While You Were Sleeping: December

The gist of what you may have missed

by Francis Cruz, November 26, 2007

Organic food is healthier than conventional agricultural methods, according to a European Union–funded study, the largest of its kind. The $24.8 million, fouryear project found organic produce contained as much as 40 percent more antioxidants, believed by scientists to reduce risks of cancer and heart disease. Organic milk contained 90 percent more antioxidants than that produced by regular herds. Researchers grew produce and reared cattle on two adjacent organic and nonorganic lots on a 725-acre farm attached to Newcastle University, and in sites across Europe. Tomatoes grown in Greece show higher levels of antioxidants, including flavonoids said to reduce coronary heart disease. The results of the study are under review by the British Food Standards Agency, which has refused to recognize the health benefits of organically produced food.
Source: Sunday Times (UK)

According to the Internal Revenue Service, the richest 1 percent of Americans earned 21.2 percent of all US income in 2005, indicating the widest class gap in 25 years. The top 1 percent earned at least $364,657. The top 50 percent of Americans earned 87.17 percent of the nation’s income in 2005, also an alltime high.
Source: Reuters

The eight Great Lake states and two Canadian provinces proposed a regional water compact to strengthen a ban on diverting water outside of the Great Lakes Basin. The lakes account for nearly 20 percent of the world’s fresh surface water and are home to 40 million Americans and Canadians. Waukesha, a Milwaukee suburb, wants water from Lake Michigan because its groundwater is contaminated by cancer-causing radium. However, Waukesha is just outside of the Great Lakes Basin and any water piped there would drain outside the regional aquifer, slowly depleting the basin. If an exception is made for Waukesha, only 10 or 15 miles outside the basin, the door would open to allow piping to the thirsty western and southern states with diminishing water supplies.
Source: Chicago Tribune

The Namibian government deported two Americans said to be recruiting as many as 4,000 Namibians as guards for the US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The two were charged with violating Namibian laws against hiring citizens to work as mercenaries and security guards in foreign conflicts without the government’s written permission. Their company, Special Operations Consulting-Security Management Group is allied with a South African firm. Because of the large numbers of former soldiers who fought in regional conflicts in the 1980s and ’90s, Southern Africa is a top region for the recruitment of mercenaries and security guards. Despite the UN Security Council and General Assembly’s opposition to the use of mercenaries, hiring foreign soldiers by one country for use in a third is only illegal in the 30 countries that ratified a 1989 treaty against it—neither the US nor Iraq signed. Over the past 14 months experts visited Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Fiji to investigate recruiting and training methods of private security contractors. Large numbers of former soldiers and policemen were hired as security guards but many were carrying out military functions. The private soldiers in US conflict zones hail from Latin America, Spain, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, the Philippines, Fiji, and more. Under national laws, once in areas of armed conflict private military and security forces are granted immunity and only accountable to the company that pays them. After the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians at the hands of Blackwater USA personnel, the immunity for what otherwise might constitute a war crime has become a concern for UN officials.
Sources: The New York Times and Associated Press