New Hampshire Health News Digest

Newsday.com: Syria Tries to Tackle Foreign Fighters : "Syria, in turn, has repeatedly said it is doing all it can to stop would-be insurgents from slipping across the 380-mile-long border -- most of it desert. Washington and Baghdad intensified their criticism of Syria after insurgents stepped up their attacks, killing more than 700 people since the April 28 swearing-in of the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Much of the criticism of Syria appears to be political. The foreign fighters issue has been a favorite Washington pressure point, even though U.S. military and intelligence officials in Iraq have long played down Syria's role. The insurgency, they have said, is overwhelmingly Iraqi. The foreign infiltrators have their choice of Iraq's six international borders, not just the frontier with Syria. Military analysts say there are several U.S. incentives for blaming Syria. Depicting Iraq as a haven for foreign terrorists validates Preside...

US to widen focus against extremism - The Boston Globe - Boston.com : The Bush administration has launched a high-level review of its efforts to battle terrorism, aimed at moving away from a policy that has stressed efforts to capture and kill Al Qaeda leaders and toward what an official called a broader ''strategy against violent extremism." [...] "The review marks the first ambitious effort since the immediate aftermath of the 2001 attacks to take stock of the US war on terrorism. ''What we really want now is a strategic approach to defeat violent extremism,' said a senior administration official who described the review on the condition of anonymity because it is not finished. In many ways, this is the culmination of a debate about how to target not only Al Qaeda but also broader support in the Muslim world for radical Islam. Administration officials refused to describe in detail what new policies are under consideration, and several sour...

Iraqi forces launch biggest mission since Saddam : "Iraqi forces launch biggest mission since Saddam By Andrew Marshall Reuters BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi forces launched their biggest security crackdown since the fall of Saddam Hussein with the start of Operation Lightning on Sunday, a sweep by 40,000 Iraqi troops who will seal off Baghdad and hunt for insurgents. Backed by the 10,000 U.S. troops in the capital, Iraqi soldiers will block major routes into Baghdad and search the city district by district, looking for foreign Arab fighters and Iraqi guerrillas, Iraqi officials say. But by Sunday evening, there were few signs of a heightened security presence in Baghdad, although checkpoints were set up in the north and south of the city and cars were searched. Officials said the operation would gather steam in coming days. The launch of the crackdown comes after a sharp increase in suicide bombings and ambushes by insurgents who have killed around 700 people in the p...

Scientific American Mind: Natural-Born Liars : "In 1983 Byrne and Whiten began noticing deceptive tactics among the mountain baboons in Drakensberg, South Africa. Catarrhine primates, the group that includes the Old World monkeys, apes and ourselves, are all able to tactically dupe members of their own species. The deceptiveness is not built into their appearance, as with the mirror orchid, nor is it encapsulated in rigid behavioral routines like those of the hog-nosed snake. The primates' repertoires are calculated, flexible and exquisitely sensitive to shifting social contexts. Byrne and Whiten catalogued many such observations, and these became the basis for their celebrated Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis, which states that the extraordinary explosion of intelligence in primate evolution was prompted by the need to master ever more sophisticated forms of social trickery and manipulation. Primates had to get smart to keep up with the snowballing development of ...

New Scientist 11 steps to a better brain - Features : "It doesn't matter how brainy you are or how much education you've had - you can still improve and expand your mind. Boosting your mental faculties doesn't have to mean studying hard or becoming a reclusive book worm. There are lots of tricks, techniques and habits, as well as changes to your lifestyle, diet and behaviour that can help you flex your grey matter and get the best out of your brain cells. And here are 11 of them."

Winds of Change.NET: Enter Operation Thunder : " In the wake of American led offensives in Western Iraq and Haditha, the Iraqi government has stated it is prepared to commit a massive force to take the initiative away from the insurgency. Iraqi Defense Minister Dulaimi has announced Operation Thunder will commence shortly and will consist of over 40,000 Iraqi troops. The purpose is to secure Baghdad then fan out to other trouble spots, presumably in the restive Anbar province. It will initially focus on Baghdad but will then expand to other parts of the country. [Defense Minister] Dulaimi did not say when the operation would begin. 'These operations will aim to turn the government's role from defensive to offensive.'… He said troops would be drawn from interior and defence ministry forces and would begin operating in the capital, with the city divided into sections, a unit responsible for each. 'We will also impose a stringent blockade around Baghdad, lik...

