Six-legged calf wins Swiss hearts

Seven-week-old cow with two extra limbs doing well despite vet's predictions that she would not survive

guardian.co.uk, Associated Press, Thursday 29 March 2012

Six-legged calf Lilli has become a minor celebrity in her native
Switzerland. Photograph: Peter Schneider/EPA

A six-legged calf has defied the odds by thriving despite a vet's prediction at birth that it would not survive.

Seven-week-old Lilli is a minor celebrity in her native Switzerland after local media were splashed with images of the calf frolicking in a sunny field.

Farmer Andreas Knutti from Weissenburg, 19 miles south of the capital, Bern, says he couldn't bring himself to euthanise the animal because she was "so full of life".

He told Swiss daily Blick on Thursday that a curve in her spine means that Lilli may never become a normal milk cow.

But Knutti says that if the calf stays healthy she will still be allowed to join the others when they head for alpine pastures this summer.

Myanmar bans mining near major rivers for environment reason

Antara News, Fri, March 30 2012

Yangon (ANTARA News/Xinhua-OANA) - Myanmar has banned mining of mineral resources along the country`s four major river courses or near these river banks in a bid to preserve natural environment, according to an order of the Ministry of Mines made public Thursday.

The four rivers are Ayeyawaddy, Thanlwin, Chindwin and Sittoung.

Exploration and production of minerals including gems and jewelry along the river courses or closer than 90 meters to the river banks is prohibited, the order said.

The order added that the measure is aimed at emergence of clean environment of the four rivers to enable smooth flow of river water and facilitate water transport and tourism.

Editor: Ella Syafputri

Mysterious Honey Discovered That Kills All Bacteria Scientists Throw At It

Waking Times, February 10, 2012

John Stapleton, The Australian, 

Australian researchers have been astonished to discover a cure-all right under their noses — a honey sold in health food shops as a natural medicine.

Far from being an obscure health food with dubious healing qualities, new research has shown the honey kills every type of bacteria scientists have thrown at it, including the antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” plaguing hospitals and killing patients around the world.

Some bacteria have become resistant to every commonly prescribed antibacterial drug. But scientists found that Manuka honey, as it is known in New Zealand, or jelly bush honey, as it is known in Australia, killed every bacteria or pathogen it was tested on. 

It is applied externally and acts on skin infections, bites and cuts.

The honey is distinctive in that it comes only from bees feeding off tea trees native to Australia and New Zealand, said Dee Carter, from the University of Sydney’s School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences.

The findings are likely to have a major impact on modern medicine and could lead to a range of honey-based products to replace antibiotic and antiseptic creams.

Professor Carter’s two sons, Marty, 8 and Nicky, 6, think it’s funny the way their mother puts honey on their sores. But she swears by it, telling stories of how quickly it cures any infection.

“Honey sounds very homey and unscientific, which is why we needed the science to validate the claims made for it,” she said.

The curative properties of various types of honey have been known to indigenous cultures for thousands of years, and dressing wounds with honey was common before the advent of antibiotics.

"Most bacteria that cause infections in hospitals are resistant to at least one antibiotic, and there is an urgent need for new ways to treat and control surface infections," Professor Carter said.

"New antibiotics tend to have short shelf lives, as the bacteria they attack quickly become resistant. Many large pharmaceutical companies have abandoned antibiotic production because of the difficulty of recovering costs. Developing effective alternatives could therefore save many lives."

Professor Carter said the fascinating thing was that none of the bacteria researchers used to test the honey, including superbugs such as flesh-eating bacteria, built up any immunity.

She said a compound in the honey called methylglyoxal -- toxic on its own -- combined in unknown ways with other unidentified compounds in the honey to cause "multi-system failure" in the bacteria.

The results of the research project are published in this month's European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

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Monsanto and Genetically Modified Crops - Is there a cover-up?

Pravda.Ru, Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, 19 Mar 2012

Does Monsanto know what it is doing? Do, we, the public have all the facts? Is genetically modified food safe? Are food products which contain it clearly labelled? Is Monsanto, knowingly or unknowingly, destroying the biosphere? Is genetically modified produce a health hazard? For those who do not wish to get scared, please do not read on.

Monsanto. Haven't we heard that name before? Yes, do you remember who created Agent Orange? Do you remember who created DDT? Do you remember who created Aspartame?

If we are what we eat, then we have a right to know the answers to these questions. And there are more. Why are cancers of the digestive system rising exponentially? Let us start with Monsanto's wonderful herbicide, Roundup.

The journal Current Microbiology has just released a report (1) on a substance called Glyphosate, created by Monsanto in the 1970s and used in Roundup. The report is shocking. It reveals that studies prove that Glyphosate is altering and destroying the micro-organisms in the soil, which has a potential effect upon the health of crops growing in it.

