The Topps Meat Company, a 67-year-old New Jersey firm, closed its doors Oct. 5, sending 87 employees to the unemployment line, because 21.7 million pounds of its product contained E. coli 0157:H7. This strain "produces a powerful toxin and can cause severe illness, kidney failure and even death," according to the USDA. Every package of this contaminated meat contained a USDA inspection seal. Why did the USDA inspection fail to discover this contamination before it was shipped to stores across the nation?

On Nov. 3, Cargill Meat Solutions voluntarily recalled more than a million pounds of beef. Every package of the meat contained a USDA inspection seal. Why did the USDA inspection fail to discover this contamination before it was shipped to stores across the nation? Amanda Eamich, a spokeswoman for the USDA, said that some processing operations are inspected every 15 minutes, while others may be inspected once a month. Typically, there is at least one inspector on every shift. Obviously, this inspection procedure is inadequate.

E. coli is a bacterium that lives in the intestines of animals. It can contaminate meat if the intestines are ruptured during processing. When contaminated meat is mixed with non-contaminated meat, as in the production of ground beef, the entire production run is contaminated.

Hotel chains are removing Bibles from guest rooms, replacing them with "intimacy kits" and adding "One Night Stand" packages as well as "romance concierge" personnel to their offerings, according to a new report in Newsweek.

"Marriott spokesman John Wolf says the Bible question is premature for the new venture, which he describes as 'cutting-edge,' 'more urban' and 'less values-oriented.' Now, there's a marketing slogan no one's tried yet: 'Sleep with us. Leave the values at home!'" Wolverson wrote.

Wolverson reported the American Hotel and Lodging Association confirms since 2001 the number of luxury hotels with religious materials in their rooms has dropped by 18 percent. "The new Indigo hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz., a 'branded boutique' launched by InterContinental, also has no Bibles," the report said. Officials at that hotel, however, did offer a promotion on a "One Night Stand" package.

"Our 'One Night Stand' summer packages provide a cost effective way to enjoy our lower rates and remain in the heart of the active art, shopping, dining and nightlife venues of Old Town Scottsdale," said Laura Godfrey, sales manager for the hotel. "With this package, you'll feel good about the decision you made to stay in the area and stay the night." That package includes a "late check-out time" of 1 p.m.

Prof Ian Wilmut's decision to turn his back on "therapeutic cloning", just days after US researchers announced a breakthrough in the cloning of primates, will send shockwaves through the scientific establishment. He and his team made headlines around the world in 1997 when they unveiled Dolly, born July of the year before. But now he has decided not to pursue a licence to clone human embryos, which he was awarded just two years ago, as part of a drive to find new treatments for the devastating degenerative condition, Motor Neuron disease.

Prof Wilmut, who works at Edinburgh University, believes a rival method pioneered in Japan has better potential for making human embryonic cells which can be used to grow a patient's own cells and tissues for a vast range of treatments, from treating strokes to heart attacks and Parkinson's, and will be less controversial than the Dolly method, known as "nuclear transfer."

His announcement could mark the beginning of the end for therapeutic cloning, on which tens of millions of pounds have been spent worldwide over the past decade. "I decided a few weeks ago not to pursue nuclear transfer," Prof Wilmut said. Most of his motivation is practical but he admits the Japanese approach is also "easier to accept socially."

But with the future of that country's leadership in doubt, debate is intensifying about whether Washington has done enough to help protect the warheads and laboratories, and whether Pakistan's reluctance to reveal critical details about its arsenal has undercut the effectiveness of the continuing security effort.

In recent days, American officials have expressed confidence that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is well secured. "I don't see any indication right now that security of those weapons is in jeopardy, but clearly we are very watchful, as we should be," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference on Thursday. "I AM CONFIDENT OF TWO THINGS," HE ADDED. "THAT THE PAKISTANIS ARE VERY SERIOUS ABOUT SECURING THIS MATERIAL, BUT ALSO THAT SOMEONE IN PAKISTAN IS VERY INTENT ON GETTING THEIR HANDS ON IT."

