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November 19, 2009 Brain-eating tribe enriches understanding of mad cow disease Mark Henderson, Science Editor A cannibalistic ritual in which the brains of dead tribespeople were eaten by their relatives has triggered one of the most striking examples of rapid human evolution on record, scientists have discovered. In the middle of the 20th century the Fore tribe of the Eastern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea was devastated by a CJD-like disease called kuru, which was passed on by mortuary feasts in which the brains of the dead were consumed. Although the practice was banned in the 1950s and kuru...

> For those who advocate "natural immunity," is there really a difference between the immunity conferred by getting the flu and that provided by vaccination? They're close, though the nasal-spray type is closer, says Tun-Hou Lee, a professor of virology at the Harvard School of Public Health. There are three "arms" of the immune response, Lee says. The first are antibodies, which are also known as immunoglobulins. Produced by white blood cells, they identify and attack bacteria and viruses. The second are killer T cells, which can tell when a cell has been infected with a virus and then attack...

University of California, Davis, researchers studying the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, formerly referred to as "swine flu," have identified a group of immunologically important sites on the virus that are also present in seasonal flu viruses that have been circulating for years. These molecular sites appear to result in some level of immunity to the new virus in people who were exposed to the earlier influenza viruses. More than a dozen structural sites, or epitopes, in the virus may explain why many people over the age of 60, who were likely exposed to similar viruses earlier in life, carry antibodies...

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius has not only given immunity to the makers of Tamiflu and Relenza for injuries stemming from their use against swine flu, she has granted immunity to future swine flu vaccines and “any associated adjuvants”. The last time the government embarked on a major vaccine campaign against a new swine flu, thousands filed claims contending they suffered side effects from the shots. This time around, they will have no recourse. The 2006 Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (the PREP Act) allows the DHHS Secretary to invoke almost complete immunity from liability...

When Lauro L. Baja Jr. returned to his native Philippines in 2007, he had just finished a four-year stint as ambassador to the United Nations that included two terms as president of the Security Council... Then a three-month episode from his U.N. days returned to haunt him. He was sued by Marichu Suarez Baoanan, who had worked as a maid in New York City for Baja and his wife, Norma Castro Baja. Baoanan, 40, said the Bajas brought her to the United States in 2006 promising to find her work as a nurse. Instead, Baoanan said, she was forced to...

The last time the government embarked on a major vaccine campaign against a new swine flu, thousands filed claims contending they suffered side effects from the shots. This time, the government has already taken steps to head that off. Vaccine makers and federal officials will be immune from lawsuits that result from any new swine flu vaccine, under a document signed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, government health officials said Friday. Since the 1980s, the government has protected vaccine makers against lawsuits over the use of childhood vaccines. Instead, a federal court handles claims and decides...

(IsraelNN.com) In a letter appearing in the weekend edition of the respected Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, former Italian President Francesco Cossiga revealed that the government of Italy agreed to allow Arab terrorist groups freedom of movement in the country in exchange for immunity from attacks in Italy. Cossiga wrote that the government of the late Prime Minister Aldo Moro reached a "secret non-belligerence pact between the Italian state and Palestinian resistance organizations, including terrorist groups," in the 1970s. According to the former president, it was Moro himself who designed the terms of the agreement with the foreign Arab terrorists....

Alligator blood could provide a powerful new source of antibiotics for fighting deadly "superbugs" and other infections. Courtesy of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Despite their reputation for attacks on humans and pets, alligators are wiggling their way toward a new role as potential lifesavers in medicine. Biochemists in Louisiana are studying how proteins in gator blood may provide a source of powerful new antibiotics to help fight infections associated with diabetic ulcers, severe burns, and superbugs that are resistant to conventional medication. In a study presented at the 235th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the researchers presented...

