CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 25 - Paul R. Shanley, a defrocked priest at
the center of the sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church,
went on trial on Tuesday, with a prosecutor accusing him, in graphic
detail, of repeatedly raping and abusing a boy over six
years.
The prosecutor, Lynn Rooney, said Mr. Shanley, once
considered an inspiring and charismatic priest, started pulling the
boy out of Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, or C.C.D.,
classes in 1983, when the boy was 6.
In addition, thousands of pages of church
documents released after the scandal erupted in Boston
in 2002 revealed that high-ranking church
officials vouched for Mr. Shanley's character and
allowed him to continue working as a priest, even though he
had been accused of sexual abuse.
At least two dozen
people have accused him of sexual abuse since the 1960's, many of them
teenagers at the time the abuse is said to have occurred.
Mr. Shanley, bespectacled and with sparse
white hair, is charged with three counts of child rape and
two counts of indecent assault and battery, accused of
orally and digitally assaulting the boy. He faces a maximum
sentence of life in prison.
nytimes.com 1/26/05
The pigment that givens curry spice its
yellow hue may also be able to break up the "plaques' that mark the brains of
Alzheimer's disease patients, early research suggests.
Scientists found that curcumin, a
component of the yellow curry spice turmeric, was able to reduce deposits of beta-amyloid
proteins in the brains of elderly lab mice that
ate curcumin as part of their diets.
In addition, when the researchers added
low doses of curcumin to human beta-amyloid proteins in a test tube, the compound kept
the proteins from aggregating and blocked the formation of the amyloid fibers that make
up Alzheimer's plaques.
Accumulation of beta-amyloid proteins
in the brain is one of the hallmarks of
Alzheimer's disease. The new findings suggest that
curcumin could be capable of both treating
Alzheimer's and lowering a person's risk of developing
the disease, said study co-author Dr. Gregory
M. Cold of the University of California Los Angeles and the Greater Los Angeles Veterans
Affairs Healthcare System.
The current findings, published online
recently by the Journal of Biological Chemistry, add to the body of research pointing
to curcumin's medicinal value. Long used as
part of traditional Indian medicine, curcumin is
now under study as a potential cancer therapy, and animal research has suggested the
compound might serve as a treatment for multiple
sclerosis and cystic fibrosis.
What's more...curcumin is an
antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent, and it appears
to counter the oxidative damage and inflammation that arises in response to amyloid
accumulation.
reuters.com 12/7/04
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30—Just short
of two years after engineering the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, President Bush on
Sunday celebrated a comparatively peaceful day of voting in Iraq, declaring it a
triumphant moment in his effort to spur democratic movements throughout the
Middle East.
"The people of Iraq have spoken to
the world, and the world is hearing the voice of freedom from the center of the
Middle East," Mr. Bush said in a four-minute
televised statement at 1 p.m. from the entry hall of the White House residence, after
the polls closed in Iraq.
But he also warned that "terrorists
and insurgents will continue to wage their war against democracy, and we will support
the Iraqi people in their fight against
them." Seeming to acknowledge the toll taken
by the ever-growing number of casualties—including more than 1,400 dead
American troops since the invasion began—he
added, "The people of the United States have
been patient and resolute, even in difficult days."
Even on the heels of Mr. Bush's
re-election, the past month has been tense and politically risky for the president. On
Sunday, the broad strategy of spreading freedom in the world that he described in his
Inaugural Address faced its first test since that speech. But Mr. Bush has
acknowledged that a successful election is just the
first step.
At midday, with the polls closing,
Mr. Bush called three allies who clearly have mixed emotions about his insistence that
free elections in Iraq should propel a
democratic wave across the region: Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah
II of Jordan and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
Mr. Mubarak suggested Saturday that
he might stand for a fifth term, in a presidential referendum in which he has always
run as the sole candidate. The White House did not describe the contents of the calls.
Speaking Sunday on CNN,
Condoleezza Rice, still in her first days as secretary
of state, said it was her hope that "as
Iraqis take more responsibility for their own future, both politically and in security terms
, that the insurgency will begin to lose some of its steam."
In an interview with The New York
Times on Thursday, President Bush said he expected that whoever emerges victorious
in the election, the new Iraqi government would ask the United States to remain
for the foreseeable future. On Sunday, Iraq's interior minister, Falah al-Naqib, told
a British television station that it would probably take another 18 months or so
before his government's forces were confident enough to stand alone.
