New Hampshire Health News Digest

Shiites Told: Leave Home Or Be Killed : Sunnis Force Evictions As Iraq Tensions Grow By Ellen Knickmeyer Washington Post Foreign Service BAGHDAD, Feb. 28 -- Salim Rashid, 34, a Shiite laborer in an overwhelmingly Sunni Arab village 20 miles north of Baghdad, received his eviction notice Friday from a man at the door with a rocket launcher. 'It's 6 p.m.,' Rashid recounted the masked man saying then, as retaliatory violence between Shiites and Sunnis exploded across wide swaths of central Iraq. 'We want you out of here by 8 p.m. tomorrow. If we find you here, we will kill you.' Shiite families take shelter in a youth center after they were forced from their homes in Sunni-dominated towns. Shiite families take shelter in a youth center after they were forced from their homes in Sunni-dominated towns. (By Bassam Sebti -- The Washington Post) News From Iraq * Veterans Report Mental Distress * Shiites Told: Leave Home Or Be Killed * Growing Threat Seen In Afg...

News, views for women on fashion, health, life Times Online : "Like a virgin... Joanna Walters Women are having surgery to rejuvenate their love lives When Jeanette Yarborough decided to give her husband a gift for their seventeenth wedding anniversary she wanted it to be special. Really special. She decided that conventional treats such as Mediterranean cruises, gold watches, cars, a murder-mystery weekend, or even a boob job just weren’t going to cut it. She gave him something much more personal — and painful. Her virginity. Well, sort of. Mrs Yarborough paid $5,000 (�2,860) to a cosmetic surgeon to stitch her hymen back together so she could “lose her virginity” all over again and her husband would have that thrilling conquest at the grand age of 40. He did, and after that very expensive moment the ecstatic couple spent a passionate Valentine’s weekend last year having the kind of sex that they had almost forgotten about. Now they are busy telling family, friends and strangers ...

BREITBART.COM - Ancient Sun Temple Uncovered in Cairo : By OMAR SINAN Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt Archaeologists discovered a pharaonic sun temple with large statues believed to be of King Ramses II under an outdoor marketplace in Cairo, Egypt's antiquities chief said Sunday. The partially uncovered site is the largest sun temple ever found in the capital's Aim Shams and Matariya districts, where the ancient city of Heliopolis _ the center of pharaonic sun worship _ was located, Zahi Hawass told The Associated Press. Among the artifacts was a pink granite statue weighing 4 to 5 tons whose features 'resemble those of Ramses II,' said Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Also found was a 5-foot-high statue of a seated figure with hieroglyphics that include three tablets with the name of Ramses II _ and a 3-ton head of royal statue, the council said in a statement. The green pavement stones of the temple's floor were also uncovered. An Egyptian ...

United Press International - NewsTrack - Most get news from broadcasters : ROCHESTER, N.Y., Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Seventy-seven percent of U.S. adults watch local broadcast news, while 71 percent watch network news, compared to 18 percent who read a national newspaper. A Harris Interactive poll of 2,985 U.S. adults also found 64 percent get their news several times a week or daily by going online, while 63 percent read a local daily newspaper. Fifty-four percent listen to radio news broadcasts, 37 percent listen to talk radio and 19 percent listen to satellite news programming. Those age 59 and older are most likely to rely on local broadcast news, network broadcast or cable news, or a local daily newspaper several times a week or daily for news. Baby boomers and Gen Xers also watch broadcast news, listen to radio, read newspapers but also go online for news and listen to talk radio. Generation Xers are most likely to get their news several times a week or daily from local broadcast station...

The Lean Plate Club - To burn calories and feel full, eat protein : A study finds our diets are about 10 percent protein; make it 25 percent and lose weight Tuesday, February 21, 2006 SALLY SQUIRES The weight-loss world is full of claims, rarely proved, that some pill or potion can help you 'burn calories while you sleep.' But a recent Dutch study reports that it can be done -- simply by eating more lean protein. Researchers report for the first time that consuming nearly a third of daily calories as lean protein -- for example, lean meats or poultry without the skin -- revs up a person's metabolism during sleep. And the benefits aren't just nocturnal: The researchers also found that higher protein intake boosted the burning of calories and fat during the day. Plus, when the study's participants, who were all women of healthful weight, ate more protein, they said they felt fuller, more satisfied and less hungry than when they consumed a diet with the typical amount ...

