EU On Track To Grant Quick Approval For Monsanto Soybean

*Sad, sad, sad…you know, Europe did just fine before Monsanto. Unfortunatey, I am afraid it won’t do fine AFTER Monsanto. Once again, the people’s desires are thwarted.*

BRUSSELS -(Dow Jones)- European Union governments late Wednesday couldn’t agree on whether to allow Monsanto Co. (MON) to import a new genetically modified soybean, sending the decision back to the European Commission, the E.U.’s executive arm, where it is likely to be approved.

It means the soybean, known as Roundup Ready 2, is likely to gain approval faster than many other biotech products that have been stuck in the E.U.’s complicated regulatory system. That is encouraging for some in the industry who have long complained that the E.U.’s system is unnecessarily slow.

“It’s moved faster than is usual in our industry,” said Nathalie Moll of EuropaBio, the lobbying group for the biotech industry in the E.U., “but that’s the speed it should move at.”

Approval usually takes three years or more. The E.U is on track to approve Roundup Ready 2 in a little more than two years after Monsanto first sought approval. The issue of soybean imports has put pressure on the E.U. to speed up its approval process. Imported soybeans form a crucial source of protein for the continent’s livestock. The Monsanto soybean will be planted over millions of acres in the U.S. in 2009. Without approval, European importers might not ship soybeans from the U.S. for fear that their cargoes will become contaminated with the Monsanto soybean.

European farmers import about 75% of their soybeans, mainly from the U.S., Brazil and Argentina.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200811200658DOWJONESDJONLINE000495_FORTUNE5.htm

A near-riot and parliament besieged: Iceland boiling mad at credit crunch

THOUSANDS of Icelanders have demonstrated in Reykjavik to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Geir Haarde and Central Bank governor David Oddsson, for failing to stop the country’s financial meltdown.
It was the latest in a series of protests in the capital since October’s banking collapse crippled the island’s economy. At least five people were injured and Hordur Torfason, a well-known singer in Iceland and the main organiser of the protests, said the protests would continue until the government stepped down.

As crowds gathered in the drizzle before the Althing, the Icelandic parliament, on Saturday, Mr Torfason said: “They don’t have our trust and they are no longer legitimate.”

The value of the Icelandic krona has been cut in half since January.

Four Nordic countries, as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have pledged to lend the country a combined $4.6 billion to help revive its deflated economy. The loan would be the first by the IMF to a Western nation since 1976.

One young man climbed on to the balcony of the Althing building, where the president appears upon inauguration and on Iceland’s national day, and hung a banner reading: “Iceland for Sale: $2,100,000,000″ – the amount of the loan the country is getting from the IMF.

A separate group of 200-300 people gathered in front of the city’s main police station, throwing eggs and demanding the release of a young protester being held there.

Police in riot gear used pepper spray to drive back an attempt to free the protester during which several windows at the police station were shattered. The pro-tester was later released after his fine was paid.

As daylight began to wane, demonstrators drifted away into the nearby coffee shops. Here, as currency tumbles, the price of a cup of coffee has shot up by about one-third since before the crisis struck.

The demonstrators accuse the government – elected last year – of not doing enough to regulate the banking industry and have called for early elections.

Iceland’s next election is not required until 2011.

Opposition parties tabled a no-confidence motion in the government on Friday over its handling of the crisis, but the motion carries little chance of toppling the ruling coalition which has a solid parliamentary majority.

Gudrun Jonsdottir, a 36-year-old office worker, said: “I’ve just had enough of this whole thing. I don’t trust the government, I don’t trust the banks, I don’t trust the political parties, and I don’t trust the IMF.

“We had a good country and they ruined it.”

BACKGROUND

ICELAND’S three biggest banks – Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir – collapsed under the weight of billions of dollars of debts accumulated in an aggressive overseas expansion, shattering the country’s currency. Iceland’s government seized control of all three institutions in early October.

This week, the North Atlantic island nation, which has a population of only 320,000, secured a package of more than US$10 billion (about £6.7 billion) in loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and several European countries to help it rebuild its shattered financial system.

Despite the intervention, however, Iceland still faces a sharp economic slowdown and surging job losses while at least one-third of Icelanders are also at risk of losing their homes and life savings.

Geir Haarde, the Icelandic prime minister, has promised that the government will use the IMF money to bring back a flexible interest rate scheme and rewrite financial laws, particularly legislation relating to insolvency.

Iceland was the first country to ask the IMF for help as the turmoil in the credit markets in October hit home.

The UK government used anti-terrorism legislation to freeze money deposited by UK savers in Icelandic banks in order to ensure that their money was protected.

http://news.scotsman.com/world/A-nearriot-and–parliament.4722970.jp

Breast Cancer That Vanishes

*COMMON SENSE!!! Your body CAN fight cancer! Your system of defense is top-notch…*

Is it possible for breast cancer tumors to disappear on their own, without medical intervention? A controversial article published in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that in some cases, the answer may be yes. A childhood breast cancer tumor called a neuroblastoma sometimes goes away on its own, and researchers were looking into whether invasive breast cancers might also regress, USA Today reports. The researchers compared the number of breast cancers diagnosed in 100,000 Norwegian women who were screened every two years with the number found in a group of women who were screened once in six years. Doctors diagnosed 22 percent more breast cancers in women who were screened more frequently. That, the study authors say, suggests that more frequent screening found cancers that would eventually go away and did not need to be treated, according to USA Today.

Last week, U.S. News’s Deborah Kotz listed seven things to consider if breast cancer runs in your family. In August, she discussed how to prepare for sex after breast cancer.

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/2008/11/25/health-buzz-breast-cancer-that-vanishes-and-other-health-news.html

Jewish youths jailed for neo-Nazi attacks in Israel

A gang of Jewish teenagers were today jailed by an Israeli court for a 12-month campaign of neo-Nazi attacks.

The sentencing in Tel Aviv, which comes over a year after the arrest of the eight youths, closed a case that has sparked revulsion across the Jewish state.

The judge, Zvi Gurfinkel, sentenced the teens, aged 16 to 19, to between one and seven years in prison for a “shocking and horrifying” year-long spree of attacks that focused on foreign workers, gay people, ultra-orthodox Jews and homeless men.

The ring posted pro-Hitler video clips and recordings of their attacks on the internet. Its members also planned to attack Arabs.

They were arrested in September 2007 and reports said that searches of their homes unearthed Nazi uniforms, knives, guns and the explosive TNT.

Gang members had tattoos popular with white supremacists – including the number 88, code for “heil Hitler”, H being the eighth letter of the alphabet.

The charges against them included painting swastikas in a synagogue and planning a birthday party for Hitler.

They were charged with offences including conspiracy to commit a crime, assault, racial incitement and the distribution of racist materials.

The group were Jewish immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union. They migrated under Israel’s law of return, which allows anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent to become a citizen.

One of the teenagers was the grandson of a Holocaust survivor.

The court documents pointed to social adjustment difficulties as a factor behind the attacks.

The judge described the teens, all from Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv, as “terrible”.

“The fact that they are Jews from the ex-Soviet Union and that they had sympathised with individuals who believed in racist theories is terrible,” Gurfinkel said as he handed down his verdict.

The gang leader, Erik Bonite, known as Ely the Nazi, received the maximum sentence.

Since the fall of Soviet communism in 1990, about 1m immigrants from Russia and the former USSR have moved to Israel. Some have risen to prominence in politics and industry while others struggle to integrate, including thousands not considered Jewish by religious authorities.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/24/israelandthepalestinians