Foreign Policy: Arabs in Foreign Lands Arabs in Foreign Lands By Moisés Naím What the success of Arab Americans tells us about Europe, the Middle East, and the power of culture. People of Arab descent living in the United States are doing far better than the average American. That is the surprising conclusion drawn from data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2000 and released last March. The census found that U.S. residents who report having Arab ancestors are better educated and wealthier than average Americans. Whereas 24 percent of Americans hold college degrees, 41 percent of Arab Americans are college graduates. The median income for an Arab family living in the United States is $52,300—4.6 percent higher than other American families—and more than half of all Arab Americans own their home. Forty-two percent of people of Arab descent in the United States work as managers or professionals, while the same is true for only 34 percent of the general U.S. population. For...

Google Translator: The Universal Language : "today, English is much more universal. 30 countries have it as an official language, and in many other countries it is taught in school and understood fairly well. The internet can be suspected to further increase the adoption of English. Still, many people can’t speak English. The collected, shared knowledge that makes up the web is therefore only partly accessible to them. The reverse, of course, is true as well. When you surf the web, you will sometimes come across languages and characters you don’t understand – like Chinese, Arabic, Korean, French, German, Italian, Spanish, or Japanese. Would you be able to fluently read these languages, those sites wouldn’t be a dead end for you. You would discover a wealth of knowledge, and more importantly, opinions. If you’re an US citizen, how many Arabic, German or French sources do you read to get a good understanding of how the world sees the US? How many blogs do you read in foreign ...

Leaving the left / I can no longer abide the simpering voices of self-styled progressives -- people who once championed solidarity : "Eventually I joined the staff of U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio. In short, I became a card-carrying liberal, although I never actually got a card. (Bookkeeping has never been the left's strong suit.) All my commitments centered on belief in equal opportunity, due process, respect for the dignity of the individual and solidarity with people in trouble. To my mind, Americans who had joined the resistance to Franco's fascist dystopia captured the progressive spirit at its finest. A turning point came at a dinner party on the day Ronald Reagan famously described the Soviet Union as the pre-eminent source of evil in the modern world. The general tenor of the evening was that Reagan's use of the word 'evil' had moved the world closer to annihilation. There was a palpable sense that we might not make it to dessert. When I...

U.N. Forces Using Tougher Tactics to Secure Peace - New York Times Pretty funny stuff! The NY Times is all in favor of aggressive UN peacekeeping, and condemns the rebels' barbaric behavior, in mirror image to their treatment of US involvement in Iraq! Won't these aggressive tactics just make them hate the UN even more, and bring more violence? ha! (hat tip lgf) "As they root out the insurgents who prey on Ituri’s population, United Nations soldiers in the east have at their disposal tanks, armored personnel carriers, Mi-25 attack helicopters, mortars and rocket-propelled grenade launchers - all of which are getting heavy use. “It may look like war but it’s peacekeeping,” said Lt. Gen. Babacar Gaye of Senegal, the force commander in Congo, of the largest and most robust of the 18 United Nations peacekeeping operations around the world. At a militia camp in Kagaba recently, the peacekeepers backed up besieged Congolese troops and engaged in a runni...

lgf:Uday's Oil-for-News Program From LGF: "Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Eric Stakelbeck point out the financial links between Saddam Hussein’s regime and the Arab media, revealed earlier this year on US-sponsored Al Hurra television and almost completely ignored by Western media: Uday’s Oil-for-News program. (Hat tip: No Pasaran!)" On January 6, 2005, the U.S.-funded Arabic satellite network Al Hurra broadcast an explosive exposé detailing the financial links between Saddam Hussein’s regime and the Arab press. Al Hurra’s documentary—so far overlooked in the West—aired previously unseen video footage, recorded by Saddam Hussein’s regime during its murderous heyday, of Saddam’s son Uday meeting with several Arab media figures and referring to the bribes they had received. Recipients of this Baathist largesse appeared to include a former managing director of the influential Qatar-based, government-subsidized satellite network Al Jazeera, Mohammed Jassem al-Ali. ...