It's official: Thanks to overwhelming grassroots action, and the heroic efforts of Senators Dodd and Feingold, the Senate's vote on whether to grant phone companies immunity from the law for assisting in the President's illegal wiretapping program has been delayed until after July 4th Recess! This is an unexpected reprieve for civil liberties and the rule of law. As recently as last night, the mainstream press was reporting that the immunity bill would see swift and uncontested approval. Senate Leaders emphasized that passing an immunity bill this week was one of their highest priorities. And yet, in the end, the...

(CBS/AP) - Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., issued a statement in support of the House's update of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but said he would try to strip a provision granting immunity to telecommunication companies when the bill comes to a vote in the Senate next week. The House approved a compromise bill Friday that would set new electronic surveillance rules that would also shield telecoms from lawsuits arising from their participation in the government's warrantless eavesdropping on telephone and computer lines in the United States. The government eavesdropped on American phone and computer lines for almost six years after...

A receptor on infection-fighting cells may be a novel target for drugs that fight autoimmune disease. TURNING ON ITSELFAfter mice were made allergic to a protein, researchers injected the same protein into mouse lungs to cause a disease that mimics asthma. The lung tissue of normal mice (left) shows more severe inflammation than that of mice lacking the gene for the DR3 receptor (right). Because DR3 plays a crucial role in immune cells attacking healthy tissue, the receptor may be a target for drugs that treat autoimmune disorders like asthma or multiple sclerosis.Siegel, Françoise Meylan In people with autoimmune diseases...

The United States dropped demands to give foreign security contractors immunity from Iraqi law in the draft security arrangement with Iraq, officials say. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari Wednesday told London newspaper The Independent that U.S. officials accepted requests from Iraqi negotiators to drop the immunity demand. There are roughly 160,000 U.S. security contractors working in Iraq, compared with approximately 145,000 U.S. military forces, the newspaper said. Zebari is a staunch supporter of the arrangement, in contrast to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who said negotiations regarding the security deal, formally the status of forces agreement, had "reached a dead...

While vitamin D’s role in strengthening bones is well established, its links to cancer and immune-system malfunctions have only recently emerged. At the Harvard School of Public Health, nutrition experts say large segments of the population don’t get enough vitamin D and are urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to raise the daily recommended dose, from 400 international units to 800. For an update on what’s known so far about this important nutrient, the Harvard Public Health Review spoke with HSPH Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology Edward Giovannucci. *** Q: What are the documented benefits of vitamin D? A:...

Potentially deadly staph bacteria may be easily defeated by the body's own immune system once stripped of their golden hue by a drug developed to lower cholesterol, according to new research.The findings offer a promising new direction in the fight against increasingly drug-resistant staph infections, according to the National Institutes of Health, which supported the research. An international team of researchers found that a "squalene synthase inhibitor," originally developed by Bristol Myers Squibb, blocks infections of Staphylococcus aureus, named for its "golden halo," in mice.Staph contains a carotenoid -- like beta carotene in carrots -- that acts like an antioxidant...

A 15-year-old Australian liver transplant patient has defied modern medicine by taking on her donor's immune system. Demi-Lee Brennan had a liver transplant after she suffered liver failure. Nine months later, doctors at Sydney's Westmead Children's Hospital were amazed to find the teenager's blood group had changed to the donor's blood type. Further tests revealed the stem cells from the donor liver had penetrated her bone marrow. Dr Michael Stormon says he and his colleagues were even more surprised when they found the girl's immune system had almost totally been replaced by that of the donor, meaning she no longer...

The Bush administration won a legislative victory yesterday when the FISA bill that excluded immunity for telecommunications companies that cooperated with the NSA failed spectacularly in the Senate, leaving the path open to the immunity approach endorsed by the White House. The version without telecom immunity only garnered 36 votes in the upper chamber despite the Democrats' endorsement of it. Twelve of their members joined 48 Republicans in voting against it: The Senate signaled in a key vote yesterday that it supports giving some of the nation's largest telephone companies immunity from dozens of privacy lawsuits related to a federal...

