Les dessous de l’information mondiale-Downside World News

Honey making a medical comeback - Potent type used as antibiotic amid fears of drug-resistant superbugs

TRENTON, New Jersey -

Amid growing concern over drug-resistant superbugs and nonhealing wounds that endanger diabetes patients, nature’s original antibiotic , honey  is making a comeback.

More than 4,000 years after Egyptians began applying honey to wounds, Derma Sciences Inc., a New Jersey company that makes medicated and other advanced wound care products, began selling the first honey-based dressing this fall after it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Called Medihoney, it is made from a highly absorbent seaweed-based material, saturated with manuka honey, a particularly potent type that experts say kills germs and speeds healing. Also called Leptospermum honey, manuka honey comes from hives of bees that collect nectar from manuka and jelly bushes in Australia and New Zealand.

Antibiotics becoming ineffective
Derma Sciences now sells two Medihoney dressings to hospitals, clinics and doctors in North and South America under a deal with supplier Comvita LP of New Zealand. Derma Sciences hopes to have its dressings in U.S. drug stores in the next six months, followed by adhesive strips.

Comvita, which controls about 75 percent of the world’s manuka honey supply, sells similar products under its own name in Australia, New Zealand and Europe, where such products have been popular for over a decade.

“The reason that Medihoney is so exciting is that antibiotics are becoming ineffective at fighting pathogens,” said Derma Sciences CEO Ed Quilty.

Another big advantage, he said, is that the dressings’ germ-fighting and fluid-absorbing effects last up to a week, making them convenient for patients being cared for at outpatient clinics or by visiting nurses. They also reduce inflammation and can eliminate the foul odors of infected wounds.

Since receiving FDA approval, Medihoney has brought in sales of $150,000 in 10 weeks and Quilty plans to nearly double his 15-person sales force in 2008 thanks to the two new Medihoney products.

Healing wounds
Honey dressings and gels, as well as tubes of manuka honey, have been gaining in popularity overseas, fueled by scientific reports on their medical benefits and occasional news accounts of the dramatic recovery of a patient with a longtime wound that suddenly healed.

Regular honey can have mild medicinal benefits. A study published Dec. 3 showed it helps to calm children’s coughs so they can sleep. But manuka honey is far more potent, research shows.

Dr. Robert Frykberg, chief of podiatry at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Phoenix, said the Medihoney product has worked on about half the patients with diabetic foot ulcers who have used it.

He said the Medihoney dressing can also prevent the dangerous drug-resistant staph infection known as MRSA from infecting open wounds.

“It’s been used on wounds where nothing else will work,” said biochemist Peter Molan, a professor at the University of Waikato in New Zealand who has researched honey and other natural antibiotics for 25 years.

He’s found manuka honey can kill the toughest bacteria even when diluted 10 times and recommends it especially for people with weak immune systems.

“There’s more evidence, clinical evidence, by far for honey in wound treatment than for any of the pharmaceutical products” for infection, Molan said. However, it won’t work once an infection gets in the blood. “It’s not a miracle.”

Some U.S. hospitals and wound care clinics are already using Medihoney dressings to treat patients with stubborn, infected wounds from injuries or surgical incisions and nonhealing pressure ulcers on diabetics’ feet, which too often lead to amputations.

Kara Couch, a nurse practitioner at Georgetown University Hospital’s Center for Wound Healing in Washington, said it works well for patients who have “wound pain” or infected wounds.

One patient who had an open wound that didn’t heal for a few years “healed 90 percent in three weeks,” she said, adding that the usual rate for chronic wounds is barely 10 percent a week.

Fewer complications
David Crosby, a retired insurance claims examiner from Hanover, Massachusetts, began using Medihoney two months ago on a 2 1/2-year-old burn on his leg after high-tech treatments did not help. The burn’s size has shrunk by half and it continues to heal.

“At this stage, any improvement’s better than nothing,” Crosby said.

Dr. Craig Lambrecht, a North Dakota emergency physician, started using a paste version of Medihoney while serving with the National Guard in Iraq last winter.

At a military clinic for Iraqi children, he used it on patients with severe burns from cooking fuels, open fires and explosions. He said Iraqi families soon preferred the honey over other treatments because it was natural and because the honey dressings don’t need to be changed as often as traditional ones. The children also healed more quickly and with fewer complications, he said.

