Daily Archives: August 20, 2008

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Chinese Gymnasts 14, Official Document Shows (update)

An official Chinese document unearthed today provides further evidence in the ongoing scandal that China’s gold winning women’s gymnastic girls are just that—girls.

The document, first discovered by a search engine hacker who goes by the alias of stryde.hax lists birthdates and hometowns for hundreds of China’s gymnasts.

The document, a spreadsheet titled “2006 Nationwide Gymnastics Registration Table,” is dated February 20, 2006 and lists two members of China’s women’s gymnastics, Yang Yilin and He Kexin, as being only 14 years old. To compete, a gymnast is required to turn 16 in the year the Games are held.

A cached document, which has been removed from the website of China’s official sports administration, reads in line 1040 (with column headers in brackets), “[name] He Kexin, [gender] female, [born] 1994-1-1, [hometown], [registering organization] Wuhan City.” (The Epoch Times)

The two gymnasts claimed four medals in total. He Kexin won a gold in the uneven bars and Yang won bronze medals in the uneven bars and in the overall individual competition. Both gymnasts were also part of China’s gold medal winning women’s team.

According to the document, He Kexin’s birthday is January 1, 1994, while Yang Yilin’s birthday is Aug 26, 1993, making her 15 next week.

The cached document, which has been removed from the website of China’s official sports administration, reads in line 811 (with column headers in brackets): “[name] Yang Yilin, [gender] female, [born] 1993-8-26, [hometown] Guangdong Province, Guangzhou City, [registering organization] Guangdong Province, [notes] confirmed.”

And on line 1040: “[name] He Kexin, [gender] female, [born] 1994-1-1, [hometown], [registering organization] Wuhan City.”

The incriminating document was found in the Baidu search engine’s cache. Baidu bills itself as China’s own search engine, and is widely used there. The Google caches of the documents have been removed. The original document has been removed from http://www.sport.gov.cn/, a server run by the General Administration of Sport of China.

By removing the document, it appears that someone has attempted to bury the evidence. Indeed, if these documents are accurate, then China’s Communist regime has issued passports to the girls with fake birth dates, allowing them to compete illegally.

Hacker stryde.hax claims to have repeated the search on Google and have found the same document, absent He Kexin’s name. The Epoch Times repeated the search on Google hours later with no results.

“Google’s cached copy of the spreadsheet does not contain Kexin’s age record, and Baidu’s does,” said stryde.hax in a blog post. “This does not necessarily imply that Google allowed its data to be rewritten by Chinese censors, but the possibility does present itself.”

This latest document affirms previous media reports of the athletes’ birth dates. The Epoch Times has found these same birth dates in several state-run media reports and on other government websites – for example a now-removed article on the Xinhua news agency website dated Nov. 3, 2007, which is still accessible via the Google cache.

A web search on Baidu.com, entering the names and birthdates provided by this document, yields further references.

Attention will now be focused on how the IOC responds to these accusations, which involve an apparent breach of the Olympic Charter. The discovery of the document has become a hot discussion topic on Slashdot.org, a popular technology website.

At the time of writing, the document in question is still on Baidu’s cache of the original page.

The cache:  http://cache.baidu.com/c?m=9d78d513d9d431dc4f9ce3690c66c0166d43f1682ba1d2020ed68448e267504a4172a4fb792d4a4295876b6672b25419afb52172404262eadb8e9f4aaaeecf6c388850652c01d21a4c8458b2930064dc60c70fe9ad1be3a7b863d5ffc5d3a81e0d8b&p=8b2a941786cc43f113fecb3146&user=baidu

http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/china/chinese-gymnasts-underage-olympics-3097.html

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Listeriosis outbreak leaves 1 dead, 16 sick; meat recall expanded

“Health Canada confirmed Wednesday that one person in Ontario has died as a result of listeriosis.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said 17 cases have been identified across Canada, with 13 of those in Ontario.

Earlier in the day, Maple Leaf Foods announced it was expanding a recall of its packaged meats and temporarily closing a Toronto plant that prepares the products.”

“But Health Canada is not drawing a direct link between the two events.

The Public Health Agency of Canada and provincial public authorities are trying to confirm the source of illnesses. Maple Leaf said Wednesday it was recalling all products prepared at the plant since June 2 and temporarily closing the factory to re-evaluate its food safety procedures.

