(Photo courtesy care2.com) “Infant mortality in Iraq soars as young pay the price for war,” writes Andrew Buncombe in The Independent. “Two wars and a decade of sanctions have led to a huge rise in the mortality rate among young children in Iraq, leaving statistics that were once the envy of the Arab world now comparable with those of sub-Saharan Africa. “A new report shows that in the...

If a child doesn’t have a strong father figure in his/her life he/she is liklier to become fat, a new study says: Fathers who play less of a role in child rearing are more likely to have overweight or obese offspring, Australian researchers said. A study of almost 5,000 youngsters revealed that fathers who do not set clear limits for their kids are more likely to have heavier children, according to the...

A new U.S. government preliminary study shows that veterans of the 1991 Gulf War who have reported various physical complaints have suffered brain shrinkage: Veterans of the first Gulf War who developed numerous health complaints have areas of the brain that are measurably smaller than those of healthier vets, a new study found. The results of the U.S. government-funded study are preliminary but provide some...

We are now approaching the three-month mark in the recall of contaminated pet foods and several things are clear. Most notable is that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has done a scandalously poor job of staying on top things and has been painfully slow to acknowledge that the human food chain also is affected. This much we know (or don’t know): * The number of dogs and cats affected by the bad...

Celebrities including Elton John, Mick Jagger, Bob Geldof, George Clooney and Mia Farrow have appealed to the international community to do more to protect the civilians of Darfur, the province of Sudan where 200,000 have died in four years of war, and millions have lost their homes. This appeal comes from these celebrities to mark the fourth anniversary of the start of the conflict, and coincides with the...

Washington Post: Lines Drawn Over Cocoa Butter Proposed FDA change in what can be defined as chocolate has purists up in arms. NPR: An Argument Against ‘Healthy’ Chocolate The Food and Drug Administration considers changing the ingredients in one favorite diet buster: chocolate. A recent proposal by the FDA that would allow manufacturers to replace the cocoa butter found in chocolate with vegetable...

Gary McCoy, Cagle Cartoons

Recently I wrote a post on Climate Change: Australia Faces ‘Epic Drought’ An interesting comment was sent by Ivaylo Avramov and I repeat it here in this post because of its importance. “So far we were fighting global problems one by one – no matter whether we discuss the Global Warming, the water scarcity, the Poverty, the problems in free trade, the AIDS, the illiteracy and religious...

RJ Matson, The St. Louis Post Dispatch

The Virginia Tech Tragedy Distinguishing Mental Illness from Violence Statement of Ken Duckworth, MD NAMI Medical Director The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) extends its sympathy to all the families who have lost loved ones in the terrible tragedy at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. We are an organization of individuals and families whose lives have been affected by serious mental illnesses. Despite...

My thoughts on the Supreme Court’s just-released decision upholding a ban on partial-birth abortion, even when deemed necessary for a woman’s health. Ironically, this may just reduce the number of wanted pregnancies. Few to no women would just randomly decide to abort 26 weeks after they became pregnant. I suspect most late-term abortions occur when a woman who wanted to bear the child discovers...

The Roberts Court has expressed its raison d’etre today by making it more difficult for women to get abortions. What an attack on our rights! AP via Washington Post: Supreme Court says Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act does not violate women’s constitutional rights. Melissa at Shakesville says: Five men—Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Samuel A. Alito, Jr.,...

A month after an unprecedented pet food recall, manufacturers and experts have gathered in Chicago for a conference that will examine pet issues ranging from obesity prevention and “skin and gut health� to customized diets. Only one presentation is devoted to the recall. Oh, the confab is closed to the public. Something about death threats, but then it always has been closed. More here. Hat tip...

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés is a Psychoanalyst and Specialist in Critical Incident and Post Trauma Recovery, who developed psychological recovery protocol for the Armenian earthquake rescue, served at Columbine High School and community for four years after the massacre. She continues to work with 9-11 survivor families on both coasts. This morning, Dr. Estés released the complete protocol letter developed...

Gere (Left) kisses Shetty during an AIDS awareness programme in New Delhi April 15, 2007. (REUTERS/Tanushree Punwani) Thousands of truckers cheered wildly as American actor Richard Gere kissed (Indian) actress Shilpa Shetty on her cheeks during an event to promote safe sex and raise AIDS awareness among a high-risk group, writes Prithwish Ganguly of the Reuters. “Hollywood star Gere had joined Shetty,...

Almost three decades ago there was sufficient wildlife in the forests for those interested in hunting. And there was enough fish too in the clear gurgling waters of the rivers. I am quite fed up buying the tasteless meat/fish products from the market, and soon going to opt for a life without meat. In fact I now rarely have meat dishes at home, and I am very fussy about what I get to eat in restaurants. And...

Research shows the US chastity programme, for which teenagers receive silver rings, has no influence on any future decision to have sex. Photograph: Jonathan Dyer/AP Recent findings have undermined President George W. Bush’s ‘keep zipped up’ stance. The Guardian reports: “It’s been a central plank of George Bush’s social policy: To stop teenagers having sex…The trouble...

Overweight people pay attention: you now have the perfect excuse for being obese: scientists found a ‘fat gene’. A gene that contributes to obesity has been identified for the first time, promising to explain why some people easily put on weight while others with similar lifestyles stay slim. People who inherit one version of the gene rather than another are 70 per cent more likely to be obese, British...

Children born to parents infected with HIV/AIDS virus place impressions of their palm as part of observing Candle Day at Freedom Foundation, a community care centre, at Kolathur. — Photo: S. Thanthoni (courtesyThe Hindu) With its attention riveted to “War-on-Terror”, the world is yet to wake up to the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) crisis that threatens to cripple a large section of...

Yet another new twist in the non-ending Presidential campaign comes from CNN: Potential GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson has disclosed he has a treatable form of lymphoma, a source familiar to the “Law and Order” star’s deliberations tells CNN’s Candy Crowley. Lymphoma is a type of cancer that originates in the lymphatic glands — part of the body’s immune system. Nearly...

Monte Wolverton, Cagle Cartoons

Mike Lester, The Rome News-Tribune

Cam Cardow, The Ottawa Citizen