The first step of the Transitional
National Assembly is to pick a president and two vice presidents, a troika that is to
pick a prime minister who would then be approved by the assembly. But there
will probably be negotiations for all four jobs.
The process, a State Department
official said, will "be messy, noisy, confusing
and interesting to watch."
nytimes.com 1/31/05
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9—President Bush welcomed the victory of Mahmoud Abbas as president of the Palestinian Authority on Sunday as
administration officials prepared to increase the tempo of American involvement in the Middle East and cautioned that Israel and the Palestinians needed to
take concrete steps to capitalize on Mr. Abbas's
election.
Administration officials said there was a
mood of guarded optimism among Mr. Bush's aides that, while the emergence of Mr. Abbas promised a
new opportunity, progress is contingent on the Palestinians curbing terrorist activity and the Israelis easing their grip in the West Bank and curtailing
settlement growth there.
Mr. Bush, signaling what aides said would be a more visible American role, listed the combating of terrorism and the reform of
Palestinian institutions as essential immediate steps. He also called on Israel to "improve the humanitarian and economic situation" in
Palestinian areas and implement its plans to leave Gaza and part of the West Bank.
On the issue of aid, administration officials said the United States might add to its $200 million annual donation to the Palestinians
while pushing wealthy Persian Gulf states to increase their support. Current aid from all sources is about $1 billion a year, but the World Bank
has called for a possible doubling of that sum.
American, European and Arab diplomats said in interviews over the past week that progress would depend on Mr. Abbas gaining
control of his security forces, achieving further financial and political reforms, and doing much more to fill the vacuum in Gaza to be left by the
Israeli withdrawal this summer.
On the other hand, Israeli and American officials said that Israel was prepared to respond more positively to steps by Palestinians
in coming weeks—steps that Israel would not have responded to while Mr. Arafat was alive.
As for steps that the administration wants from Israel, the administration was said by Israeli and American officials to be preparing
to resume stalled discussions on contentious issues like Israel's unkept promises to dismantle so-called illegal settlement outposts built in
the last four years in the West Bank.
Far more tricky, those officials admit, is getting Israel to agree to what is known as a "freeze in settlement activity" in the West
Bank, as called for in the peace plan known as the "road map" adopted in 2003 by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the
United Nations.
Last April, at the height of his own reelection campaign, President Bush granted Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel what both
Israeli and American officials said was a major concession, a letter saying that a final accord with the Palestinians should be expected to keep
certain settlements outside Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank in Israel.
Palestinian leaders, meanwhile, were incensed. Many charged that the arrangement had undercut the freeze called for in the road map
and raised doubts about Israel's intentions in its withdrawal from Gaza. Many said they feared that the withdrawal would allow Israel to keep
the West Bank indefinitely.
At that time, however, there is expected to be renewed pressure in Europe from the Palestinians and from Arabs to do something
that American and Israeli officials say they are loath to do: start talking about such issues as the final boundaries of a Palestinian state
and the right of Palestinians to return to Israel.
Israel and the United States have opposed moving to these matters, known as "final status" issues because they would
determine the status of a Palestinian state, until it is more clear that the Palestinians are moving to disarm militant groups.
But that opposition may be difficult to keep up in coming months, some officials said.
nytimes.com 1/09/05
Modesto, California, Jan. 15, 2005—In spite of the popular image of tanned California teenagers,
new laws make it easier to have an abortion
than to get a tan in the Golden State. A report Jan. 2 in the Modesto Bee newspaper explained that a new law prohibits tanning salons for those under
14, while those aged 14-18 will need parental permission.
By contrast, a Jan. 3 report by LifeNews.com informed readers that
California Attorney General Bill Lockyear defended a law saying
parents cannot be told when their teenage children absent themselves from school to have an
abortion.
The newspaper London Daily
Telegraph commented that of the 75 members of Parliament who voted in favor of a ban against smacking
children, 14 were present in the 1990 debate, and every one of them had voted in favor of abortion up to 24 weeks. As well, most had voted in favor
of provisions making it legal to kill an unborn handicapped child right up the point of birth.
British regulations also deny parental control over their children's abortions.
The Times reported July 31 on new guidelines published by
the Department of Health allowing doctors to provide abortions to adolescents under 16 without telling their
parents. The article added that 1 in 5 abortions in Britain involves a teenager, and that about 3,500 girls under 16 every
year.
Another country to deny a parent's role over their children's abortion is South Africa. In a statement issued last May 31, the Southern
African Catholic Bishops' Conference strongly criticized a High Court decision that extended the right to abort to those under age 18.