After seeing its success in Iraq, Lambrecht, who has five children of his own, is a fan.

“I would use the Medihoney on burns on my children, as the first choice, without question,” he said.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

Ron Paul: ‘We’re getting ready to bomb Iran’

Despite a recent National Intelligence Estimate finding that Iran has halted its nuclear weapons program, libertarian-leaning GOP presidential contender Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) says there is still “a great possibility” of US military action against the country.

Appearing on MSBNC’s Morning Joe, Paul described what he characterized as a deteriorating situation on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and said the US was preparing to kickstart yet another conflict — this time in Iran.

“It is getting worse over there,” he said. “Afghanistan is getting worse. Turkey is bombing Iraq. And Pakistan is blowing up and we’re getting ready to bomb Iran. A bunch of those neocons want to bomb Iran.”

Asked how the US could justify military action against Iran in the wake of the National Intelligence Estimate — which determined that the country hadn’t actively pursued a nuclear weapon since 2003 — Paul said he didn’t think the report would do much to deter a strike.

“I think it’s a great possibility. Read Seymour Hersh. He is the expert over there,” said Paul of the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, who has previously reported that the US is preparing a preemptive strike against Iran.

“And the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been declared a terrorist organization for the purpose of them being the targets rather than had the nuclear power plants,” Paul said. “So, wait and see… there are still quite a few neoconservatives that want to go after Iran under these unbelievable conditions.”

Concluded Paul, “That is the absurdity of the whole mess we have in there…stay out of entangling alliances, stay out of nation building. We ought to just get out of that place.”

See This video is from MSNBC’s Morning Joe, broadcast on December 27, 2007.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Ron_Paul_Neocons_still_want_to_1227.html

L’Association des Juifs a démenti les nouvelles des médias étrangers

L’Association des Juifs de Téhéran a publié un communiqué pour démentir les fausses nouvelles diffusées par les agences de presse étrangères sur la situation des Juifs iraniens.

Suite à la diffusion des nouvelles par ces agences, concernant l’immigration collective des Juifs iraniens, l’Association des Juifs de Téhéran a annoncé, dans son communiqué, que les Juifs iraniens, ainsi que les membres des autres minorités religieuses, vivent dans de très bonnes conditions en Iran, avant d’affirmer qu’il existe de fortes affinités culturelles et historiques entre les Juifs iraniens et leurs autres compatriotes.

Le communiqué a démenti l’immigration organisée des Juifs d’Iran. L’Association des Juifs de Téhéran a ajouté dans son communiqué que les ennemis du peuple iranien sont également des ennemis des Juifs iraniens qui sont fidèle à l’ordre islamique de l’Iran et que dans les propagandes des médias sionistes à l’encontre de l’Iran ne pourraient aucunement briser les liens profonds qui existent entre les Juifs iraniens et leurs compatriotes.

Le communiqué a évoqué la présence active des Juifs iraniens dans la défense sacrée du peuple iranien face au régime déchu irakien, en affirmant que contrairement aux propagandes des médias sionistes, les minorités religieuses souhaitent vivre toujours dans leur patrie.

Le communiqué de l’Association des Juifs de Téhéran a dénoncé ensuite l’intervention des pays étrangers dans les affaires intérieures de l’Iran, en estimant que les récentes propagandes anti-iraniennes font partie des plans de l’arrogance mondiale contre l’unité des Iraniens toutes religions confondues.

 ”Les Juifs iraniens condamnent les interventions des puissances étrangères dans les affaires intérieures de l’Iran”, précise le communiqué.

Jeudi 27 Décembre 2007

http://french.irib.ir

Related :

Iran’s Happy Jews – A Big Problem For Israel

Repackaging the Princess President-in-Waiting

Princess Ferragamo at the Barricades: The Push for “Regime Change” in Pakistan
by Mike Whitney

Saturday, 24 November 2007

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why the crooked Princess Ferragamo — Benazir Bhutto — has returned to Pakistan. Bhutto’s been traipsing all over Washington trying to garner support from think-tank heavies and establishment powerbrokers to help her stage a political comeback in Islamabad.