So devastating are the effects, according to the report, that some bacteria have disappeared from certain areas where Roundup was used to spray vast areas of land and apart from this, use of the product has spurred the appearance of superweeds, meaning that in turn farmers have to use greater and greater concentrations of the product. The soil is as a result being rendered barren for future generations.

Far more worrying are fears that the use of this herbicide is killing organisms whose benefit on a planetary scale has not yet been fully investigated and whose elimination from the ecological chain may have very serious consequences.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. What happens to Glyphosate? It works its way down through the topsoil to the groundwater below and from there finds its way into our water supply - underground water currents and springs. This is not conjecture: virtually all rain samples tested in the USA contain Glyphosate.

What does the US Department of Agriculture do? Why, nothing! And this, despite the fact that other investigations have warned that Glyphosate can be carcinogenic, reducing fertility and increasing risk of cancer because it is genotoxic, damaging the DNA chain.

The problem is not only restricted to the USA. Superweeds have lasting damaging effects upon the soil and nowadays already cover millions of hectares in the USA, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, the EU and South Africa.

Cancer, infertility, barren land, destruction of DNA, destruction of micro-organisms which may be crucial for the planet's ecosystem, superweeds...what else? Well it appears we have been here before. In fact, Monsanto has just agreed to pay out 93 million USD for the effects of an explosion at its plant in Nitro, West Virginia involving the herbicide 2,4,5-T which contained the toxic agent dioxin. But there are still 80,000 property damage claims against the firm.

In fact, an investigation of the Nitro Residents v. Monsanto case reveals some horrific allegations which involve contamination of the environment, cover-ups, falsification of studies...you name it. But hey, as a government contractor, Monsanto has always enjoyed government immunity in the USA.

And what was that about Monsanto not serving Genetically Engineered (GE) food in its own canteens? Well, when we take into consideration that Glyphosate destroys human kidney cells at concentrations 450 times lower than the concentration used in agricultural applications... and when we consider the very little information available on the real potential dangers lurking behind GE foodstuffs, it is hardly surprising.

What is unacceptable is that while the long-term effects of consumption of GE food are still not available, GE seeds are spreading round the planet on wind currents and on aquifers. Remember the respected scientist Arpad Pusztai?

Arpad Pusztai is an expert in biochemistry and nutrition who worked at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland. When he released information about his discovery that Genetically Modified potatoes create severe damage to the immune system and organs of rats, he was suspended, threatened with a lawsuit and handed a gagging order, while his findings were denied or distorted. The gagging order was later lifted and when he went public again there was a massive recall of products. The US consumer was, of course, the last to know.

Before I finish, a question: Why do mice, rats, geese, cows, pigs, elk and squirrels avoid eating GM foods when given the choice?

Who would like to be a Monsanto shareholder now? I sure as heck wouldn't.

(1) Effects of Roundup® and Glyphosate on Three Food Microorganisms: Geotrichum candidum, Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus

Sources: Greenpeace; NaturalNews

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"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Lose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Pedal wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.)  - New !   

Tour of Indonesian Animal Markets Finds Protected Species

Jakarta Globe, March 17, 2012

Critically endangered Bali starlings (Leucopsar rothschildi), also known as
 Bali mynah, perch inside a cage at a zoo in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia
in this file photo. (AP Photo/Trisnadi) 

   

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A survey of animal markets in Java and Bali has found that the illegal trade in protected birds is not only continuing unchecked, but is picking up speed.

And not only are more protected birds being traded, but there is also a greater variety of being offered, according to ProFauna Indonesia, which visited eight markets on the islands in the first two months of the year.

In February, the animal protection group found more than 62 protected birds on sale in the markets, up from 41 in January. There were 15 different species in February, from 12 in January.

The markets visited included Splendid market in Malang and Turi market in Surabaya, both in East Java, Pramuka, Jatinegara and Barito markets in Jakarta, and Satria market in Denpasar.

Pramuka, Jatinegara and Satria had the most protected birds for sale, according to ProFauna.

Protected birds such as white-bellied sea eagles, black-winged starlings, flame-fronted barbets, spotted kestrels, Bali starlings, black eagles and banded pittas were easily available in the markets, the group said.

It said a white-bellied sea eagle cost about Rp 500,000 ($55), while flame-fronted barbets and black eagles could fetch anywhere from Rp 100,000 to Rp 500,000.

The group said that it also found other protected animals being sold illegally. These included Javan langurs and slow lorises, which were among 109 primate species being traded. Javan langurs were being sold for Rp 250,000.

“The illegal wildlife trade in bird markets must be curbed,” said Rosek Nursahid, chairman of ProFauna Indonesia.

The country has laws against the trade in protected species, with offenders facing up to five years in prison and a fine of up to Rp 100 million.

