

Inside Ashraf al-Qudra's cramped office in Shifa hospital, the phone never stops ringing, with news flooding in of the latest victims of Israel's devastating 20-day military operation.

With over 1,060 people killed and more than 6,000 wounded, counting the dead is a full-time occupation for the 41-year-old spokesman for Gaza's emergency services.

Since the operation began on July 8, Qudra has been sleeping just two hours a night on a mattress in his office, his staff updating him round the clock on the latest victims of the Israeli offensive, his phone constantly ringing with journalists seeking details of the latest toll.

He lies down for a rest, but his much-needed siesta is swiftly interrupted as an aide rushes in.

"Doctor Qudra, there are many many dead and injured in a shelling on Shuhada hospital!" exclaims a breathless assistant.

The 41-year-old immediately begins scribbling down notes as phones ring and a wireless radio crackles with news of more death and injury across war-torn Gaza.

He calls the hospitals, coordinating efforts to keep track of the wounded.

"There's no safe place from the Israeli shelling," says Qudra, a tall man with a neatly-trimmed beard who has been doing the job for four years.

"They targeted Al-Wafa hospital, Shahada hospital and the European hospital, which I feared would happen," he said.

"I don't doubt they'll hit this hospital at some point," he says, watching out the window as an ambulance unloads more of the wounded.

"The enemy has gone beyond insane, there's disaster after disaster."

Unpaid for months

Figures released by the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA indicate nearly three quarters of the victims were civilians and around a quarter of them children.

And it says 18 hospitals, clinics and medical centres have been hit and damaged by Israeli shelling.

Israel has lost 43 soldiers, and three civilians have been killed by cross-border projectiles.

Shifa is the largest of Gaza's seven hospitals, all of which have been working around the clock since the Israel operation began on July 8 with the aim of eradicating cross-border rocket fire, which later expanded into a ground operation.

A call comes in on the landline -- five more dead and at least 70 wounded, among them doctors and paramedics in a strike on Shuhada hospital in Khan Yunis.

The phone rings again. But this time it's his wife.

Qudra cracks a rare smile and asks after his four children, reassuring them that he's still safe and well.

He has seen his family only once in the past three weeks.

"I miss them," he admits.

And like many ordinary Gazans, he struggles to support them.

Despite his crucial role, Qudra, who recently qualified as a doctor, has not been paid for several months.

Until two months ago, he was spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry, but the Islamist movement - which administered Gaza until handing over responsibility to a Ramallah-based government in June - ran out of funds to pay its government workers.

But he does not consider himself allied to Hamas, insisting his work is a humanitarian duty.

"I believe strongly in my humanitarian mission," he says of a job which involves answering around 700 phonecalls per day.

Emotional impact

Every evening, he holds a news conferences at the hospital at which he reads out the figures and names of the victims.

But long before, every detail is meticulously recorded in near-constant postings in Arabic on both Twitter and Facebook.

For journalists covering the conflict, Qudra is the sole source of information. With numbers rising so quickly, sometimes by 100 deaths per day, it would be an impossible task to independently verify every casualty.

Qudra insists his numbers add up.

"The statistics we use and publish are accurate and objective," he says, proud but weary.

His first experience of a major conflict between Israel and Hamas was in November 2012 when 177 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed in an eight-day confrontation.

This time, he admits, the conflict has definitely affected him emotionally.

"I see corpses and body parts all the time," he says.

"But what really gets to me is the sight of women and children who've been killed in shellings."

New York Times calls for marijuana legalization

Yahoo – AFP, 27 July 2014

Protestors stand on the steps of New York City Hall in support of the proposed

 Fairness and Equity Act, which would attempt to reform racially biased arrests

 in regards to marijuana possession in New York state on July 9, 2014 in

New York City (AFP Photo/Andrew Burton)

Washington (AFP) - The New York Times called for the legalization of marijuana, in a bold editorial comparing the federal ban on cannabis to Prohibition.