Austria Lawmaker Wants to ID Dog Droppings : "Austria Lawmaker Wants to ID Dog Droppings A local Vienna politician wants to use DNA technology to chase down owners of dogs that leave their droppings on streets and sidewalks. Manfred Juraczka, a councilor in a Vienna district, said Monday he wants the city to register all dogs' DNA so that droppings left where people walk can be tested and the owner of the guilty dog punished. 'This method offers a multitude of unbeatable advantages,' Juraczka said in a statement, adding that all who fail to pick up after their dogs 'must count on being caught.' Vienna's sidewalks are littered by dog droppings, and campaigns trying to persuade owners to pick up after their pets have made little difference. The city is home to almost 50,000 registered dogs, but the true number is believed to be much higher as many owners ignore the registration requirement."

Islamic Biological Warfare : "Islamic Biological Warfare by James Dunnigan It turns out there are there are Islamic “Weapons of Mass Destruction” after all. In particular, biological weapons. But these mass killers have been developed within Islamic nations, and are doing most of their damage there. The war on terror has taken many American doctors to Islamic nations, and they have discovered a heretofore hidden AIDS epidemic. This is not the first time this has happened. AIDS quietly entered India, and South East Asian nations, but was finally discovered, and received attention. But in most Islamic nations, AIDS is not supposed to happen, and the governments, religious leaders and general population will not even admit the disease is there. But it is, and in large numbers. While promiscuity and prostitution are common in Islamic nations, talking openly about it is not. As a result, AIDS has spread for years through the Middle East and other Islamic nations without much, if ...

Reuters AlertNet - AFGHANISTAN: New radio soap promotes rural development : KABUL, 11 May (IRIN) - On the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul, Daud Maqsoudi and several other men and women were sitting around, talking about village reconstruction. 'We should be united and rebuild Chamanistan [Afghanistan]. Lets consult with everyone and find out how to rebuild our land,' Haji Tawab, who was introduced as the community elder and head of the Shura [community council] was heard saying. Tawab's call was followed by a murmur of agreement from the group. Maqsoudi and the others are not rural villagers but renowned Afghan actors recording the new 'Let Us Build Our Village,' radio soap opera that was aired for the first time on Wednesday. The new programme is only the second radio soap opera after the BBC's popular ten-year-old 'New Home New Life' programme. Like the BBC's offering, 'Let us build our village' is also broadcast in Dari and Pashtu. I...

The New Zealand Herald : "US warlord policy in Afghanistan slammed 11.05.05 1.00pm By Manuela Badawy NEW YORK - The US policy of engaging Afghan warlords to hunt down al Qaeda members is undermining the recovery of the devastated country, said a prominent Afghan editor who helped draft the new constitution. Shukria Barakzai, 33, in New York to receive the Worldpress.org's 2004 International Editor of the Year award at the United Nations, made clear her gratitude for the 2001 US-led invasion, which ended many limitations on women. However, for all the progress since the fall of the fundamentalist Taleban leaders, Barakzai said the new liberties were threatened by the increasing use of warlords to hunt al Qaeda and Taleban insurgents in the south. 'We still live in the middle of a warlords' war that is becoming worse, and more women and children are becoming victims of different groups,' Barakzai said. "

Kabul's must-see TV heats up culture war in Afghanistan KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – A bearded man from the bazaar is whisked into a barber shop, where he's given a shave and a slick haircut. After a facial, he visits fashion boutiques. In a few tightly edited minutes of television, the humble bricklayer is transformed into an Afghan metrosexual, complete with jeans, sweater, suede jacket, and sunglasses. It may sound like standard reality TV fare in the West, but it's edgy in Afghanistan. Tolo TV aired the show only once. But in a pop culture as barren as the mountains here, Tolo's mix of MTV-style shows and hard-hitting news programs has turned the up-and-coming network into an entertainment oasis. Today, it's a kind of must-see TV that has government officials leaving work early to catch their favorite show. But it's also a lightning rod for Afghan critics who see the station as a threat to the country's Islamic values. "We have to be a ...

