Saturday, April 30, 2005

The British Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced a recall of foods containing banned dyes which increase the risk of cancer. The food products were sold at the Tesco, Waitrose, and Somerfield supermarkets.

A Bristol company called “Barts Spices” found the illegal Para Red substance in their Barts Ground Paprika, which was sold in 48g and 46g jars with a “Co-op” label. The batch codes on the affected products are 5032 and 5089 (expiration Dec 2007), and 5075 (expiration February 2007).

Tesco also found that their 130g package of BBQ rice cakes (expiration November and December 2005) contained both Para Red and Sudan I.

“It would be very prudent to assume that it could be a genotoxic carcinogen,” FSA scientific advisers told reporters.

“As a company committed to supplying only the very finest quality food ingredients, we took the immediate decision to withdraw our ground paprika spice from all outlets selling the product and advertised a product recall in the national press,” a Barts Spices spokesman said in a statement.

Sudan I is only authorized for industrial use to colorize petroleum products, such as shoe polish. Para Red and Sudan I are banned under the British Colours in Food Regulations of 1995.

Britain last went through a major food recall in February, when Worcester Sauce was found to contain chili powder dyed with Sudan 1.

Saturday, April 1, 2006

On Thursday night, a failure of the Optus B1 satellite affected the Sky Pay TV network and also caused a blackout of other satellite-based systems. Sky TV subscribers will get a refund for the inconvenience.

The satellite was down from Thursday evening to Friday morning. It also covers international emergency service and air traffic coordination. However, thanks to backup services, no serious effects were caused.

Satellite experts and astronomers questioned Sky’s explanation that the solar eclipse had hampered attempts to get the service back up and running – the eclipse happened nearly 24 hours before the outage, and thus the satellite should have been in a different area of the sky. A spokesman of Sky TV said the problem occurred because the eclipse happened at the moment the sun was required to charge the satellite’s batteries for a routine realignment.

The pay TV company is considering paying compensation to advertising customers as well.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Two Roman Catholic Church priests in the United States, were sentenced to prison for theft. They were convicted of stealing over US$8 million from St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach, Florida.

Retired Monsignor John A. Skehan and Reverend Francis B. Guinan were accused in 2006 of misappropriation of funds from the church collection plates and church bequests.

Judge Jeffrey Colbath handed down the sentence on Skehan who received 14 months in prison followed by seven years on probation. He plead guilty in January 2009 to grand theft of over $100,000. The defense, prosecutors and Diocese of Palm Beach had requested probation for Skehan, who is 81 years old. Skehan has paid back $750,000.

“The court finds the defendant is not merely sorry because he got caught, but is truly shameful, embarrassed and remorseful,” Judge Jeffrey Colbath said. “The crime of the defendant was pure greed unmasked. There was not a shred of moral necessity to excuse the defendant’s crime.”

Circuit Judge Krista Marx sentenced Guinan who received four years in prison and was found guilty of theft of just under $100,000.

“No matter how many good works you have performed in your many years as a priest, your legacy will always be one of thievery and deceit,” Judge Krista Marx said.Skehan had invested in a Co. Clare cottage, a Co. Kilkeeny pub, and two penthouse condominiums. As well as real estate he had purchased a collection of gold coins worth around $300,000. Both priests had embarked on gambling holidays and real estate ventures.

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Saturday, January 29, 2005

Fourteen countries outside of Iraq have been selected for the installation of polling stations for the Iraqi National Assembly election. Among these, Paris, capital city of France, will welcome voters from France, Belgium, and Switzerland.

While the event has not been kept secret, the French government and media have been quite discreet about it. The polling station has been installed in an unused elementary school in a calm residential neighbourhood of the XIIIe arrondissement, without fanfare. Most inhabitants are not even aware of its presence – that is, until they notice the unusual deployment of police and come across the posters written in French and Arabic. Despite the discretion, the sight of police guarding a polling station is striking in a country where elections are a calm affair on a Sunday, and polling stations, most of which are installed in schools, are only noticeable because of the official billboards carrying the candidates’ posters.

Security measures have been taken – metallic barriers prevent parking in and around the front and back entrances to the station, and CRS riot police with bulletproof vests guard the entrances.Still, overall, the security measures remain limited. Traffic flows in the street, passers-by freely walk in front of the station entrance, no display of heavy weapons. This contrasts with the use of military troops and deployments of gendarmes mobiles that France used in its Vigipirate anti-terror plan following the Islamist terror bombings that it suffered in 1995, or the typical security measures kept around possible terror targets such as the embassies of Israel and the United States of America. This time, military cars and a handful of soldiers were seen in the morning, but were gone in the afternoon.

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Monday, July 6, 2009

Two studies published in the July 2009 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease point to caffeine as reducing beta amyloid, a protein that in sticky clumps called senile plaque is a sign of Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers had 55 mice who were genetically altered and exhibited memory loss at age 18 to 19 months (close to about age 70 in a human). Half the mice received the equivalent of five 8 ounce cups of regular coffee a day or 500 milligrams, about the same as in two cups of specialty coffees like Starbucks, in their drinking water. This half of the mice recovered and had memories as sharp as older mice who did not have dementia.

“The new findings provide evidence that caffeine could be a viable ‘treatment’ for established Alzheimer’s disease, and not simply a protective strategy,” said Gary Arendash, PhD, a University of South Florida neuroscientist with the Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and a lead author of a study. “That’s important because caffeine is a safe drug for most people, it easily enters the brain, and it appears to directly affect the disease process.”

The researchers hope to begin human trials based on their two months work in mice. Neil Hunt, CEO of the Alzheimer’s Society said, “[M]uch more research is needed to determine whether drinking coffee has the same impact in people. It is too soon to say whether a cup of coffee is anything more than a pleasant pick me up.”