In an interview with BBC Radio 4, he said the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, had failed to demonstrate that God is "welcoming". He also repeated accusations that the Church was "obsessed" with the issue of gay priests. He said it should rather be focusing on global problems such as Aids.

"Our world is facing problems - poverty, HIV and Aids - a devastating pandemic, and conflict," said Archbishop Tutu, 76. "God must be weeping looking at some of the atrocities that we commit against one another. In the face of all of that, our Church, especially the Anglican Church, at this time is almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality."

Archbishop Tutu referred to the debate about whether Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, could serve as the bishop of New Hampshire. He said the Anglican Church had seemed "extraordinarily homophobic" in its handling of the issue, and that he had felt "saddened" and "ashamed" of his church at the time. Asked if he still felt ashamed, he said: "If we are going to not welcome or invite people because of sexual orientation, yes.

"IF GOD, AS THEY SAY, IS HOMOPHOBIC, I WOULDN'T WORSHIP THAT GOD."

And that's the problem: Geology experts agree that Israel is long overdue for the next "Big One," and it can happen at any time. This poses a significant threat to population centers in the country, since many buildings in Israel were erected prior to the formulation of earthquake-resistant construction codes. There is also substantial doubt that the codes are being strictly enforced. With the barrage of immediate threats competing for Israelis' attention - whether terrorism, car accidents, global warming or secondhand smoke - a major earthquake may seem like an improbable, even paranoid fear.

While predicting the time of the next earthquake is nearly impossible, says Dr. Amos Salamon of the Israel Geological Survey, "We know one thing - we are sure there will be an earthquake in Israel." This is because Israel is situated on two significant fault lines: the Dead Sea Fault and the Carmel Fault. To understand which parts of the country would be most vulnerable to a major earthquake, geologists must base their knowledge on previous events - and in this case, modern technology is of surprisingly little help.

For that reason, Marco has made it his mission to build a timeline of Israel's earthquakes by delving into history and archeology, in addition to geology. On the historical side, Marco has studied hundreds of ancient documents that contain references to earthquakes, in translations from the original Greek, Latin and Arabic. The originals of some of these documents are assumed to reside in the Vatican vaults. Even the Bible offers clues, as earthquakes are sometimes mentioned as markers of time, Marco explains. For example, prophets are often said to have become active a certain number of years "after the earthquake."

With the aid of these documents, Marco has helped determine that a series of devastating earthquakes hit Israel in the past two thousand years. The major ones were recorded in the Jordan Valley in the years 31 BCE, 363 CE, 749 CE and 1033 CE, "so roughly," says Marco, "we are talking about an interval of every 400 years. If we follow the patterns of nature, a major quake should be expected any time because almost a whole millennium has passed since the last strong earthquake."

Prince Saud Al-Faisal was overheard ruling out a proposal from Iran and Venezuela to discuss pricing crude in a private meeting at the oil cartel's conference.

In an embarrassing blunder at the meeting in Riyadh, MINISTERS' MICROPHONES WERE NOT CUT OFF during a key closed meeting, and Prince Al-Faisal was heard saying: "My feeling is that the mere mention that the Opec countries are studying the issue of the dollar is itself going to have an impact that endangers the interests of the countries. There will be journalists who will seize on this point and WE DON'T WANT THE DOLLAR TO COLLAPSE INSTEAD OF DOING SOMETHING GOOD FOR OPEC."

Prince Al-Faisal added: "This is not new. We have done this in the past: decide to study something without putting down on paper that we are going to study it so that we avoid any implication that will bring adverse effects on our countries' finances."

AFTER AROUND 40 MINUTES PRESS OFFICIALS CUT OFF THE FEED, WHICH HAD BEEN ACCIDENTALLY BROADCAST TO THE PRESS ROOM.