You can’t help but feel a little sorry for Amanda Beck. She’s a reporter from Reuters who was among the first to cover a new study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, which warns about an outbreak of a virulent, drug-resistant, and potentially deadly strain of Staph infection afflicting certain segments of the homosexual community. Although outbreaks of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, have primarily been confined to hospitals in the past, the study determined that, due to “high risk behaviors” beyond hospital walls — such as “anal sex” — men who have sex with men...

WASHINGTON - Attorneys for Jose Rodriguez told Congress the former CIA official won't testify about the destruction of CIA videotapes without a promise of immunity, two people close to the tapes inquiry said Wednesday. Rodriguez, the former head of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, ordered that the tapes, which show harsh CIA interrogation of two al-Qaida suspects, be destroyed in 2005. Rodriguez is scheduled to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Jan. 16. Defense attorney Robert Bennett told lawmakers, however, that he would not let Rodriguez testify because of the criminal investigation into the case. Without a promise of...

I URGENTLY REQUEST THAT YOU PROVIDE INNOCENT AMERICANS THE ABILITY TO REPORT SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY WITHOUT THE FEAR OF BEING SUED. Your “NAY” vote Thursday night left me quaking in anger and fearful of what this means to innocent people who will NOW think twice before reporting anything suspicious (or even assisting in state or federal investigations) for fear of a lawsuit. You have a sworn duty to keep America safe!! DO YOUR JOB and give John Does an immunity clause. Don’t let an angry America point fingers at YOU after another terror attack because of your neglect and irresponsibility in...

-- A healthy American chestnut tree discovered on a New Hampshire farm may serve as the "mother tree" to bring back a species nearly wiped out by Asian blight.The tree was found on a 125-acre parcel owned by Bill and Nancy Yates. Bill Yates remembers 60 years ago when American chestnuts lined the road near his home before the tree was all but wiped out on the Eastern seaboard. American Chestnut Foundation officials hope to use the tree as a way to bring the tree back to New Hampshire. Leila Pinchot, the foundation's New England science coordinator, pollinated the 40-foot...

Source: Society of Chemical Industry Date: June 25, 2007 Potato Salad May Help the Immune System Science Daily — It has long been known that eating potatoes is good for bowel health, but new research suggests that they may also have a beneficial effect on the whole immune system. Especially if eaten cold or in a potato salad, Anne Pichon reports in Chemistry & Industry. Spanish researchers found that growing pigs fed large quantities of raw potato starch (RPS) had a healthier bowel. Not a surprise, but they also found that RPS pigs had decreased levels of white blood cells,...

Ottawa, ON (AHN) - A medical journal has reported a case of a one-week-old infant who died from complications after being circumcised in an unidentified hospital in Ontario, Canada. In its April 2007 edition, Paediatrics and Child Health reported a case in which an infant, whose parents did not want him identified, was brought back to his family doctor by his parents 5 hours after he had been circumcised. At that time, his parents said he was "very irritable and had blue discoloration below the umbilicus when he cried." The baby's physicians sent the child home. The baby's parents took...

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations said Friday it has immunity from a lawsuit by survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia but remains committed to assisting those affected and bringing the perpetrators to justice. Thousands of survivors of Europe's worst massacre since World War II sued the United Nations and the Dutch government Monday for their failure to protect civilians in Srebrenica when Bosnian Serb forces overran the U.N. safe haven in 1995 and slaughtered up to 8,000 men and boys. U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Friday that the United Nation had just received the legal documents relating...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., May 9 (Reuters) - Angered that a beloved member of his squad had been killed in an explosion, a U.S. Marine urinated on one of the 24 dead Iraqi civilians killed by his unit in Haditha, the Marine testified on Wednesday. Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, who has immunity from prosecution after murder charges against him were dismissed, also said he watched his squad leader shoot down five Iraqi civilians who were trying to surrender. In dramatic testimony in a pretrial hearing for one of the seven Marines charged in the Nov. 2005 Haditha killings and alleged cover-up,...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- A House committee voted Wednesday to grant immunity to Monica Goodling, a key aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. She had refused to testify, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. The 32-6 vote by the House Judiciary Committee surpassed the two-thirds majority required to grant a witness immunity from prosecution. A separate vote to authorize a subpoena for Goodling passed by voice vote. The House panel's action was part of a rapid-fire schedule Democrats have set to compel Bush administration officials, among them Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to...