The prestigious publication said pot laws disproportionately impact young black men and that addiction and dependence are "relatively minor problems" -- especially when compared with alcohol and tobacco.

"It took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end Prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished," the newspaper said.

House Oversight and Government Reform 

Subcommittee on Government Operations

 Chairman John Mica holds a fake
marijuana cigarette and a list of marijuana
offenses during a hearing about drug laws
on May 9, 2014 in Washington, DC
(AFP Photo/Chip Somodevilla)

"It has been more than 40 years since Congress passed the current ban on marijuana, inflicting great harm on society just to prohibit a substance far less dangerous than alcohol. The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana."

Noting that the editorial board reached its conclusion after much discussion, The Times described the social costs of marijuana laws as "vast."

Citing FBI figures showing there were 658,000 arrests for marijuana possession in 2012 -- far higher than for cocaine, heroin and their derivatives -- it said "the result is racist, falling disproportionately on young black men, ruining their lives and creating new generations of career criminals."

While advocating for a ban on marijuana sales to those under 21, the paper also said the "moderate use of marijuana does not appear to pose a risk for otherwise healthy adults."

The call comes just weeks after recreational pot sales began in the western US state of Washington, which followed Colorado's decision to let people buy marijuana with no medical prescription.

And earlier this month, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill making New York the 23rd state to legalize marijuana for medical use.

In another recent move reflecting growing public support for easing marijuana laws, the House of Representatives voted in May to bar federal authorities from raiding medical marijuana facilities or growers in states that have legalized its use.

Call sparks reader reaction

The Times editorial, titled "Repeal Prohibition, Again," kicks off a series of pieces on the issue by members of the editorial board and invites readers to weigh in.

The first have already done so, with their views posted on the newspaper's website.

E.S. Lawrence, a self-described 20-year veteran high school teacher, expressed concern about children getting access to the substance, describing it as a "gateway drug" with detrimental effects on memory and learning.

Marijuana bongs, or water pipes, are 

displayed at the Cannabis City retail 

marijuana store on July 8, 2014 in Seattle,

Washington (AFP Photo/David Ryder)

"It's NOT a benign drug. As long as there's a danger of pot being acquired by children, I'm against legality," Lawrence posted.

But Emmett Hoops argued that legalization would allow for both taxation and regulation, adding that "mere decriminalization keeps profits in the hands of criminal gangs."

"It is beyond ridiculous to keep marijuana illegal while tobacco and alcohol kill scores every day in our state," Hoops, from New York, posted.

In January, President Barack Obama made headlines when he said smoking pot was no more dangerous than drinking, though he called the practice a "bad idea."

In comments to The New Yorker magazine, the US leader also noted that poor minority youths were more likely to get prison time for using marijuana than their richer counterparts.

However, he stopped short of calling for legalizing the drug at the federal level.

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'Tokyo should no longer be inhabited,' Japanese doctor warns residents regarding radiation

Natural News, David Gutierrez, staff writer, July 21, 2014

Tokyo City View Buildings Roads

(NaturalNews) In an essay addressed to his colleagues, Japanese doctor Shigeru Mita has explained why he recently moved away from Tokyo to restart his practice in western Japan: He believes that Tokyo is no longer safe to inhabit due to radioactive contamination caused by the March 11, 2011, meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The essay, titled "Why did I leave Tokyo?" was published in the newsletter of the Association of Doctors in Kodaira, metropolitan Tokyo.

Soil tests prove contamination

Dr. Mita opens his essay by contextualizing his decision to leave, noting that he had a long history as a doctor in Tokyo.

"I closed the clinic in March 2014, which had served the community of Kodaira for more than 50 years, since my father's generation, and I have started a new Mita clinic in Okayama-city on April 21," he wrote.

Dr. Mita notes that, for the past 10 years, he had been working to persuade the municipal government of Tokyo to stock iodine pills to distribute to the population in the case of a nuclear accident. Dr. Mita's concern had been that an earthquake might trigger a meltdown at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant. All of his requests were rejected, however, under the excuse that there was no reason to expect such an accident.