Iran and Venezuela have argued that the meeting's final communique should voice concern about the level of the dollar, which has recently fallen to new record lows against the euro. THEY ARE PUSHING FOR OIL TO BE DENOMINATED AGAINST A BASKET OF CURRENCIES.

The dollar also weakened slightly against the pound, although sterling's own recent weakness has pushed it down from $2.10 to $2.0457 during the week.

Nigerian finance minister Shamsuddeen Usman said that OPEC could declare in the communique that: "While underlining our concern for the continued depreciation of the dollar and its adverse impact on our revenues, we instruct our finance ministers to study the issue exhaustively and advise us on ways to safeguard the purchasing power of our revenues, of our members' revenues."

TEN YEARS LATER RESIDENTS IN ARGENTINA AND BRAZIL ARE WONDERING IF THIS WINTER WILL EVER END. Buenos Aires recorded this Thursday (November 15th) the lowest November temperature in 90 years. Temperature in the Downtown weather station reached 2.5C. Since records began more than a century ago, only two days had colder lows in November.

It was in 1914 (1.6) and 1917 (2.4). And ninety years ago the urban heat island effect was much less pronounced than nowadays. In Brazil's southernmost province Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil temperatures fell to 2.3C. In Sao Joaquim Monday's (Nov., 12) the temperature was -1.2 C with frost.

The culprit is a developing la Nina, a cooling of the water in the eastern Pacific along the South American coast, that some climatologists believe could indicate a return to the la Nina dominated situation that dominated from1947 to 1977. El Ninos, a warming of East Pacific waters, have been more common since then.

SOME CLIMATOLOGISTS BELIEVE THE EL NINOS MAY HAVE CAUSED WHAT THE IPCC CALLS "GLOBAL WARMING".

NASA has recently indicated that the circulation of the Arctic Ocean has changed from the counter-clockwise circulation of the 1990's to the pre-1990 clockwise circulation WHICH COULD RESULT IN A COOLING TREND IN THE ARCTIC.

Experiments have proved that crops containing genes from marine organisms are able to produce omega 3 fatty acids normally found in oily fish. Adding the oil to animal feed would create omega 3-rich meat, milk and eggs. Researchers from the EU-wide Lipgene project say such food would help tackle public health issues like obesity.

Concerns over dwindling fish stocks and marine pollution has led researchers to seek an alternative source of long chain omega 3 fatty acids; fats that have important health benefits, especially for the heart. The best source is oily fish, such as salmon, mackerel and herring, but most people do not get enough in their diet.

Omega 3 fatty acids are made not by the fish themselves but by the marine microbes they consume. Scientists at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, Herts, isolated key genes from a species of microscopic single-celled marine algae known as Thalassiosira pseudonana.

They inserted the genes into crops such as linseed and oil seed rape and found that the plants were able to synthesise omega 3 fatty acids in their seed oils. "We know that this works, we've done proof of concept studies in model plants and also in crop plants and we can see the accumulation of some of the fish oils we're interested in," said research group leader Professor Johnathan Napier.

The article notes that recent tensions over Chinese imports of cheap, energy efficient light bulbs are reflective of the overall strained trade ties between Europe and China. Beijing is Europe's largest supplier of manufactured imports, while the EU exports more to Switzerland than to China. According to the European Commission, the EU trade deficit with China grew by one fifth last year and is rising by 15 million EUR an hour, which is faster than the growth of the US trade deficit with China.

Tensions exist between European companies as well, with a Dutch company which manufactures many of its light bulbs in China standing to gain significantly with the removal of trade barriers, and a German company which manufactures far fewer light bulbs in China benefiting more from keeping the tariffs in place.

EU and US officials will meet this week in Washington in order to discuss ways to remove red tape hindering trade, such as common efficiency standards for biofuels and international accounting standards.

EPAs will grant continued tariff-free market access into Europe, but will in turn controversially require African countries to open their own markets to European products.