Chicago Tribune | City sold on video security : Voters like camera network By Gary Washburn Tribune staff reporter As Mayor Richard Daley pushes to increase video surveillance in public places across the city, a Tribune/WGN-TV poll has found that the city's security cameras have overwhelming support among Chicago residents. A newer proposal that would require cameras in thousands of businesses has far less backing but still enjoys support from most poll participants. The city's surveillance network includes more than 2,000 cameras in such sites as transit stations, streets and public housing complexes. Included are about 100 police devices, featuring flashing blue lights, on utility poles in high-crime areas. Critics have voiced concern about the growing number of electronic eyes, but Daley has made it clear he wants even more. And he contends that Chicagoans want them too, something the Tribune/WGN survey seems to support. The poll of 700 voters, conducted Feb. 10-13 by Market...

World news from The Times and the Sunday Times - Times Online : "Elephants never forget . . . and cannot forgive By Thair Shaikh THEY say that elephants never forget, and it could be that they are using their memories to exact revenge on people who make their lives a misery. A new study says that the usually gentle giants may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) brought on by frightening experiences at an early age. In parts of Uganda they have raided villages, demolished huts and destroyed plots, not in an effort to get at food but to scare the people living there. Such attacks have become more frequent in Bunyaruguru, western Uganda, where only two years ago villagers would think nothing of cycling to the nearby township of Katwe to meet friends and do business. But they have to be more careful now because elephants regularly block the roads, and villagers are too afraid to cycle past. According to the report in New Scientist, elephants across Africa seem to b...

BREITBART.COM - Britain has new weapon against loitering youths -- Sonic Teenager Deterrent : Shopkeepers in central England have been trying out a new device that emits an uncomfortable high-pitched noise designed to disperse young loiterers outside their stores without bothering adults. Police carrying out the pilot project in Staffordshire say some of those who have tested the 'Sonic Teenager Deterrent,' nicknamed the mosquito, have talked of buying one of their own. The device which costs 622 pounds (908 euros, 1,081 dollars) 'doesn't cause any pain to the hearer,' according to Inspector Amanda Davies, quoted by Britain's domestic Press Association news agency. 'The noise can normally only be heard by those between 12 and 22 and it makes the listener feel uncomfortable,' she added. Once in their early 20s, people lose their capacity to hear sounds at such a high pitch. 'It is controlled by the shopkeepers. If they can see through their window tha...

Secret Saddam WMD Tapes Subject of ABC Nightline Special By Sherrie Gossett CNSNews.com Staff Writer February 15, 2006 See Related Story: Intelligence Summit to Air 'Saddam's WMD Tapes' (1st Add: Includes additional comments from former federal prosecutor John Loftus.) (CNSNews.com) - Secret audiotapes of Saddam Hussein discussing ways to attack America with weapons of mass destruction will be the subject of an ABC "Nightline" program Wednesday night, a former federal prosecutor told Cybercast News Service . The tapes are being called the "smoking gun" of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. The New York Sun reported that the tapes have been authenticated and currently are being reviewed by the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The panel's chairman, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), declined to give the Sun details of the content or context of the recordings, saying only that they were provided to his committee by former fed...

By Monisha Bansal (CNSNews.com) - Reportedly armed with 12 hours of Saddam Hussein's audio recordings, the organizers of an upcoming "Intelligence Summit" are describing the tapes as the "smoking gun evidence" that the Iraqi dictator possessed weapons of mass destruction in the period leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which according to the New York Sun has already authenticated the Saddam tapes, has reopened its investigation into the possible existence and location of the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD). But some long-time liberal skeptics are showing no inclination to change their minds. [...] But a four-day Intelligence Summit, to be held Feb. 17-20 in Arlington, Va., is re-igniting the debate over the Iraqi WMD. The featured discussion, on Saturday, Feb. 18, is titled: "Saddam's WMD Tapes: 'The Smoking Gun' Evidence." The agenda for the event indicates that...