The parents of a young boy hospitalized by illness they think was caused by raw milk experience provide a diary-like account of their experience with the healthcare system. This is Part 1 of a two-part item.

Source: Public Library of Science Date: February 28, 2007 Are Some People Immune To Avian Flu? Science Daily — New results from Richard Webby at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and colleagues published in the international open-access medical journal PLoS Medicine suggest that the answer might be yes. Neuraminidase ribbon diagram. (Image courtesy of PLoS Medicine)The H5N1 avian flu virus is quite different from the seasonal H1N1 and H3N2 flu viruses most humans have been exposed to, which is why many scientists believe that H5N1 could start a new pandemic. (The H and N refer to two virus components, the...

The Mexican national shot by two Border Patrol agents in a drug-related incident in February 2005 brought a second van load of drugs into the U.S. while he waited to testify against the agents, according to Drug Enforcement Administration reports obtained by the Daily Bulletin. Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila - who was given immunity by U.S. prosecutors in exchange for testifying against former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean - is the focus of a November 2005 DEA report that identifies him as the person responsible for stashing more than 750 pounds of marijuana in a van parked at a house...

WASHINGTON – Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, the Mexican drug smuggler given immunity to return to the United States and testify against two Border Patrol agents, was involved in smuggling a second load of marijuana into the United States after he was given court protection, records have confirmed. Newly released transcripts of the trial for Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos have corroborated WND reports that the Mexican illegal alien was involved in the second drug case, this one involving a load of marijuana brought into the U.S. in October 2005. That followed his grant of immunity by U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton in return...

French police the target in urban guerrilla war By Jon Boyle Mon Nov 27, 11:29 AM ET PARIS (Reuters) - Stoned, beaten and insulted, their vehicles torched by crowds of hostile youths, French police say they face an urban guerrilla war when they enter the run-down neighborhoods that ring the major cities. "Our role is to guarantee the safety of people and property but the great difficulty today is that police are having problems ensuring their own safety," said Jerome Hanarte of the Alliance-Police Nationale union. Bedside television interviews with officers hospitalized after beatings in "les banlieues," or suburbs, support...

(AP) SANTA MONICA, Calif. A judge has ruled that the city of Santa Monica is not liable for a fatal vehicle accident three years ago in which an elderly motorist plowed into a crowded farmer's market. About 50 victims and relatives allege in a civil lawsuit that the city failed to protect them from the accident that killed ten shoppers and injured 63 others. Federal transportation regulators faulted the city for using inadequate safety precautions and an outdated traffic plan that didn't comply with government guidelines. But a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled Monday that the city is...

The Bird Flu Breakdown Part 1: Two Children in Vietnam Liam Scheff - Wednesday, May 24th, 2006The much anticipated bird-flu plague has yet to emerge, despite much hue and cry. This comes as no surprise to those of us who are familiar with the machinations of the WHO (World Health Organization), CDC and NIH, and their pharmaceutical partners. But, for those more trusting of public health authorities who wish to know more about the making of public health policy, I thought I’d review some of the bright and shiny inconsistencies that have come into view on the bird flu.Stray...

Researchers at Wake Forest University possess a remarkable strain of mice. They appear to be resistant to injections of cancer cells that kill all ordinary mice. Even better, the researchers say, the immune system cells from these mice, when injected into nonresistant mice, will cure their cancers. The researchers, led by Dr. Zheng Cui, are reporting this finding today in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. At a news conference last week, Dr. Cui and a colleague, Dr. Mark C. Willingham, speculated on the possibility of applying their findings to human patient The researchers, led by Dr. Zheng...

