Mara

PETA Suggests Vitamin D to Blame for Animal Deaths

The animal rights group, People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), says that excessive amounts of vitamin D in pet food might be the cause of the growing number of kidney problems and deaths in cats and dogs across the country.

PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich -- citing laboratory evidence -- today urged the FDA to refocus its investigation beyond wheat gluten and consider other possible contaminants in the pet food.

In his letter to Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinarian Medicine, Friedrich said: "Wheat gluten is used almost exclusively in wet foods. However, the mounting number of complaints of illness and death in cats and dogs who had eaten only dry food strongly suggests that there is a second source of the poisoning.

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Here is a complete list, supplied by Menu Foods, of the recalled brands of dog and cat food. Pet owners should read it carefully. The company has established a hot-line for customer inquiries: 1-866-895-2708.

African Union struggling to halt violence

"AU peacekeepers are overwhelmed by the complexity and scale of the conflict in Darfur." -BBC's Jonah Fisher

On the ground they are unpopular and are being targeted and killed by rebel movements.

"If this trend continues, the peacekeeping operation in Darfur will be in serious jeopardy," Mr Konare warned in a statement.

"It has become imperative and unavoidable, in the present circumstances, to speedily implement the three-phase approach to the peacekeeping operation in Darfur," the statement continued.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir remains convinced that only African troops under African command can solve Darfur's problems.

Yet in the last month, our correspondent says, AU soldiers have been attacked twice in areas supposedly controlled by rebels who are part of last year's peace agreement.

Seven men have died, the last five at the weekend while defending a water point on the border with Chad.

A recent letter from President Bashir to the UN secretary-general queried almost all elements of the plan.

Among many reservations, Sudan's president objected to international aircraft being used to protect Darfur's civilians - that he said, would remain the responsibility of the national police force.

Darfur peace force 'needed now'

The African Union has called on Sudan to speed up plans for a new AU/UN peace force in Darfur where five Senegalese soldier were killed on Sunday.

So far, Sudan has blocked attempts to strengthen the AU force with UN troops.

AU commission head Alpha Oumar Konare said he was greatly concerned by the increasing number of attacks on the 7,000 AU peacekeepers in the region.

The weekend attack was the heaviest single loss the force has suffered since it was first deployed in 2004.

The Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, says only African Union troops should be allowed to keep the peace in the country's war-torn Darfur region.

Sudan's President is insisting that only African Union, or AU, forces should take part in peace-keeping missions in the country's Darfur region. Omer al-Bashir clarified his position in parliament, in the face of mounting pressure from the United States and the UN, to allow UN forces into Darfur.

AU peacekeepers were first deployed in August 2004 after a year and a half of fierce internal fighting. This has killed as many as 200,000 people, and left more than 2 million homeless. Just 7,000 AU forces now struggle to keep the peace in a region still torn by daily violence and suffering. Regardless, Al-Bashir has proven resistant to UN offers to send troops in.

But former UN Chief, Kofi Annan, reached a minor breakthrough late last year with a three-phase deal. The first phase received Khartoum's approval, and allows for light UN support for the AU. But the Sudanese government has been wary of moving any further into the second and third phases, which could see as many as 20,000 UN troops deployed in Darfur.

Bush Defeated by the US Supreme Court in Global Warming Case

Supreme Court, which for the first time decided in a case that deals with global warming. The heavily divided court decided with an extremely small majority (5 to 4) that the federal government has the authority under a 1990 clean air law to cap carbon dioxide and other emissions from vehicles that are blamed for global warming.

Under this law, the Environmental Protection Agency sets limits on how much of a pollutant can be in the air anywhere in the United States. This ensures that all Americans have the same basic health and environmental protections.

However, in 2003, after a group of private organizations petitioned the agency to begin regulating the emissions of four greenhouse gases (including CO2), EPA refused to do so, invoking the fact that it… lacked the power.

In its historical decision, the Supreme Court wrote that “EPA’s steadfast refusal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions presents a risk of harm to Massachusetts [because of the global warming that reduces its coastal land] that is both ‘actual’ and ‘imminent,’, and there is a ‘substantial likelihood that the judicial relief requested’ will prompt EPA to take steps to reduce that risk”.


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sweet jesus

Artist Cosimo Cavallaro who made the chocolate sculpture uses food as his medium. His past efforts include repainting a Manhattan hotel room in melted mozzarella, spraying five tons of pepper jack cheese on a Wyoming home, and festooning a four-poster bed with 312 pounds of processed ham, reports WCBS affiliate in New York. Cosimo Cavallaro's anatomically-correct candy Christ, titled "My Sweet Lord," was made from almost 200 pounds of dark chocolate. The sculpture is to be displayed in a street-level window at the Roger Smith Hotel's Lab Gallery on E. 47th St. starting Monday. Holy Week for Christians is now upon us, and Catholics have been vociferous in their disapproval of one of Cavallaro's offerings of culinary art.

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