New 'Allah' doc ready to raise a ruckus Dubowski vows to screen pic in every Muslim nation By ED MEZA Sandi Dubowski, who won the Teddy gay and lesbian award in 2001 for his controversial doc "Trembling Before G-d," may cause an even bigger stir with "In the Name of Allah," which explores the struggles of homosexual Muslims. Gay Indian Muslim helmer Parvez Sharma is directing the pic, which looks at gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims across the Muslim and Western worlds. "The world right now needs to understand Islam, and these are the most unlikely storytellers of Islam," Dubowski said, who is producing 'Allah.' Doc will undoubtedly prove an even thornier film to export than "Trembling." Sharma and Dubowski plan to submit the pic to all major festivals in the Muslim world as well as in the West, but if it's rejected, Dubowski said, "We'll find ways of screening it in every Muslim nation, even if it's undergro...

KR Washington Bureau | Robots are saving American lives in Iraq and Afghanistan : By Robert S. Boyd Knight Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON -The Defense Department is rapidly expanding its army of robot warriors on land, air and sea in an effort to reduce American deaths and injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan. 'We want unmanned systems to go where we don't want to risk our precious soldiers,' said Thomas Killion, the Army's deputy assistant secretary for research and technology. Robots should take over many of the 'dull, dirty and dangerous' tasks from humans in the war on terrorism, Killion told a conference of unmanned-system contractors in Washington last week. Despite doubts about the cost and effectiveness of military robots, the Defense Department's new Quadrennial Defense Review, a strategic plan that's updated every four years, declares that 45 percent of the Air Force's future long-range bombers will be able to operate without humans aboard. No s...

Toon-deaf Europe is taking the wrong stand : "Toon-deaf Europe is taking the wrong stand BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST From Europe's biggest-selling newspaper, the Sun: ''Furious Muslims have blasted adult shop [i.e., sex shop] Ann Summers for selling a blowup male doll called Mustafa Shag.' Not literally 'blasted' in the Danish Embassy sense, or at least not yet. Quite how Britain's Muslim Association found out about Mustafa Shag in order to be offended by him is not clear. It may be that there was some confusion: given that 'blowup males' are one of Islam's leading exports, perhaps some believers went along expecting to find Ahmed and Walid modeling the new line of Semtex belts. Instead, they were confronted by just another filthy infidel sex gag. The Muslim Association's complaint, needless to say, is that the sex toy 'insults the Prophet Muhammad -- who also has the title al-Mustapha.'' In a world in which Danish cart...

Rantings of a Sandmonkey: Boycott Egypt : "Wednesday, February 08, 2006 Boycott Egypt Freedom For Egyptians reminded me why the cartoons looked so familiar to me: they were actually printed in the Egyptian Newspaper Al Fagr back in October 2005. I repeat, October 2005, during Ramadan, for all the egyptian muslim population to see, and not a single squeak of outrage was present. Al Fagr isn't a small newspaper either: it has respectable circulation in Egypt, since it's helmed by known Journalist Adel Hamoudah. Looking around in my house I found the copy of the newspaper, so I decided to scan it and present to all of you to see." This is fascinating. This Egyptian man writes about how the terrible, terrible mohammed cartoons appeared in Egyptian newspapers without any complaint, and he has the scanned newspaper to proove it!

Craigslist sued over housing ad bias: South Florida Sun-Sentinel Craigslist sued over housing ad bias Online classified site's standards in question By Mike Hughlett Tribune staff reporter A Chicago fair housing group has sued groundbreaking Web site Craigslist for allegedly publishing discriminatory advertisements, a case that could test the legal liabilities of online ad venues. The suit is part of an emerging attempt by housing watchdogs nationally to hold online classified sites to the same strict standards as the publishers of print classifieds, such as newspapers. The suit is potentially significant because it suggests that the rules for an Internet site should be the same as for a traditional publisher, in which every ad should be vetted to conform with the law. But that notion contradicts the way the Internet has blossomed, where informal communities tend to police themselves and free expression is valued. The Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law sued S...