The key issue at stake in the battle over the twelve Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad is this: Will the West stand up for its customs and mores, including freedom of speech, or will Muslims impose their way of life on the West? Ultimately, there is no compromise: Westerners will either retain their civilization, including the right to insult and blaspheme, or not.More specifically, will Westerners accede to a double standard by which Muslims are free to insult Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, while Muhammad, Islam, and Muslims enjoy immunity from insults? Muslims routinely publish cartoons far more...

SANTIAGO, Chile - Former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was stripped of his legal immunity Friday to face charges of diverting public funds to personal bank accounts. Judge Juan Escobar, president of the Santiago Court of Appeals, said his tribunal voted 21-3 to remove the immunity Pinochet enjoys as a former president. Friday's decision is part of a wider corruption-related legal process in which Pinochet also lost immunity against charges of tax evasion and secret overseas bank accounts totaling as much as $28 million. A person with legal immunity must be stripped of it separately in each case. The ruling adds...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON -- In addition to the prospect of indictments looming in the CIA leak case, the Bush administration faces another threat: civil litigation that could expose top officials to damage payments and years of wide-ranging scrutiny. Former diplomat Joseph Wilson, whose criticism of the administration's Iraq policy sparked the current furor and led to the outing of his Central Intelligence Agency-operative wife, Valerie Plame, isn't saying for sure if he will sue. But one recent precedent is the debilitating civil suit against his former boss, President Clinton. "What would be interesting to us would be to get the...

LONDON (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein's defense lawyers will argue that he has immunity from prosecution at his trial in Iraq later this month, according to a London-based member of his legal team. Lawyer Abdel Haq Alani told the BBC the former president will challenge the legality of the special tribunal, due to open inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone on October 19. "He had full immunity under the prevailing Iraqi constitution and you cannot have a retroactive legislation that removes that immunity," Alani said in an interview with the BBC's "Newsnight" program late on Thursday. Iraqi officials say the only charge...

The United States government has said that Pope Benedict should be given immunity from a civil court action in Texas, which accuses the pontiff of conspiring to cover up the sexual molestation of three boys by a seminarian. Peter Keisler, the assistant US attorney-general, said that Pope Benedict enjoys immunity as the head of a state - the Vatican. He said that allowing the case to proceed would be "incompatible with the United States' foreign policy interests", according to court documents. There was no immediate ruling from Judge Lee Rosenthal of US district court for the southern district of Texas...

The U.S. government has told a Texas court that Pope Benedict XVI should be given immunity from a lawsuit accusing him of conspiring to cover up the sexual molestation of three boys by a seminarian, court documents show.Assistant U.S. Attorney General Peter Keisler said in Monday's filing that, as pope, Benedict enjoys immunity as the head of a state — the Vatican. He said that allowing the lawsuit to proceed would be "incompatible with the United States' foreign policy interests."There was no immediate ruling from Judge Lee Rosenthal of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston,...

BRITISH scientists are developing a revolutionary vaccine that works against all types of flu, the UK DAILY MAIL fronts on Friday. It would protect people against flu and a single jab could give lifelong immunity. Currently, new vaccines have to be developed each year. The major breakthrough has been made by the Cambridge biotech firm Acambis. When it announced the news yesterday the value of its shares jumped by 9p. Such a vaccine would be massively lucrative for its manufacturer. Each year, flu kills up to 12,000 people in the UK, many of them elderly. But experts have been warning...

The decade-long debate over what has caused this country's frightening spike of childhood autism once again is exploding… Reigniting the debate is the much-publicized book "Evidence of Harm" by David Kirby, as well as the report titled "Deadly Immunity" by environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In brief, Kirby and Kennedy argue that federal health officials, with the help of vaccine-makers and some in Congress, have deliberately downplayed, even covered up, evidence that thimerosal - a preservative containing mercury - in childhood vaccines is the prime trigger behind the explosion of autism in U.S. children the last 15 years. Although...