When the disaster did occur -- albeit at a different plant than Dr. Mita had feared -- Tokyo did not act to protect its population, and still has taken no measures. Yet, based on soil surveys, Dr. Mita noted, "It is clear that Eastern Japan and Metropolitan Tokyo have been contaminated with radiation."

Dr. Mita compares radioactive contamination of the soil (measured in becquerels per kilogram, Bq/kg) in various parts of Tokyo with that observed in various portions of Europe following the Chernobyl disaster.

Prior to 2011, Shinjuku (the region of Tokyo that houses the municipal government) tested at only 0.5-1.5 Bq/kg. Today, levels at nearby Kodaira are at 200-300 Bq/kg.

"Within the 23 districts of Metropolitan Tokyo, contamination in the east part is 1000-4000 Bq/kg and the west part is 300-1000 Bq/kg," Dr. Mita wrote.

For comparison, Kiev (capital of the Ukraine) has soil tested at 500 Bq/kg (Cs-137 only). Following the Chernobyl accident, West Germany and Italy reported levels of 90-100 Bq/kg, and both experienced measurable health effects on their populations.

Dr. Mita notes that the radiation situation in Tokyo is getting worse, not better, due to urban practices of concentrating solid waste in small areas such as municipal dumps and sewage plants. That is why, he says, radiation levels in Tokyo riverbeds have actually been increasing over the prior two years.

"Tokyo should no longer be inhabited, and... those who insist on living in Tokyo must take regular breaks in safer areas," Dr. Mita writes. "Issues such as depopulation and state decline continue to burden the lives of second and third generation Ukrainians and Belarusians today, and I fear that this may be the future of Eastern Japan."

Patients showing radiation-induced sickness

Dr. Mita's essay also chronicles the many cases he has observed of patients presenting with radiation-induced health problems. He notes that, since 2011, he has observed while blood cell counts declining in children under the age of 10, including in children under one year old. In all of these cases, symptoms typically improve if the children move to western Japan. He has similarly observed persistent respiratory symptoms that improve in patients who move away.

Other patients have shown symptoms including "nosebleed, hair loss, lack of energy, subcutaneous bleeding, visible urinary hemorrhage, skin inflammations, coughs and various other non-specific symptoms." He also notes high occurrences of rheumatic muscle symptoms similar to those observed following the Chernobyl disaster.

"Ever since 3.11, everybody living in Eastern Japan including Tokyo is a victim, and everybody is involved," he wrote.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.save-children-from-radiation.org

http://science.naturalnews.com

Japanese farmers bring a cow to the front of the agriculture
ministry in Tokyo, on June 20, 2014

Related Articles:

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"Fast-Tracking" - Feb 8, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Reference to Fukushima / H-bomb nuclear pollution and a warning about nuclear  (> 20 Min)

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“... Japan

Let us talk for a moment about Japan, and then I'll close the day of messages. There are thousands of souls on my side of the veil and they're just fine, more than fine. We have spoken so often of what happens at the Wind of Birth. I told you, before they even came in, they saw the potential. I looked in their eyes. "You may not last long. You know that, don't you? You're coming into this planet and you may not be here very long. And the passing that you will have with your family will not be pleasant, if any ever are. Why would you come in anyway?" I want to tell you what they said. When a soul has the mind of God, it understands fully what generates peace and what generates energy shift. You can clearly see what generates what the planet needs the most when you are about to arrive. So they said, "We're going to be part of one of the biggest compassion events the planet has ever seen." One earthquake, one tsunami. All of those who left that day will change the earth forever. And it already has. It was the same for the last tsunami as well.

Every single one of them on my side of the veil is getting ready to come back. Many old souls were involved, and just for a moment, if they could give you any information, if they could talk to you right now, if they could speak your language and look into your eyes, they would thank you for your compassion for them and those who are left. And they would say, "Be with those family members who are still alive. Enter their hearts every day and give them peace and keep them from crying, because we're OK."