Study Finds Low-Fat Diet Won't Stop Cancer or Heart Disease - New York Times Study Finds Low-Fat Diet Won't Stop Cancer or Heart Disease By GINA KOLATA Published: February 7, 2006 The largest study ever to ask whether a low-fat diet keeps women from getting cancer or heart disease has found that the diet had no effect. The $415 million federal study involved nearly 49,000 women aged 50 to 79 who were followed for eight years. In the end, those assigned to a low-fat diet had the same rates of breast cancer, colon cancer heart attack and stroke as those who ate whatever they pleased, researchers are reporting today. "These are three totally negative studies," said Dr. David Freedman, a statistician at the University of California at Berkeley, who is not connected with the study but has written books on clinical trial design and analysis. And, he said, the results should be taken seriously for what they are — a rigorous attempt that failed to confirm a popular hypothesis...

MiamiHerald.com | 01/29/2006 | U.S. general in Iraq asks for patience In some places the news was bad: The insurgents had surged back into rural areas of the Triangle when a unit responsible for the area hunkered down in their outposts and left it to the enemy. Now a successor unit was fighting hard to take the countryside back and was suffering casualties almost every day. In other areas, the news was good: In less than six months Marines of the 2nd Regimental Combat Team in al-Asad and soldiers of the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment have taken back the towns and cities along a broad swath of the western part of Iraq, along the Syrian border. The ability of insurgents to smuggle weapons and foreign fighters through a once unguarded border and mount attacks has fallen. More than 50 new Iraq border police forts, each with at least two dozen troops, have opened along the border with Syria. With good communications and rapid reaction forces ready to come to their aid, the border p...

Later than we think-The Washington Times, America's Newspaper Later than we think By Arnaud de Borchgrave February 6, 2006 The man in charge of hoodwinking the Western powers about Iran's now 18-year-old secret nuclear program believes the apocalypse will happen in his own lifetime. He'll be 50 in October. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Shi'ite creed has convinced him lesser mortals can not only influence but hasten the awaited return of the 12th Imam, known as the Mahdi. Iran's dominant "Twelver" sect holds this will be Muhammad ibn Hasan, the righteous descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. He is said to have gone into "occlusion" in the 9th century, at age 5. His return will be preceded by cosmic chaos, war, bloodshed and pestilence. After this cataclysmic confrontation between the forces of good and evil, the Mahdi will lead the world to an era of universal peace. "The ultimate promise of all Divine religions," says Ahmadi...

Money-Saving Secrets : RealSimple.com : "Money-Saving Secrets 20 ways to plug hidden financial leaks — and save up to $3000 a year"

Internet News Article | Reuters.com : "Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates said on Wednesday that government attempts to censor Web sites or blogs would fail since the banned information could get out in defiance of official efforts. The spread of private e-mail means online users could distribute banned news despite government injunctions, he told a news conference. 'You may be able to take a very visible Web site and say that something shouldn't be there, but if there's a desire by the population to know something, it's going to get out,' he said. However, Gates said Microsoft, the world's biggest computer software company, had to meet legal requirements of the countries where it does business. Microsoft pulled the blog, or Web log, of a critic of the Chinese government in December after getting a government order to do so."

BBC NEWS | Europe | Muhammad cartoon row intensifies : "Muhammad cartoon row intensifies French daily newspaper France Soir Some of the cartoons depict the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist Newspapers across Europe have reprinted caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to show support for a Danish paper whose cartoons have sparked Muslim outrage. Seven publications in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain all carried some of the drawings. Their publication in Denmark led Arab nations to protest. Islamic tradition bans depictions of the Prophet. The owner of one of the papers to reprint - France Soir - has now sacked its managing editor over the matter. The cartoons have sparked diplomatic sanctions and death threats in some Arab nations, while media watchdogs have defended publication of the images in the name of press freedom. Reporters Without Borders said the reaction in the Arab world 'betrays a lack of understanding' of press freedom as 'an essential accompl...

Insight : "New weapon could mean the end of collateral damage The U.S. military has been developing a gunship that could literally obliterate enemy ground targets with a laser beam. The military plans to test the Advanced Tactical Laser, a laser weapon mounted on a C-130H air transport that could destroy any weapon system without collateral damage. The laser could have tremendous repercussions on the battlefield, particularly in urban warfare in such countries as Afghanistan and Iraq. 'It's the kind of tool that could bring about victory within minutes,' an official said. The applications of ATL could change military dynamics on the battlefield. Officials envision the laser being able to destroy or damage targets in an urban area with virtually no collateral damage. The range of ATL was expected to be 10 miles."