Allegations of money laundering and corruption have haunted Bhutto ever since she was driven from office in 1996. Last month, General Musharraf cut a deal with Bhutto that freed her from the prospect of criminal prosecution and allowed her to return home. The arrangement ignored the judicial system entirely. The $1.5 billion that she and her husband allegedly “received in a variety of criminal enterprises” has simply disappeared down the memory hole.Another tidbit the media seems to breezily disregard is Bhutto’s role in supporting Islamic extremism; the very dragon she is now expected to slay. “It was during Bhutto’s rule that the Taliban took power in Kabul and gained prominence in Afghanistan. She viewed the Taliban as a group that could stabilize Afghanistan and enable trade across the Central Asia republics. Her government provided military and financial support for the Taliban, even sending a small unit of the Pakistani army into Afghanistan.”

But, then, anyone can make a mistake and Bhutto has since offered her sincere regrets and promised to rid Pakistan of the “scourge of terrorism.” This must be music to the ears of her new patrons in Washington.

It’s astonishing how quickly one can do an about-face when their career depends on changing their point-of-view.

US historian, Arthur Herman, in a letter published in the Wall Street Journal, described Bhutto as “One of the most incompetent leaders in the history of South Asia,” adding that she and other Pakistani elites hated Musharraf because he is “muhajir”, born of Indian Muslims. Herman claims, “Although it was muhajirs who agitated for the creation of Pakistan in the first place, many native Pakistanis view them with contempt and treat them as third-class citizens.”

Herman makes an interesting point. Perhaps Bhutto saw the footage of Hurricane Katrina — where the mostly poor, black Americans were herded cattle-like into the Superdome at gunpoint — and realized she could find common ground with the Washington political class. After all, she matriculated at Harvard and Oxford, so we can expect that her views are not that different from other “bluebloods” who regularly defend discrimination, waterboarding, endless war and other shocking abuses on the op-ed pages of Americans leading newspapers.

In any event, she was certainly persuasive when she addressed members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on Aug 15, 2007. She seemed to fit right in with the gathering of corporate chieftains, media bigwigs and other assorted political elites. There was plenty of backslapping and jocularity as CFR President Richard Haass introduced his distinguished guest, Bhutto, to the assembled throng:

• “It’s hard to imagine someone better placed to speak about the current situation in Pakistan than Benazir Bhutto. She was born into one of Pakistan’s leading political families. She was educated at both Harvard and Oxford. And — full confession — let me say that she and I met some — at the risk of being less than gallant — 30 years ago or so at Oxford. We would have met even earlier than that, at Harvard, except she got accepted and I did not. (Laughter.) And of such things history is made. (Laughter.) I’m almost over it, by the way. (Laughter.)”

Ha, ha, ha. Allow me to extract this silver spoon from my mouth long enough to assure you that Madame Bhutto has an acceptable pedigree to oversee our colony in Pakistan and will execute our military plans to expand the war into the tribal areas of Waziristan spreading suffering and death to another corner of the world which hasn’t yet been thoroughly obliterated by our ambition for global domination. Ha, ha ha.
Bhutto was asked directly about the so-called Miranshah agreement that Musharraf worked out so that he could withdraw Pakistani troops from North Waziristan, where his army was sustaining heavy losses. Musharraf had only won minor concessions from the tribal leaders who were supposed to limit their support for the Taliban.

The treaty was a complete hoax designed to extricate Musharraf from an “unwinnable” war that was universally unpopular with Pakistanis.

Unfortunately, the treaty turned out to be Musharraf’s death sentence. When it became clear to Bush and his neocon colleagues that Musharraf would not carry out their war agenda, they began to sharpen their daggers and plan for his removal. That is why Bhutto was exhumed from her Dubai mausoleum long enough to play a part in this latest Bush comic operetta.

This has nothing to do with “democracy promotion.” It’s just another grim chapter in the “color-coded revolution” digest. The whole performance is being staged courtesy of the US intelligence agencies and the compliant establishment media. Bush doesn’t care about democracy any more than Bhutto. What he’s looking for is someone who’ll take on the Taliban in Waziristan. That’s it. And that’s why Musharraf’s days are numbered.Bhutto, addressing the CFR crowd:

“I rejected that ceasefire of September 2006 — the peace treaty — and we rejected the ceasefires before that. In fact, we were appalled that the tribal region of our country was handed over to foreigners, because Afghan Taliban, Afghans and al Qaeda are added to the Chechens and the Uzbeks. And this is Pakistani territory, and Pakistan has to protect its own territory.