HoustonChronicle.com - U.S. hunts rebels near Syrian border : "U.S. hunts rebels near Syrian border 100 insurgents reportedly killed in Iraq in largest assault in months By HANNAH ALLAM Knight Ridder Tribune News BAGHDAD, IRAQ - U.S. Marines are fighting house-to-house through a town near Iraq's border with Syria in an effort to cleanse the area of foreign terrorists, the U.S. military announced Monday. At least 100 suspected insurgents have been killed. Three Marines also were killed in the region, the U.S. military said. 'This is ground combat,' said Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a military spokesman in Baghdad. 'It's house-to-house operations.' The fighting was taking place near the border town of Qaim, about 200 miles west of Baghdad. U.S. officials said the offensive had been a long time coming but was spurred by a fresh batch of intelligence gleaned from Iraqis who live in the area as well as interrogations of newly captured aides to the mos...

HoustonChronicle.com - U.S. shifting focus to foreign fighters in Iraq Recent surge in suicide attacks spurs move to fortify borders By BRADLEY GRAHAM Washington Post BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Senior U.S. commanders say their view of the Iraqi insurgency has begun to shift, with higher priority being given to combating foreign fighters and Iraqi jihadists. This shift comes in response to the recent upsurge in suicide attacks and other developments that indicate a more prominent role in the insurgency by these radical groups, the commanders say. Previously, U.S. authorities depicted the insurgency as dominated largely by what the Pentagon has dubbed "former regime elements" — a combination of one-time Baath Party loyalists and Iraqi military and security service officers intent on restoring Sunni rule. Since the Jan. 30 elections, this segment of the insurgency has appeared to pull back from the fight, at least for a while, reassessing strategies and exploring a possible p...

Flow of funds to terrorists is ebbing: US: South Asia : Hindustan Times.com Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Stuart Levey, told two sub-committees of the US House of Representatives on May 4 that the terrorists were "feeling the pressure and hurting for money". "We are seeing terrorist groups avoiding formal financing channels and instead resorting to riskier and more cumbersome conduits like bulk cash smuggling. And, most importantly, we have indications that terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and Hamas are feeling the pressure and are hurting for money," a US State Department website quotes Levey as saying. "We have made real inroads in combating terrorist financing in the Middle East," Levey said. A key advantage that the investigators enjoy in the financial arena is that the targets have something to lose. "In contrast with terrorist operatives, who may be willing to die for their hateful cause, terrorist fina...

Amidst doubts, CIA hangs on to control of Iraqi intelligence service - Yahoo! News The CIA has so far refused to hand over control of Iraq's intelligence service to the newly elected Iraqi government in a turf war that exposes serious doubts the Bush administration has over the ability of Iraqi leaders to fight the insurgency and worries about the new government's close ties to Iran. The director of Iraq's secret police, a general who took part in a failed coup attempt against Saddam Hussein, was handpicked and funded by the U.S. government, and he still reports directly to the CIA, Iraqi politicians and intelligence officials in Baghdad said last week. Immediately after the elections in January, several Iraqi officials said, U.S. forces stashed the sensitive national intelligence archives of the past year inside American headquarters in Baghdad in order to keep them off-limits to the new government. Iraqi leaders complain that the arrangement violates their sov...

military news about Iraq IRAQ: Frustrated Terrorists Seek Tactics That Will Work May 6, 2005; The January 30 Parliament finally selected government ministers this week. Terrorist attacks have killed over 250 people, mostly civilians, in the last week. The terrorist campaign is remarkable for its persistence, and ineffectiveness. Actually, the terror campaign is beyond ineffective. It is the major reason why popular opinion in Iraq, and the Arab world, has turned against al Qaeda. When the terrorist bombings began to kill large numbers of civilians back in late 2003, many Iraqis believed the Americans were behind the attacks. Iraqis didn't believe al Qaeda and the Baath Party terrorists could be so stupid. Now, Iraqis consider al Qaeda and the Baath Party terrorists to be depraved, and rather clueless, butchers. Even the Sunni Arab international media is having a hard time selling the terrorists as brave warriors fighting the foreign invaders. The terror campaign in Iraq...