Following the judgment, girls may now procure an abortion without their parent's
knowledge.
Making abortion even easier for teenagers flies in the face of mounting evidence that points to the serious effects of this procedure. The
effects of abortion on women's health was addressed in a recently published collection of essays, edited by Erika Bachiochi, "The Cost of 'Choice' Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion."
Elizabeth Shadigian, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan, explained that
the long-term effects of abortion have received little attention by the medical
community.
But, given that around 25% of all pregnancies in the United States end in
abortion, even a small negative effect on women's health is a
very important question, noted Shadigian.
zenit.org 1/15/05
SEATTLE, Jan. 25—It is about time, politicians here are saying, for the state of Washington to catch up with the rest of the world.
...here in Washington, in 2005, it is still illegal, under a 1909 law, to bring a woman's virtue into question publicly, to call her a hussy or
a strumpet.
And now, a state senator from Seattle is...trying to overturn the state's "Slander of a Woman"
law.
Now, Senate Bill 5148, introduced this month by Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles, would repeal the law, which makes it a
misdemeanor to slander any female older than 12—other than prostitutes—by uttering "any false or defamatory words or language which shall
injure or impair the reputation of any such female for virtue or chastity or which shall expose her to hatred, contempt or ridicule."
Here in Washington, where Republicans and Democrats are deeply divided over a contested governor's election,
the bill to repeal the law against slandering a woman seems to have unusual support from both sides of the
aisle, from both Venus and Mars, with three Democrats and one Republican, two men and two women, sponsoring the bill.
nytimes.com 1/26/05
Vatican City—The ambassadors who heard John Paul II's analysis of the international situation represented
174 countries with which the Holy See enjoys full diplomatic
relations.
When Cardinal Karol Wojtyla became Pope in 1978, the Holy See had diplomatic relations with 85 countries.
A concordat, an agreement between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities on issues of mutual concern, is an international contract that binds
the parties juridically and guarantees freedom of religion and worship to Catholics in various countries.
In the stipulations, the Pope, or his plenipotentiary, does not act as sovereign of Vatican City, but as head of the Catholic Church (Holy See),
in order to give a stable and juridical character to cooperation between the religious and civil
authorities.
zenit.org 1/10/05
Washington, D.C.—Even as governments and family planning groups continue to push contraceptives,
new evidence is coming forward on their
dangerous side effects.
On Aug. 23 Reuters reported on research by a team from the University of North Carolina and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Women
who use the injected contraceptive Depo-Provera have a higher rate have a higher rate of sexually transmitted
disease, they concluded.
Another contraceptive with troubling
conse-quences is the so-called patch. Last April 4 the New York Post reported on the case of 18-year-old
Zakiya Kennedy, who died as a result of blood clots, formed as a result of her patch contra-ceptive. She had switched from using birth-control pills to the patch
about three weeks before her death.
The newspaper followed this up with a Sept. 19 report tying the Ortho Evra patch, the only kind marketed in the United States, to the deaths of
at least 17 women in the past two years.
So-called morning-after pills are also associated with
health problems. A July 30 report by medical News Today summarized the findings of a
study published by Dr. Gene Rudd in the September issue of the Annals of Pharmacotherapy. Rudd's article contains data arguing that easing access to Plan
B would place the health of many women at risk.
Rudd noted that nonprescription access to Plan B would keep many women out of doctors' offices and away from appropriate, comprehensive
care. Additionally, Plan B may encourage more risk-taking behaviors such as "unprotected" sex that increase the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
Health concerns are not limited to contraceptives. The abortion pill RU-486 has been linked to a number of deaths. A well-known case is the
2003 death of Holly Patterson, an 18-year-old Californian who succumbed to septic shock after taking RU-486.
zenit.org
JERUSALEM—In unusually upbeat remarks, the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, said Thursday that there was an opportunity for a
"historic breakthrough" with the Palestinians, and he had warm words for their new leader, Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr. Abbas called for a formal cease-fire
agreement with Israel, while his prime minister ordered a ban on carrying weapons in areas under
Palestinian security control, the latest of several steps intended to rein in militants.
Mr. Sharon has expressed skepticism about whether such steps are substantive. But on Thursday, he offered some of his most
optimistic comments since Mr. Abbas was elected on Jan. 9.
"If the Palestinians take comprehensive action to stop terrorism, violence and incitement," he said, then the Middle East peace
plan known as the road map could begin being put into place, and the coming Israeli withdrawal from Gaza could be
coordinated."