Kenyan Trade and Industry Minister Dr Mukhisa Kituyi said "The impression I get is that the European Union wants to use this (deadline) to arm-twist for more concessions on market access from our countries. It is not acceptable that we have less than two months to the end of the current trade and tariff arrangement and there isn't sufficient signal of solidarity to assure our exporters that there will be no (tariffs) that can cost contracts in the European markets."

Kenya has indicated it will not sign up to an EPA without the proposed 25-year transition period. The EU wants a 10 year transition period, which many developing countries fear will force them to open markets too quickly.
The EU maintains that EPAs must be signed next month otherwise the affected countries will trade under the more restrictive generalised system of preferences (GSP). This means that if EPAs fail to take effect in January, many large African nations, including Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria, will automatically face the GSP tariff.

Today, they released new documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, detailing 1,824 reports of adverse reactions to the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), Gardasil, including as many as eight deaths related to the vaccine. Judicial Watch had previously obtained 1,637 reports relating to Gardasil on May 15, 2007, bringing the known total to 3,461 adverse reactions including eleven deaths since FDA approval.

From May 10 to September 7, 2007, the 1,824 adverse vaccination reactions reported to the FDA via the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) included 347 serious reactions. Of the 77 women who received the vaccine while pregnant, 33 experienced side effects ranging from spontaneous abortion to fetal abnormities. Other serious side effects continue to be reported including, paralysis, Bells Palsy, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and seizures.

Gardasil is a vaccine against the human papilloma virus (HPV). This virus is a sexually-transmitted infection that can cause genital warts, pre-cancerous abnormalities of cells in the female genitals (cervix or vulva) and cervical cancer. The vaccine works by provoking the body's immune response to this virus, without actually causing HPV infection or any of the diseases.

It says, "Having needlessly emitted an estimated 15 tons of CO2 on the flights, they'll sit down to discuss the world's great problems, including a favourite topic, carbon emissions. This flying example of euro-hypocrisy is the result of petty vanity".

Asked about the financial and environmental costs of the December EU summit, a Portuguese government spokesman explained that, "This is the price to pay for the new treaty." How rich. On the BBC Daily Politics show Open Europe's Neil O'Brien criticised the "pathetic vanity" of the Belgian and Portuguese governments, accusing them of being "completely out of touch with reality."

Last week, four days after Musharraf declared martial law, Bush called him and said, "you ought to have elections soon, and you need to take off your uniform. You can't be the President and the head of the military at the same time." This Friday he is dispatching his Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte, to tell Musharraf in person that he needs to do both those things and to restore civilian rule.

The unraveling in Pakistan is testing Bush's diplomatic abilities, and it's not just because the crisis is requiring him to confront a leader with whom he has had close ties since 9/11. More importantly, Bush is working without a clear strategy: even at this late date the White House still doesn't have a plan for protecting American interests in Pakistan without Musharraf. In essence Bush and the White House are winging it, trying to back Musharraf down from the current crisis while coming up with a longer-term approach to securing U.S. interests in the region.

The goal at least is clear, even if the Administration doesn't know how to get there. Says one official involved in the interagency discussions: "At the end of the day, how do we get maximum cooperation with the Pakistani government in light of the fact that the most recent National Intelligence Estimate says al-Qaeda is trying to reestablish its headquarters in the tribal areas?"

The report by Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will intensify US and European pressure for tighter sanctions and increase speculation of a potential military conflict.

The installation of 3,000 fully-functioning centrifuges at Iran's enrichment plant at Natanz is a "red line" drawn by the US across which Washington had said it would not let Iran pass. When spinning at full speed they are capable of producing sufficient weapons-grade uranium (enriched to over 90% purity) for a nuclear weapon within a year.

The IAEA says the uranium being produced is only fuel grade (enriched to 4%) but the confirmation that Iran has reached the 3,000 centrifuge benchmark brings closer a moment of truth for the Bush administration, when it will have to choose between taking military action or abandoning its red line, and accepting Iran's technical mastery of uranium enrichment.

US generals are reported to have warned the White House that military action would trigger a devastating Iranian backlash in the Middle East and beyond.