Middle East Online: US warns Syria over militant financing Top US Treasury official demands Syria do more on curbing militant financing if it wants to retain access to hard currency. Middle Eastern countries in particular are choking off extremists' sources of cash in response to pressure from Washington, said Under Secretary Stuart Levey of the Treasury's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. "We are seeing terrorist groups avoiding formal financing channels and instead resorting to riskier and more cumbersome conduits like bulk cash smuggling," he said in testimony to two congressional sub-committees. "And, most importantly, we have indications that terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and Hamas are feeling the pressure and are hurting for money," he said. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US government targeted the financial networks used by extremist groups such as Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organisation as a central p...

New Scientist The speedy way to capture a city - Technology IMAGINE if the first soldiers to enter an enemy city could map it street by street, recording every window and doorway of the urban battlefield in an accurate 3D model that could instantly be relayed to their comrades at base. Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found a way to do just that. What's more, their technique can also make maps for use by emergency services, urban planners and even tourists looking for the nearest Starbucks. The concept is similar to building a virtual reality model, but the process is very different. To produce a VR model, a programmer manually combines distance measurements and 2D pictures to make a 3D model. The new technique, dubbed "virtualised reality" by creator Avideh Zakhor, is automated and much faster. "Right now, a detailed urban model can take many months to create," says Bruce Deal, vice-president of the Virginia engineering firm S...

ThisisLondon Microphones to catch noisy neighbours By Mark Prigg, Science Correspondent, Evening Standard Noisy neighbours have become a scourge of modern life, resulting in stress, sleepless nights and even violence. Now Westminster Council hopes a new wireless microphone could help tackle the problem. It plans to attach the device to lamp posts outside houses, allowing inspectors to monitor sound levels. If neighbours make too much noise, council officials will “This could make a really big difference to cutting down on noise,” said Steve Harrison of Westminster Council. “At the moment the problem is that by the time a noise protection officer arrives on the scene, the noise may have stopped. “Using the new system, we can leave a monitor in an area for several days. The idea is that we can pre-empt people having to call us — if the monitor hears a disturbance it lets us know.” Mr Harrison added that the microphones were also going to be placed outside bars an...

Iraqi media under attack from authorities in Iraq - Yahoo! News By Mohammed al Dulaimy, Knight Ridder Newspapers Mon May 2, 8:01 PM ET BAGHDAD, Iraq - A photographer for a Baghdad newspaper says Iraqi police beat and detained him for snapping pictures of long lines at gas stations. A reporter for another local paper received an invitation from Iraqi police to cover their graduation ceremony and ended up receiving death threats from the recruits. A local TV reporter says she's lost count of how many times Iraqi authorities have confiscated her cameras and smashed her tapes. All these cases are under investigation by the Iraqi Association to Defend Journalists, a union that formed amid a chilling new trend of alleged arrests, beatings and intimidation of Iraqi reporters at the hands of Iraqi security forces. Reporters Without Borders, an international watchdog group for press freedom, tracked the arrests of five Iraqi journalists within a two-week period and issued a state...

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World UN peacekeepers sexually abused and exploited local women and girls in Liberia and more accusations are expected, a UN spokesman said Friday. Stephane Dujarric said a preliminary investigation by the UN mission in Liberia indicated that some allegations against its personnel could be substantiated, while others could not. “The allegations range from the exchange of goods, money or services for sex to the sexual exploitation of minors. The peacekeeping department here in New York as well as the mission on the ground are taking appropriate follow-up action,” he said. A UN official speaking on condition of anonymity said the number of allegations could eventually total 20. The head of the mission in Liberia, Jacques Paul Klein, is to step down when his contract expires at the end of the month, a UN spokesman announced Thursday. His deputy Abou Moussa will temporarily take o...

Print Story: Genetic Mingling Mixes Human, Animal Cells on Yahoo! News : Genetic Mingling Mixes Human, Animal Cells By PAUL ELIAS, AP Biotechnology WriterFri Apr 29, 8:44 PM ET On a farm about six miles outside this gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs. The University of Nevada-Reno researcher talks matter-of-factly about his plans to euthanize one of the pregnant sheep in a nearby lab. He can't wait to examine the effects of the human cells he had injected into the fetus' brain about two months ago. "It's mice on a large scale," Chamberlain says with a shrug. As strange as his work may sound, it falls firmly within the new ethics guidelines the influential National Academies issued this past week for stem cell research. In fact, the Academies' report endorses research that co-mingles human and animal tissue as vital to ens...