On Sunday, the meat packer announced it had discovered listeria bacteria in Sure Slice roast beef and corned beef produced at the Toronto facility and issued a recall on those products.

As of Wednesday, some 23 products, including a variety of turkey, smoked meat and roast beef products, were subject to a recall.

Brand names for the recalled products include Schneiders, Sure Slice, Deli Gourmet and Burns Bites. A complete list of affected products is available on both the Maple Leaf Foods website and that of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

The 23 products involved in the expanded recall carry an “establishment number” of 97B and have best-before dates ranging from Sept. 30 to Jan. 1, 2009.”

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/08/20/maple-leaf.html

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HPV Vaccine Causes 21 Deaths And Counting

New England Journal of Medicine claims that only about 10% of drug induced side effects are reported

OTTAWA — Critics say that the reasons to avoid using the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, continue to pile up in the form of thousands of instances of severe side effects, including numerous deaths.

In response to the mounting evidence that the vaccine may not be safe for widespread use, the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) is slated to release a study in October that will attempt to determine the validity of these reports.

Judicial Watch, a public interest group, has closely monitored Gardasil since it was released by creator Merck in 2006, periodically detailing statistics on the numerous side effects users have experienced. The most recent report alleges that the drug has been responsible for 21 deaths and 9,749 adverse reactions, including 78 outbreaks of genital warts and 10 miscarriages.

As daunting as these current statistics are, it seems that even they may be gravely underestimating the health risks associated with using Gardasil. A study by the New England Journal of Medicine claims that only about 10% of drug induced side effects are reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

Furthermore, FiercePharma.com claims that experts have criticized the actual effectiveness of the cervical cancer vaccine, saying Merck has exaggerated the drug’s usefulness.

Despite the alleged dangers of using Garasil and concerns about its actual medical success, Merck is continuing to push the drug into state mandatory vaccine lists and schools.

http://brownpelicanla.com/index.php/all/2008/08/15/hpv_vaccine_causes_21_deaths_and_countin

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage -

Gardasil – 18 Dead, Thousands Suffer Complications

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jul/08070809.html

Why Medical Authorities Cannot be Trusted on Gardasil HPV Vaccine By Gwen Landolt

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121905.html

Ontario Catholic School Board Rejects HPV Vaccine on School Premises

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07101806.html

Controversial HPV Vaccine Causing One Death Per Month: FDA Report

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jul/08070316.html

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Voila…another one! Bus beheading threat

A harrowing bus ride from Fort McMurray is over for two brothers who feared they were going to be victims of a knife-wielding man in a manner similar to a gruesome attack last month in Manitoba.

Josh and Andrew MacDougall were heading to Edmonton from Fort McMurray on a Greyhound Monday evening when a large man with tattoos boarded the bus. The MacDougalls were on the way home after working on the rigs.

“This guy got on staggering,” Josh MacDougall, 27, said.

“He was weird and had very erratic behaviour.”

The man approached the brothers, who were sitting in the back of the bus, and began talking to Andrew.

“He put his thumb on my brother’s eye,” Josh said, adding he told the man to take his hands off and he relented, but he continued berating them.

About 20 minutes later, after the man had visited the bathroom, he returned to the back where the brothers were seated, but this time took out a knife, Josh said.

The man sat between the two brothers and suddenly began stabbing the seat.

Andrew got up and told the bus driver what was happening. Despite the warning, the bus driver kept going.

“(The man) started calling us rats,” Josh said. “He said ‘how’d you like walking around without an eye.’ “

For the next hour, the man harassed other passengers before returning to the back of the bus.

Twice during that time, the bus driver pulled over, telling the man he would have to get off the bus. When he refused, the driver kept going.

The man then threatened the two brothers with beheading, referring to the attack on Tim McLean Jr. outside Portage la Prairie, Man., July 30. McLean was stabbed and then beheaded by another Greyhound passenger.

“You’ll be on the news,” Josh recalled the man saying. “I’m going to cut your head off and throw it out the window.”

The bus finally came to a stop near Wandering River, about 45 minutes outside of Boyle on Highway 63, where it was met by an RCMP officer who was in the area, said Sgt. Ray Williams of the Boyle RCMP.

An officer got on the bus, pepper-sprayed the man, and took him into custody, Josh said.

But before police arrived, the man and the bus driver got into a scuffle on the bus. Josh and his brother tried to offer help but were warned by the driver to stay away.

