Russia’s seed bank under threat

One of the biggest and most important seed banks in the world is at risk of being replaced by a private housing development.

The facility near the Russian city of St Petersburg houses thousands of varieties of plants, not found anywhere else in the world.

Video of woman throwing live puppies into river sparks online outcry

(CNN) — A video apparently showing a young woman throwing live puppies into a river has sparked outrage across the Internet.

And now it has also led to an animal rights group offering a bounty for the arrest of the people behind it.

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Costco Takes Action After Abuse Of Veal Calves Brought To Their Attention

August 31, 2010 KONG TV News

High Risk Eggs – Dangers of Caged Hens Exposed

With more than half a billion eggs recalled and nearly 1,500 people sickened by Salmonella, The Humane Society of the United States is calling for a change in the way most eggs are produced.

Gates Foundation ties with Monsanto under fire from activists

For two years, local activists on a shoestring budget have been trying to document connections between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Monsanto, the company vilified by some for its heavy involvement in genetic engineering of crops.

Try as they might, their work got little attention.

That all changed with the news, reported by The Wall Street Journal last week, that Monsanto was among the foundation’s most recent portfolio investments. A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission says the foundation bought 500,000 shares of the stock between April and June; on Friday, the total value was $27.6 million.

The Gates Foundation doesn’t comment on specific investments, a spokeswoman said.

While the Monsanto investment is a tiny fraction of the foundation’s $33 billion endowment, it loomed large among those involved in food issues. The news ricocheted around activist circles and has given the Seattle-based Community Alliance for Global Justice (CAGJ) a national platform.

Its AGRA Watch campaign has been quietly compiling Monsanto/foundation connections for two years. Several foundation employees have ties to the company, including some in leadership positions. A number of the projects it has funded in Africa also work with the company.

As news of the investment broke, national activist organizations started reaching out to the alliance, said Heather Day, CAGJ’s director. The group will start “organizing on a national scale” next week with the help of the larger groups.

The foundation’s investment in Monsanto was the “bad news that’s good news” for their effort to get the foundation to “do the right thing,” Day said. This week, 250 people sent postcards to the foundation asking it to cut ties to Monsanto and other biotech firms and shift its funding priorities “from industrial agriculture to socially and ecologically appropriate practices.” The groups are also planning an online-petition drive.

Meanwhile, national groups plan to write the foundation outlining reasons why they need to break their ties with companies involved in developing bioengineered crops, Day said.

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Congress may sneak through Internet ‘kill switch’ in defense bill

A federal cybersecurity bill that critics say creates a presidential “kill switch” for the Internet could be added on to a defense spending bill and passed without much debate, technology news sources report.

Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE), one of the sponsors of the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, told GovInfoSecurity.com that the Senate is considering attaching the bill as a rider to a defense authorization bill likely to pass through Congress before the mid-term elections.

“It’s hard to get a measure like cybersecurity legislation passed on its own,” Carper said.

Carper, along with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), introduced the bill in June in an effort to combat cyber-crime and the threat of online warfare and terrorism. Critics say the bill would allow the president to disconnect Internet networks and force private websites to comply with broad cybersecurity measures. Future US presidents would have those powers renewed indefinitely.

The bill (PDF) states that Internet service providers, search engines and other Internet-related businesses “shall immediately comply with any emergency measure or action developed” by the Department of Homeland Security.

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Finland suspends H1N1 vaccines after children suffer narcolepsy from vaccinations

(NaturalNews) Shortly after Australia banned flu vaccines in children due to an alarming increase in vomiting, fevers and seizures caused by the vaccines (http://www.naturalnews.com/029586_A…), Finland has now suspended H1N1 vaccines due to increased reports of narcolepsy in children and teens. Narcolepsy is a nervous system disorder characterized by extreme fatigue and daytime sleepiness. It indicates a serious malfunction of the brain and nervous system.

Finland is now reporting that narcolepsy is appearing in children immediately following vaccination with H1N1 vaccines. So far, six children are confirmed of suffering the neurological side effect and nine more are in the process of being confirmed, reports The Epoch Times (http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/con…).

The Finland National Institute for Health (THL) said in a press release that the cause of the narcolepsy may be the vaccine, and they are investigating further.

Sweden’s Medical Products Agency, meanwhile, launched a similar investigation on August 19 to try to determine the cause of post-vaccination narcolepsy also found in children there. The vaccines appear to be causing a pattern of neurological disorders affecting children and teens across the planet.

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Local farms could be illegal

RT America has been discussing obesity in America and the effects of the mass consumption of genetically altered food. What are the risks and what can be done about it? George Hemminger says that as many people are feeling the economic downturn hit them, they are growing their own food. However, the government might try to take that choice away from the people as well by passing a bill that would make it illegal to clean and store seeds.

New Spill: WikiLeaks to release ‘CIA paper’ as Julian Assange under investigation

The whistle-blowing website that angered the Pentagon by publishing 90 thousand secret U.S. files, is now set to reveal a CIA paper. Wikileaks made the announcement as its founder Julian Assange is under investigation in Sweden on suspicion of molestation.

Health Warning: Corexit is Poisoning The Gulf, Marine Life, Workers and Public!!!

Health Warning: Corexit is Poisoning The Gulf, Marine Life, Workers and Public!!! What you should know to protect your family and yourself.

The Government is suppressing the media regarding the effects of corexit on marine life and public health trying to cover-up the truth.

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