However, these laws are often openly flouted, with protected species being sold out in the open at animal markets across the country with little apparent fear of arrest or prosecution by the sellers or their customers.

Southern Africa form biggest conservation area

Associated Press, by ANGUS SHAW, 15 March 2012

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Five Southern African nations on Thursday agreed to form the world's largest international conservation area in an effort to protect nearly half of the continent's elephants and a vast range of animals, birds and plants, many endangered by poaching and human encroachment.

At a ceremony in Namibia on Thursday government ministers from Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe put their official seal on a cross-border treaty set to combine 36 nature preserves and surrounding areas.

The World Wildlife Fund said the countries will cooperate on measures to allow animals to roam freely across their borders over 170,000 square miles (440,000 square kilometers), almost the size of Sweden.

The Kavango Zambezi area includes the Victoria Falls World Heritage site in Zimbabwe and Botswana's famed swampland of the Okavango Delta.

Conservationists say historical migration routes of animals have been curtailed by national borders and man-made conflict. The decades-long civil war in Angola saw elephant herds, notoriously skittish to gunfire, fleeing far from their own habitats.

Already, Botswana is dismantling a fence on its border with Namibia after steps were taken to curb the spread of animal diseases.

According to the treaty put into effect Thursday, the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, known as KAZA, is home to about 45 percent of Africa's elephants. Along with other game animals, it has a rare heritage of at least 600 species of birds and 3,000 species of plants.

Previous attempts to set up massive cross-border conservancies in Africa have failed largely because impoverished local communities weren't engaged to help before governments signed up, said Chris Weaver, the World Wildlife Fund's regional director in Namibia.

"This is very different. It has a very strong community focus," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

He said local communities are getting jobs and revenue from tourism in return for their role in protecting the environment.

An independent secretariat has been established to coordinate work between state wildlife authorities and community groups across the region. The German KFW development bank plowed $40 million into getting the KAZA conservancy up and running, Weaver said.

Last year, he said, rural Namibians earned some $700,000 from their own conservation-related activities. The money went toward further training, transportation, water supplies and improvements for schools and clinics.

Weaver said in recent history wildlife and nature preserves traditionally belonged to state governments. That had encouraged poachers to steal animals from the state, a distant and alien owner.

Now the KAZA conservancy offered tangible benefits across the board to communities and member countries.

"It is good news for conservation in southern Africa," Weaver said.

Scientists warn EPA on Monsanto corn rootworm

Reuters, by Carey Gillam, Fri Mar 9, 2012

French beekeepers demonstrate to protest the use of genetically-modified

 organisms in front of French Monsanto headquarters in Bron, near Lyon,

 January 20, 2012. Sign reads, ''GMO = Death of Bees'' and banner in

background says, ''Monsanto get out''. (Credit: Reuters/Robert Pratta)

(Reuters) - A group of plant scientists is warning federal regulators that action is needed to mitigate a growing problem with biotech corn that is losing its resistance to plant-damaging pests.

The stakes are high - corn production is critical for food, animal feed and ethanol production, and farmers have increasingly been relying on corn that has been genetically modified to be toxic to corn rootworm pests.

"This is not something that is a surprise... but it is something that needs to be addressed," said Joseph Spencer, a corn entomologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey, part of the University of Illinois.

Spencer is one of 22 academic corn experts who sent a letter dated March 5 to the Environmental Protection Agency telling regulators they are worried about long-term corn production prospects because of the failure of the genetic modifications in corn aimed at protection from rootworm.

Monsanto introduced its corn rootworm protected products, which contain a protein referred to as "Cry3Bb1," in 2003 and they have proved popular with farmers in key growing areas around the country. Biotech corn sales are a key growth driver of sales at Monsanto.

The corn rootworm product is supposed to reduce the need to put insecticides into the soil, essentially making the corn plants toxic to the worms that try to feed on their roots.

But plant scientists have recently found evidence that the genetic modification is losing its effectiveness, making the plants vulnerable to rootworm damage and potentially significant production losses.

The scientists said in their letter to EPA that the situation should be acted upon "carefully, but with a sense of some urgency."

As concerns have mounted over the last year that Monsanto's rootworm-protected products were losing their effectiveness, Monsanto has said the problem is small and has said the products continue to provide corn farmers with "strong protection against this damaging pest."

Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, has recommended growers rotate the corn with its biotech soybeans, use another of its biotech corn products and use insecticides to try to address the problem.

"Rootworm performance inquiries in 2011 were isolated to less than 0.2 percent of the acres planted with Monsanto rootworm-traited corn hybrids," said Danielle Stuart, a Monsanto spokeswoman. "In all of these cases, Monsanto is working very closely with the farmer and has provided best management practices for the upcoming season on each of these fields. "

The problems with insect resistance have been reported in parts of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota.