Initially, the order applies to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho, Mr. Erekat said. Mr. Abbas has been calling for a halt
to violence against Israel and has won an informal pledge from militant factions to suspend attacks. But the factions are demanding that
Israel agree to stop arresting or killing wanted Palestinians.
Israeli officials have said that Israel will respond to quiet with quiet, but they have been hesitant to go further.
nytimes.com 1/28/05
nytimes.com 1/29/05
nytimes.com 1/26/05
nytimes.com 1/15/05
rense.com 1/29/05
www.earthtimes.org 1/21/05
nytimes.com 1/24/05
United States and Europe Differ Over Strategy on Iran
PARIS—President Bush's second term has barely begun, and Iran is already shaping up as its most serious diplomatic
challenge. But conflicting pronouncements by Mr. Bush and his national security team have left Iran frustrated and angry about the direction of
American policy, and the Europeans more determined than ever to push Washington to embrace their engagement strategy.
To the outside world, the administration seems divided over whether to promote the overthrow of Iran's Islamic
Republic—perhaps by force—or to tactily support the approach embraced by the Europeans, which favors negotiations and a series of incentives
that would ultimately require American participation.
France, Germany and Britain—with European Union support—opened negotiations with Iran last month that could give Iran
generous rewards on nuclear energy, trade and economic, political and security cooperation if Iran can provide guarantees that it is not
developing a nuclear weapon.
The negotiations flow from Iran's voluntary decision in November to temporarily freeze its programs to make enriched
uranium, which can be used for producing energy or for making bombs.
Instead of embracing the initiative, Mr. Bush began his second term with a sweeping pledge to defend the United States and
protect its friends "by force of arms if necessary" and a refusal to rule out military action against Iran.
The Europeans have made the determination that any negotiation that slows and perhaps eventually halts Iran's nuclear program
is better than the alternatives proposed by the United States.
Thus far, the three sets of "working level" talks on nuclear, economic and technological cooperation and political and security
cooperation have yielded no concrete results, European officials said.
In conversations with Ms. Rice and other administration officials since Mr. Bush's re-election, for example, the Europeans
have tried but failed to persuade them to accept Iran's application to open membership talks with the World Trade Organization.
All of Iran's European negotiating partners have argued that one of the best ways to promote
democracy would be to force more transparency into Iran's economy. That could help break the stranglehold of the vast system of government-protected
"foundations," most of them the private fiefs of powerful clerics, European officials said.
Government Seizes Oil Wells It Says Were Bought With Drug Money
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 - The federal government has seized control of 43 oil wells in northwestern Pennsylvania that it says were
financed with drug money laundered by a Florida marijuana smuggler in the 1970's, officials said
Tuesday.
The federal government has never before taken control of oil wells as part of a money laundering investigation, said officials with
the Department of Homeland Security, which ran the investigation.
Drug cartels and financiers of terrorism have been known to hide their assets in a wide variety of ways, including commercial real
estate, insurance policies, gold and diamonds, but the officials said this case was the first in which they had found evidence of oil wells being used
to launder money.
The investigation stems from the 1981 drug smuggling conviction of Paul E. Hindelang, who ran one of the country's biggest
marijuana smuggling operations from Florida in the 1970's. After serving time in prison, Mr. Hindelang went on to a successful business career in
California and built Pacific Coin into one of the country's biggest pay-phone operators. Many of his business associates were unaware of
his criminal past until it resurfaced in 1998, when he agreed to forfeit $50 million in drug assets that the authorities said he had stashed away
in overseas accounts years earlier.
But federal investigators believed that many millions of dollars remained hidden even after the $50 million was seized, and their
inquiries have led them to locales around the world in search of the money.
Investigators said they believed that Shaboom Oil Company, the American firm that owned the wells, was established in 1988 with the
express purpose of laundering the drug money from Monaco.
The oil wells are worth about $1 million, federal officials estimated.
The Department of Homeland Security will own and continue
leasing the wells for the time being, but it plans to do a full assessment of the property's value and then auction it off, officials said.
As part of its latest actions in the Hindelang case, the department also seized an additional $5.5 million in assets from bank accounts
and business interests in Monaco and elsewhere, bringing the total assets recovered in the investigation to $70 million.
Cambodia, Where Sex Traffickers Are King
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—Sex trafficking at its worst is the slavery of the 21st century, yet it has become one of the world's growth
industries. To understand how brazen it is, step up to the second floor of the Chai Hour II Hotel here in the Cambodian capital.