Eventually everyone was taken off the bus, in the middle of a ferocious lightning storm, and loaded back on.

Inexplicably, Josh and his brother were prevented from getting back on, something they still don’t understand.

“Maybe he (the driver) was afraid,” he said.

The brothers were then driven by police to Boyle and had to stay overnight in the town. They bought two new bus tickets and arrived in Edmonton yesterday about 1 p.m.

Williams said he is relieved the situation didn’t turn into a tragedy.

“I am concerned, especially after the most recent incident,” he said. “I’m glad it turned out the way it did.”

A spokesman for Greyhound said the incident occurred on trip 134, coach 1210 between Fort McMurray and Edmonton.

“We do have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to unruly passengers,” Greyhound spokesman Abby Wambaugh said.

Drivers are to pull over and contact local authorities if a passenger is out of control, she said, adding that procedure was followed in this case.

She could not say why the MacDougalls were removed from the bus and not allowed to continue their trip to Edmonton.

“We’re still conducting an internal investigation,” she said, adding there may be more information this morning.

Douglas Brian Charland, 30, of Cold Lake, faces numerous charges including assault and uttering threats. He has been remanded in custody and is due in Boyle court Aug. 26.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2008/08/20/6509021-sun.html

*Apparently, I need to add a greyhound or beheading label…ridiculous.*

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Exclusive: Incredulous UN Bans Criticism of Islam

*Not that the UN means anything…but STILL. Sigh*

The Human Rights Council at the United Nations has now banned any criticism regarding Sharia Law and human rights in the Islamic World

According to President Doru Romulus Costea – and following the efforts of delegates from Egypt, Pakistan and Iran – the Council will no longer tolerate criticism of either Sharia or specific fatwas in the name of human rights.

In many parts of the Islamic world, it is becomingly increasing clear not only that the Koran (the written record of the original oral transmissions of Mohammad’s life teachings) and the Hadith (the later delineations of those teachings) are considered sacrosanct in their perfection, but also the various implementations of these teachings, known as Sharia Law.

No evolution or refinements are required. No matter that nearly every multitudinous Muslim sect or group has a differing interpretation of this God-given Sharia Law. Nor that the stoning to death of women, beheading of men, and all the 6th century niceties of feudal Arabia are still part and parcel of the immovable Islamic tradition. Never mind that Sunni will decimate Shia – and vice versa – over differences of interpretations far more modest than those between (modern) Catholics and Protestants, between Hindus and Buddhists. Islamic sect can war on Islamic sect, Arab can criticize Arab.

Because Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and all other religions are imperfect, they are fair game for any and all attacks. Since Israel, Zionism, America and the Western World were created and developed outside the Islamic World and its divine perfection, they are likewise subject to criticism.

Now, not only has the Islamic God forbidden outside criticism of the Sharia Law, but the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) is its enjoined messenger on earth.

Of course, observers of the HRC should not be surprised. The ostensibly prestigious body has become a revolving door for countries with an ambivalent (or even well nigh invisible) relationship with freedom and democracy. In the two years following its replacement of the equally dictatorship-friendly Human Rights Commission, Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Egypt, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia have all been elected to the Council. As a majority of the Council’s resolutions are concerned with Israel, it would effectively cease functioning were it not for its compulsive focus on the Jewish state.

Due to this resolution the Council – and thus, perversely, the UN – is endorsing a worldview in which human interpretation and understanding has been placed beyond the pale of critical thinking and investigation as long as it’s part of Sharia Law or the Islamic tradition. Perhaps we should rename the United Nations and call it the “Nations of Islam – United in Unique and Ineffable Perfection.” Sounds appropriate.

http://europenews.dk/en/node/13092

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Vaccines Found to Cause Diabetes in Children

(NaturalNews) Two new studies showing that vaccines increase the risk of diabetes have been published in the Open Pediatric Medicine Journal.

In a prior study, published in the journal Autoimmunity, Dr. J. Bartholomew Classen of Classen Immunotherapies and David Carey Classen of the University of Utah compared more than 100,000 children who had received between one and four doses of the hemophilus vaccine with more than 100,000 unvaccinated children. The Classens found that after seven years, children in the vaccination group had a 26 percent higher risk of developing diabetes than children in the non-vaccine group. This amounted to an extra 54 cases of diabetes per 100,000 children vaccinated.