Continuing to plant a failing technology only increases the resistance development risk, the scientists said in their letter. Moreover, they say, the rootworm-protected BT corn is being planted in areas that have no need for it, often because there are few alternative seed options. Scarcity of non-BT corn seed is a concern, they said.

Using insecticides along with the biotech corn as Monsanto has advised is not a good approach, according to the scientists, because it elevates production costs for farmers and masks the extent and severity of the building insect resistance.

"Recommendations to apply insecticides to protect transgenic Bt corn rootworm corn strikes us as a clear admission that the Cry3Bb1 toxin is no longer providing control adequate to protect yield," the scientists wrote.

"When insecticides overlay transgenic technology, the economic and environmental advantages of rootworm-protected corn quickly disappear," the scientists wrote.

EPA Office of Pesticide Programs Director Steven Bradbury, who the letter was addressed to, could not be reached for comment.

(Reporting By Carey Gillam;editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid)

The French farmer Paul Francois, who says he suffers memory

 loss and stammering after inhaling a Monsanto pesticide. 

(Photograph: Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AFP/Getty Images)

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20 kg of plastic found in dead giraffe’s stomach

The Jakarta Post, Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Surabaya, Fri, 03/02/2012

Kliwon: A dead giraffe in Surabaya zoo. Antara/M Risyal Hidayat

Up to 20 kilograms of plastic was found in the stomach of a giraffe named Kliwon, who died in his stall in the Surabaya Zoo on Thursday evening.

“The plastic was apparently contained in the food he’d been eating for years and accumulated in his stomach,” Surabaya Zoo management team chief Tony Sumampaw said Friday.

Tony said that according to the zoo medical team, the plastic had clogged Kliwon’s digestive system.

The 21-year-old giraffe collapsed in his stall a day before his death. The giraffe keeper said that Kliwon had lost his appetite over the past few days.

Tony said that the zoo could not afford to get another giraffe to replace Kliwon due to financial constraints.

The 15-hectare zoo, which is one of the city’s tourism icons, houses 2,025 animals from 249 species. Many have said that the zoo is overpopulated. According to the zoo, 2,204 animals in the zoo died during the 2006–2011 period. (swd)

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The last remaining giraffe at Surabaya Zoo died on
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APP Pulping Protected Indonesian Rainforest Trees: Greenpeace

Jakarta Globe, March 01, 2012

Excavators clear peat forest in Kerumutan, Riau, on Tuesday to
make way for a new palm oil plantation. JG Photo/Safir Makki

               

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Results of potentially explosive research by Greenpeace allege that controversial paper giant Asian Pulp and Paper has been engaged in the pulping of protected Indonesian rainforest trees.

Greenpeace, in a news release, said multiple visits to APP’s Indah Kiat Perawang mill, Indonesia’s largest pulp mill, had caught the company “systematically violating Indonesia’s laws protecting ramin, an internationally protected tree species.”

“Greenpeace has caught Asia Pulp and Paper red-handed — this investigation shows its main pulp mill is regularly riddled with illegal ramin,” said Bustar Maitar, head of the forests campaign for Greenpeace Indonesia. “This makes a mockery of their public claim to have a ‘zero tolerance’ for illegal timber.”

Greenpeace mapping analysis shows that since the logging of ramin was banned in 2001, at least 180,000 hectares of Sumatran peat swamp forests have been cleared in concessions now controlled by APP — an area more than twice the size of New York City.

“These forests are a critical habitat for ramin, as well as endangered species, including the Sumatran tiger, with only 400 remaining in the wild.”

Asian Pulp and Paper, in a statement to the Guardian newspaper, denied wrongdoing.

“(APP) maintains a strict zero-tolerance policy for illegal wood entering the supply chain and has comprehensive chain of custody systems to ensure that only legal wood enters its pulp mill operations. APP’s chain of custody systems are independently audited on a periodic basis. This ensures that we only receive legal pulpwood from areas under legal license that have passed all necessary ecological and social assessments.

“APP’s chain of custody system traces the origin of raw material, evaluates its legal and environmental status, to minimize the risk of contamination and to ensure that endangered species are protected – in accordance with the laws of Indonesia.”

Greenpeace, in its statement, said the research revealed that “major companies” had been implicated in the scandal, including Xerox, National Geographic and Danone.

It said paper products from the companies were manufactured using paper from by APP.

“APP is undermining the rule of law in Indonesia,” Bustar said. “Greenpeace is calling on the government to immediately seize all illegal ramin in APP’s operations in Indonesia. The evidence has been provided to authorities to assist in their efforts to improve governance in the forest sector. Any company buying from APP should distance themselves from this illegal rainforest scandal and stop buying from them until they clean up their act.”

Greenpeace said the evidence had been handed to the Ministry of Forestry and would also be passed to the police in Indonesia.

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