So we’ve been absolutely appalled by that. And we think the first thing the government of Pakistan has to do is to take the territory back. We’ve ceded authority of our own territory, and it’s not enough to satisfy the agenda of the Afghan Taliban or the Arab al Qaeda or the Central Asian Uzbek-Chechen. They’re now knocking on the doors of our frontier province.”

So there it is — Bhutto’s Faustian bargain in black and white – “Get rid of Musharraf and I’ll fight your bloody war.” What could be clearer?Bhutto also promised her audience that she would promote democracy, but not democracy that creates a “Hamas-type solution.” Oh no, that would be carrying democracy too far. Besides, it is so upsetting to go through all the trouble of conducting “free elections” when, right after the errant voters have to be starved and randomly bombarded for choosing the wrong party. What Bhutto wants — and what the membership of the CFR wants – -is managed elections that produce “real democracy,” the type that increases Washington’s power over its subjects.

An article in CounterPunch by Bhutto’s niece, Fatima, summed up Bhutto’s real feelings about democracy like this:

“Ms. Bhutto’s political posturing is sheer pantomime. Her negotiations with the military and her unseemly willingness until just a few days ago to take part in Musharraf’s regime have signaled once and for all to the growing legions of fundamentalists across South Asia that democracy is just a guise for dictatorship.” (Fatima Bhutto, “Aunt Benazir’s False Promises”)

Indeed. Although, now, Bhutto has been given a media makeover and is being portrayed as a Pakistani Joan of Arc pumping her fist into the air defiantly and barking patriotic slogans into her bullhorn for her motley collection of devotees. Meanwhile, her arch-nemesis Musharraf has morphed into this month’s Adolph Hitler, temporarily edging out Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.Over and over we hear the same worn mantra: Musharraf arrested the lawyers. Musharraf suspended the constitution. Musharraf declared martial law. Musharraf is a tyrant.

Of course, all of these are completely irrelevant. The only reason Musharraf has come under fire is because the Bush administration has decided that its time for regime change in Islamabad. Now, some critics are saying that Musharraf is worse than Saddam. That may be true. But it also proves our point.

Let’s consider the effects of the Iraq war before evaluating the wisdom of regime change. If one likes the results, than they should support the policy. But they should also mull over the broader implications of their choice. By supporting regime change we are tacitly endorsing the Bush Doctrine and everything connected to it. We are endorsing the clandestine interventions that destabilized Lebanon, Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Belarus. We are endorsing the coups d’etats in Haiti and Venezuela. We are endorsing the aggression against Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. We are endorsing the ethnic cleansing, the collective punishment, the killing of civilians, the cultural annihilation, Shock and Awe, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, Falluja, and the utter destruction of Iraqi society. We are endorsing the claim that one nation has the right to unilaterally violate the national sovereignty of another country, without authorization from the United Nations, simply to advance its own geopolitical ambitions.

That’s what regime change really means and after seven years of unrelenting violence — one million dead Iraqi civilians, four million refugees, and entire region of the world in chaos — it is a wonder that any sane person can knowingly support this same bloody policy?

The media will undoubtedly continue this cruel farce. In fact, they are already ratcheting up the pressure by suggesting that we must play a more active role in “protecting Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.” (No mention of yellowcake uranium, yet) Even NPR’s so-called “liberal” commentator Daniel Schorr has lent his voice to the usual crowd of media alarmists:

In a recent commentary Schorr warned:

“The magnitude of the martial law crackdown suggests a deeper fear. Some analysts suspect that the fear is nuclear that Al Qaida terrorists may somehow gain access to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and wage, what some have called, nuclear jihad; nuclear Holy War….Until recently the Pakistan nuclear arsenal has been considered safe…According to the Washington Post the US learned in 2001 that Pakistani scientists had shared secrets with Al Qaida… Officials have long believed that the likeliest source of a nuclear leak would be Pakistan. Those fears have come alive again.”

Good work, Dan, “nuclear jihad,” very clever. Now explain to me how the uncorroborated fearmongering of NPR’s “senior analyst” is any different from the incoherent ravings of David Horowitz?They are identical. The media is, once again, creating the rationale for meddling in the domestic affairs of a sovereign foreign nation. We’re being told that Pakistan is “too critical to America’s national security” for us to simply remain on the sidelines. We are being set up for another foreign policy fiasco.