The Classens noted that the vaccine itself is only projected to prevent seven deaths and seven to 26 cases of permanent disability per 100,000 children.

“Our results conclusively prove there is a causal relationship between immunization schedules and diabetes,” J. Bartholomew Classen said at the time.

In the more recent study, Classen examined data on the same vaccine, this time looking only at children who had a sibling with Type 2 diabetes. He found that the hemophilus vaccine led to an extra case of diabetes in one of every 50 such children, or 2 percent. This is 40 times higher than the already-elevated rate found in the Autoimmunity study.

“The recent data shows that common childhood vaccines are especially dangerous to children with a strong family history of diabetes,” Classen said. “Parents of a child with a strong family history of insulin-dependent diabetes … should know that the administration of a full series of vaccines may have a greater than 5 percent chance of causing their child to develop diabetes.”

Another study, published in the same issue of the Open Pediatric Medicine Journal, demonstrated a connection between the hepatitis B vaccine and Type 2 diabetes.

http://www.naturalnews.com/023902.html

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Elderly women to be ‘re-educated’ for Olympic protest: rights group

Two elderly Chinese women who applied to demonstrate at official Olympic protest zones have been ordered to serve one year each of reeducation through labour, a human rights group said.

Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, who were forcibly evicted from their Beijing homes in 2001, applied five times for permits to protest during the Games, Human Rights in China said.

As a result they were interrogated for 10 hours and then sentenced to one year of “Reeducaton Through Labour”, the group said.

They will not be sent to a labour camp immediately but will have their movements restricted and be sent off to detention if they cause more trouble, the group added in a statement.

Last month China’s Government said special protests pens would be set up in three Beijing parks for use by demonstrators during the Games.

“Punishing Wu and Wang after they applied for protest permits … demonstrates that the official statements touting the new Olympics ‘protest zones,’ as well as the permit application process, were no more than a show,” said Sharon Hom, the rights group’s executive director for China.

Beijing police said on Monday that dozens of protest park applications had been received but not one had been approved.

The vast bulk of the 77 applications were withdrawn because the relevant authorities had addressed the problems through “consultations”, state media quoted police as saying.

An official at the Beijing Public Security Bureau said they had no information on the cases of Wu and Wang and asked news agency AFP to fax a request for details.

Nicolas Bequelin, a China expert at Human Rights Watch, said the case highlighted many of the human rights concerns related to the Games.

He referred to the forced evacuation of thousands of Beijing residents to make way for new development and the arbitrary nature of China’s judicial system.

“The case is not unique but it encapsulates so many issues,” he said.

Wu and Wang have been unsuccessfully petitioning the Government for compensation ever since they were forcibly evicted from their homes in 2001, according to Human Rights in China.

New York-based Human Rights in China is a non-government organisation set up to promote the spread of human rights in the communist-ruled country.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/20/2341552.htm?section=sport&site=olympics/2008

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Mysterious Honey Bee Disorder Buzzes into Court

WASHINGTON, DC, August 19, 2008 (ENS) – The nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court in Washington DC to force the federal government to disclose studies on the effect of a new pesticide on honey bees.

Studies on the pesticide, clothianidin, were ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from the pesticide’s manufacturer, Bayer CropScience, in 2003 when the federal agency granted the company a registration for the chemical.

An NRDC bee researcher and the organization’s attorneys believe that the EPA has evidence of connections between pesticides and the mysterious honey bee die-offs reported across the country called “colony collapse disorder,” or CCD, that it has not made public.

The connection is important because commercial honey bees pollinate about 90 of the country’s crops, valued at $15 billion. Apples, peaches, pears, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, cherries, berries, peppers, squash, soybeans, almonds, cashews, and sunflowers all require or benefit from honey bee pollination.

The EPA has failed to respond to the NRDC’s Freedom of Information Act request for agency records concerning the toxicity of pesticides to bees, prompting Monday’s legal action.

“Recently approved pesticides have been implicated in massive bee die-offs and are the focus of increasing scientific scrutiny,” said NRDC attorney Aaron Colangelo. “EPA should be evaluating the risks to bees before approving new pesticides, but now refuses to tell the public what it knows.”

“Pesticide restrictions might be at the heart of the solution to this growing crisis, so why hide the information they should be using to make those decisions?” Calangelo asked.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2008/2008-08-19-092.asp