Whooping Cough Outbreak Communities throughout the U.S. are experiencing whooping cough (pertussis) outbreaks - the worst in 40 years. If the school nurse or the health department informs you that there is a pertussis outbreak in your school or community, you may need to call your pediatrician. The school or health department will tell you if your child was directly exposed and requires antibiotics. Health departments across the country are acting quickly to prevent the spread of pertussis, so your cooperation in contacting your pediatrician is crucial. Please follow the instruction of the health department. The care of children in...

May 24, 2005 — NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Resveratrol, a chemical found in red grapes, blocks replication of the influenza virus in cell culture and in animals, Italian researchers report. "Resveratrol merits further investigation as a potential weapon for combating the growing threat of influenza," Dr. Anna Teresa Palamara of the Institute of Microbiology in Rome and colleagues conclude. In cell culture experiments, resveratrol prevented influenza from replicating. Study: Cigarette Smoke May Harm Fertility Big Guns: When Cops Use Steroids Study: Bypass Better for Clogged Arteries Resveratrol treatment had the greatest effect when administered 3 hours after exposure to...

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - Chile's Supreme Court on Thursday refused to strip Gen. Augusto Pinochet of his immunity from prosecution, blocking yet another attempt to try him for alleged human rights abuses during his dictatorship. The Court's 15-4 vote rejected a lower court ruling that would have stripped the 89-year-old former ruler of the legal immunity he enjoys as former president. In announcing its decision the Supreme Court did not immediately publish the text of its ruling, which is believed to be based mainly on Pinochet's deteriorated health. On Dec. 2, the Santiago Court of Appeals had voted 14-9 to...

Chief Justice Rehnquist said in his report on Friday that it had been clear since early in the country's history that "a judge's judicial acts may not serve as a basis for impeachment."

Medieval Plague May Explain Resistance to HIV LONDON (Agence de Presse Medicale) - The persistent epidemics of hemorrhagic fever that struck Europe during the Middle Ages provided the selection pressures that have made 10 percent of Europeans resistant to HIV infection, according to a UK study. A mutation called delta-32 in the cellular receptor dubbed CCR5 protects against HIV infection, and is found more often in Europeans than other populations. Scientists have previously suggested that the genetic mutation became common because it protected people against the Black Death or smallpox epidemics, while those with normal CCR5 were wiped out. But...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Do the media give aid and comfort to terrorists by giving their violence maximum exposure and impact at times while sanitizing the perpetrators and tainting their victims at others? It is standard procedure for many media outlets to describe the perpetrators of terrorist acts - the premeditated slaughter of civilians - with a range of euphemisms, "militants" being the most common. Thus, The New York Times can headline a report on the killing of a hostage as "Iraq Militants Said to Behead a Truck Driver From Bulgaria." Similarly, terrorists killed in a military strike can be described in another as...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military is pulling small numbers of troops out of two U.N. peacekeeping operations in Kosovo and Africa because they are no longer exempt from prosecution in the International Criminal Court, the Pentagon said on Thursday. A seven-member team will be removed from a U.N. mission assigned to keep peace between Eritrea and Ethiopia and two liaison officers will be removed from the world body's mission in Kosovo, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita told reporters. "In these two particular cases it was determined ... that the risk was not appropriate to our forces. And so they...

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan says he hopes the United States will not withdraw from peacekeeping operations after its failure to win an exemption from international prosecution for war crimes. The United States abandoned the effort Wednesday after Annan urged the Security Council not to go along. It was a major retreat for Washington in its fight against the International Criminal Court and a rare intervention by the U.N. chief. "I think the outcome was a good one for the council, and I think also for the Americans," Annan told a news conference on Friday. The secretary-general had raised...