When will we learn to stop butting into other people’s business?

http://www.pacificfreepress.com/content/view/1906/1/

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. 

source

The Pentagon’s Electronic Warfare Program: Maximum Control of the Entire Electro-Magnetic Spectrum
 

By: Brent Jessop

on: 26.12.2007

In 2003, then Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld signed a document called the Information Operation Roadmap which outlined, among other things, the Pentagon’s desire to dominate the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

From the Information Operation Roadmap: “We Must Improve Network and Electro-Magnetic Attack Capability. To prevail in an information-centric fight, it is increasingly important that our forces dominate the electromagnetic spectrum with attack capabilities.” emphasis mine – 6

A.P.E: Une n-ième escroquerie qui guette l’économie africaine

A.P.E :

l’accord qui cette fois-ci propulsera l’Afrique dans le marché européen, comme l’affirment les experts de Bruxelles.

Pour empêcher les Africains d’aller voir ailleurs, les Européens ont à Lisbonne, fait miroiter des merveilles à ces derniers. Cette escroquerie porte un nom: Accord de Partenariat Economique.

Une promesse de plus, dans l’océan de promesses et de bonnes volontés des Européens pour venir en aide (entendez préserver la mainmise) à l’Afrique. Comment le capitalisme peut-il mué de monstre froid en magnanimité, en humanisme ?

Il est temps que l’Afrique apprenne à ne voir que ses intérêts et non ceux de l’Europe.

Mercredi 26 Décembre 2007 Alterinfo

OPEN LETTER TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS BY THE SURVIVORS OF THE USS LIBERTY

December 26, 2007

By Gwen Landolt

TORONTO,

December 19, 2007

(LifeSiteNews.com) – Medical health authorities have repeatedly assured us that Gardasil, the vaccine injection given to young girls to allegedly prevent cervical cancer, is perfectly safe.  For example, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, a group of medical specialists, endorsed the vaccine last February.  The Society of Gynecologic Oncologists of Canada claims the vaccine is safe, as does Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer.   The Canadian Pediatric Society and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada have also endorsed the vaccine.

The long-term consequences of Gardasil are not known.  The manufacturer admits this and agrees it does not know its effect on young girls’ cancer risk, on their immunity system, on their reproductive system, or its genetic effects.  In due course, we will know this, possibly in twenty or thirty years from now when these young girls, the innocent subjects of the Gardasil experiment have become grown women and then report the consequences of their having taken the medication in their childhood on medical advice.
 
This artcicle was originally published in the Nov./Dec. edition of REAL Women of Canada’s Reality magazine. Republished with permission.

Now even scientists say broccoli can cure cancer, not just prevent it

by Mike Adams

The FDA has long frowned upon anyone claiming that vegetables or superfoods cure cancer. It’s been okay to say they “prevent” cancer, but a cure is apparently reserved only for the realm of drugs, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation (none of which actually cure anything, in reality). That’s why this article is so interesting: it claims that compounds from broccoli could be used in a cure for cancer. And it’s not just broccoli, it’s other foods, too: cabbage, mustard greens, turnips and more. Regardless of the FDA’s strongly biased opinions, the fact remains that foods and superfoods do cure cancer. Broccoli reverses breast cancer. Carrots help reverse lung cancer. Ginger, onions and garlic shrink tumors throughout the body. These foods are healing foods, and they do in fact reverse serious disease. I’ve often said that if broccoli could be sold as a precription drug, it would be headline news. That’s because it offers a vast array of cancer-fighting compounds, including antiangiogenesis phytochemicals that help “starve” tumors so they die, all without harming healthy cells.

One thing always makes me laugh about all this research, however: as usual, researchers are trying to peer inside the secrets of nature and isolate the “magic” compounds that create these anti-cancer effects. And that’s the wrong approach. Instead, people should be eating the whole foods — the whole broccoli — not taking lab-concocted broccoli-mimicking chemicals sold as prescription drugs. You want to cure your own cancer? Start eating raw or steamed broccoli (don’t cook it). And get the book Eat To Beat Cancer which tells you how to eat your way back to health with common, everyday grocery store foods.

It really isn’t a mystery. You don’t have to wait for science to tell you that broccoli reverses cancer. Nature has already proven it. Of course, it would also help if you’d stop poisoning yourself with sodium nitrite, refined sugar, white bread, soft drinks, hydrogenated oils and other metabolic disruptors. Your body can’t heal if it’s cowering under an assault of dietary poisons and chemical toxins.

http://www.newstarget.com/000684.html