Nuclear Power Revealed

So let me tell you what else they did. They just showed you what's wrong with nuclear power. "Safe to the maximum," they said. "Our devices are strong and cannot fail." But they did. They are no match for Gaia.

It seems that for more than 20 years, every single time we sit in the chair and speak of electric power, we tell you that hundreds of thousands of tons of push/pull energy on a regular schedule is available to you. It is moon-driven, forever. It can make all of the electricity for all of the cities on your planet, no matter how much you use. There's no environmental impact at all. Use the power of the tides, the oceans, the waves in clever ways. Use them in a bigger way than any designer has ever put together yet, to power your cities. The largest cities on your planet are on the coasts, and that's where the power source is. Hydro is the answer. It's not dangerous. You've ignored it because it seems harder to engineer and it's not in a controlled environment. Yet, you've chosen to build one of the most complex and dangerous steam engines on Earth - nuclear power.

We also have indicated that all you have to do is dig down deep enough and the planet will give you heat. It's right below the surface, not too far away all the time. You'll have a Gaia steam engine that way, too. There's no danger at all and you don't have to dig that far. All you have to do is heat fluid, and there are some fluids that boil far faster than water. So we say it again and again. Maybe this will show you what's wrong with what you've been doing, and this will turn the attitudes of your science to create something so beautiful and so powerful for your grandchildren. Why do you think you were given the moon? Now you know.

This benevolent Universe gave you an astral body that allows the waters in your ocean to push and pull and push on the most regular schedule of anything you know of. Yet there you sit enjoying just looking at it instead of using it. It could be enormous, free energy forever, ready to be converted when you design the methods of capturing it. It's time.

So in closing, do you understand what you're seeing? You're seeing intelligent design, quantum energy and high consciousness. You are seeing changes in Human nature. You're seeing countries putting things together instead of separating. You are seeing those who don't want war and instead want peace, good schools for their children, safety in their streets and a say in their government. We told you it was going to happen this way. I want my partner to teach these things that I have said in his 3D lectures for awhile. Many won't be able to know these things otherwise.  …”

OSI applied laxer food safety standards in China: report

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-07-26

McDonald's has declared that it is cutting all ties with Shanghai
Husi as a supplier. (Photo/CNS)

The Shanghai Husi expired meat scandal has highlighted the low health food safety standards and regulations its parent company employs in China compared to other parts of the world, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

Owned by Illinois-based OSI Group, Husi has been shut down by Chinese food authorities pending an investigation after it was discovered that the company had been supplying products tainted with reprocessed stale meat to fast food chains across the country such as McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King and Dicos.

The OSI Group operates more than 50 food processing plants in 17 countries and distributes raw, semi-cooked, and fully cooked chicken, as well as beef, and pork products to 85 countries around the world.

According to a report by the Xinhua Daily, a Chinese-language newspaper operated by the Jiangsu committee of the Communist Party, the scandal reflects the different food safety standards OSI applies in China compared to the US and Europe.

In the US and Spain, for example, OSI uses X-rays to detect foreign objects in food products. The group also implements employee safety programs in Spain, where there are training workshops on emergency treatment for staff accidents. The group has no similar programs or safety nets in China.

OSI also has standardized animal welfare guidelines, and chemical and pesticide specifications in the US, Europe, the Philippines and India, but not in China.

In the environmental responsibility sphere, OSI has installed water, energy and waste recycling processes in other countries, but in Chinese factories there are only water recycling devices in place.

Sheldon Lavin, OSI's CEO, chairperson and owner, once boasted about OSI's unique culture, saying it is "very family-oriented" and enjoys very little "turnover." The newspaper report said that it is probably this type of trusting management style that led to different standards being applied in different countries, allowing subsidiaries like Husi to fall through the cracks.

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