It's like an aquarium: beyond a glass wall are dozens of teenage girls in skimpy white outfits, each with a number. The customer orders
a girl by number, and the manager delivers her a moment later to a private room.
A Cambodian police report in my hands describes the Chai Hour II as a case "of confinement of human beings for commercial sex"
and adds that it is also "a place for trafficking/sale of virgin girls." All told, the report says, 250 girls and women work in the six-floor
labyrinth of cubicles.
We've had narco-trafficking states; Cambodia may be becoming the first sex-slavery
state.
The U.S. State Department estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 people a year are trafficked across international borders, mostly girls and
most of them for the sex industry. Many more, like the girls in the Chai Hour II, are trafficked within a country.
As it becomes a global industry, sex trafficking is increasingly controlled by organized crime, like the ethnic Chinese mafias in Asia,
and the criminals use their profits to buy government officials. Cambodia had made progress against child prostitution in the last couple of
years, but now the sex industry has struck back.
'Work As A Prostitute Or Risk Losing Benefits'
A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services" at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment
benefit under laws introduced this year.
Prostitution was legalized in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners who must pay tax and employee health insurance were
granted access to official databases of jobseekers.
The waitress, an unemployed information technology professional, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had worked in a café.
She received a letter from the job center telling her the employer was interested in her "profile" and that she should ring them. Only upon
doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal reasons, realize that she was calling a brothel.
Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available
job including in the sex industry or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month, German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to
4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990.
The government has considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from
bars. As a result, job centers must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental
nurse.
When the waitress looked into suing the job center, she found out that it had not broken the law. Job centers that refuse to penalize people
who turn down a job by cutting their benefits face legal action from the potential employer.
"There is nothing in the law to stop women from being sent into the sex industry," said Merchthild Garweg, a lawyer from Hamberg
who specializes in such cases. "The new regulations say that working in the sex industry is not immoral any more, and so jobs cannot be turned
down without a risk to benefits."
Employers in the sex industry can also advertise in job centers, a move that came into force this month. A job center that refuses to accept
the advertisement can be sued.
Miss Garweg believes that pressure on job centers to meet employment targets will soon result in them using their powers to cut the benefits
of women who refuse jobs providing sexual services.
Mad Cow Disease Triggered By Inflammation
Mad cow disease, which was thought to spread in humans only if they consume infected brain or intestinal tissues of infected cow, may have
other routes of entry. If the study done on mice by a group of researchers led by Adriano Aguzzi at the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland holds
true then BSE/CJD testing programmers will have to change their ways and practices in what could turn into another major problem for the beef industry.
Since earlier screening showed Prions, that cause BSE, are present only in specific organs like brain and intestines, "the assumption has been that
other parts are safe to eat," says Aguzzi.
"People in countries with BSE still eat steak because the authorities say if you stay away from the brain and lymphoid tissue, you should be
safe. However, most Prion testing has been done in healthy animals. If you have a sick cow, these rules may no longer apply."
Aguzzi's study showed inflammation can let the disease causing protein Prion to be replicated (produced) in other parts of the animal body which
were earlier thought to be safe for consumption. The mice used in the study were having inflammation due to several reasons including kidney and liver
disease. It was seen in all the cases that chronic inflammation leads to a build up of prion proteins in organs that are usually Prion free.
Researchers have not yet worked out how exactly inflammation leads to Prion production and the spread of deadly protein in other parts of the
body. However, they feel that it has got something to do with the cells playing a role in the immune system. These cells produce a substance called
lymphotoxin to fight invading pathogens. Aguzzi feels that the lymphotoxin starts a reaction that turns a normal cell into a prion producing bioreactor. They
have observed that mice lacking the lymphotoxin receptors lack prion disease in inflamed organs.
Exposure at Germ Lab Reignites a Public Health Debate
Last year, while working on a vaccine to protect against bioterrorist attacks, three laboratory workers at Boston University were exposed to
the bacteria that cause a rare disease called tularemia, or rabbit
fever.
The workers recovered, though two of them had to be hospitalized...
...critics say, the tularemia that sickened the workers in Boston would not have existed if not for bioterror research.
The flood of biodefense financing has drawn hundreds of inexperienced researchers into work with hazardous organisms, Dr. Ebright said.
Dr. Ebright said some current research poses a much higher risk, notably the work by several groups that are trying to reconstruct
the 1918 influenza virus, which killed more than 20 million people.