Nexus - 0406 - New Times Magazine-pages

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... GLOBAL NEWS ... NEWS ANIMALS HIT THE HEADLINES ember states of the European Union have agreed to change the legal defi- nition of animals to "sentient beings", rather than goods or agricultural products, when formulating agriculture, transport and research policies. But the new defini- tion is unlikely to affect the way animals are used in research. (Source: Nature, Vol. 388, 3 July 1997) R* and mice have developed the abili- ty to chew through layers of plastic and metal, and gnaw their way into fridges and freezers in their frenzy to find the food they crave. Fast-food chains are partly to blame as they provide a constant source of fried fish, chicken and hamburgers. As TV documentary-maker Maurice Melzak says, some mice and rats are now unable to digest their usual diets and crave the fats and proteins found in fast food. (Sources: The Sunday Telegraph, 13 July 1997, Daily Mail, London, 5 July 1997) Scaculls are getting hungrier and smarter. In southern Argentina, giant seagulls which have grown well beyond their normal size—thanks to a diet of rub- bish and fish scraps dumped by local fleets—have taken to swooping on top of whales and gouging out chunks of flesh. According to local whale-watching groups, the seagulls cause wounds up to seven centimetres deep and cause intense pain to the whales and their calves. Mente: in Toronto, Canada, seag- ulls have taken to guiding and herd- Recently declassified documents from the Public Record Office show that dis- charges from the Atomic Energy Authority's sites at Aldermaston, Harwell, and Amersham into the Thames began in secret in 1948. According to the documents, radioactive effluent was fed into the river by way of the River Colne, upstream of the intake pipes for London's drinking supply. (Source: The Weekly Telegraph, London, 16-22 July 1997) ing flocks of migrating birds so that they crash into skyscraper windows. The gulls then dive down and feed off the corpses. Daniel Klem of the University of Pennsylvania calculates that lit-up build- ings and smokestacks kill hundreds of mil- lions of birds every year in North America. (Sources: The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 August 1997; New Scientist, 6 Sept. 1997) MAGGOT THERAPY BLOWS IN alifornian medical researcher Dr Ronald Sherman is reporting successes with the age-old use of live maggots, Phaenicia sericata, to treat open wounds. Working at the University of California's Irvine Medical Center, Dr Sherman, with 15 years of research behind him, is leading the drive to increase the use of maggot therapy around the world. Operating like a natural antibiotic, the maggots eat the dead tissue in a wound, then kill any lingering bacteria by excret- ing a solution similar to ammonia. As an alternative to conventional antibi- otics, maggot therapy is being hailed as a weapon in the treatment of bedsores, leg ulcers, diabetic foot wounds and stubborn post-surgical infections. Dr Sherman grows maggots—larvae propagated by the green blowfly—in ster- ile conditions in his laboratory. The flies that lay the eggs which hatch into maggots are force-fed on Gainers Fuel 1000, a sup- plement popular with many bodybuilders. Up to 20,000 maggot eggs are placed in a STUDY SHOWS HRT INCREASES BREAST CANCER RISK Prewnsss use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) increases the risk of breast cancer by up to 100 per cent, according to data from the US Nurses' Health Study which followed 60,000 post- menopausal women for 18 years. The study found that 10 years' use of oestrogen alone increased the risk of breast cancer by 30 to 40 per cent compared with women of the same age who never used postmenopausal HRT. (Source: Australian Doctor, 29 August 1997) UNSEEN CORPORATE CHIEFS CONTROL EUROPE F: the last 15 years Europe has, in effect, been run not by politicians or bureaucrats but by a little-known group of transnational corporations called the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT). A report called "Europe Inc.", released by the Dutch-based Corporate Europe Observatory, shows that the ERT was the driving force behind the EEC's internal market in the 1980s, the 1991 Maastricht Treaty and the social welfare-cutting sin- gle currency. Founded in 1983, the ERT is made up of 45 business leaders from large European transnational corporations whose com- bined turnover approaches US$880 billion. They include BP, Shell, Daimler-Benz, Fiat and Siemens. Their aim is to shape EC policies towards their preferences. Corporate Europe Observatory researchers investigated ERT documents and European Union files and carried out extensive interviews with representatives of lobby groups supported by transnational corporations. (Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 August 1997) NEXUS -7 OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1997