A pair of high school kids did a DNA-barcode test on New York City sushi and found that one-quarter of the fish they tested was really a cheaper species than what the seller said. The kids, Kate Stoeckle and Louisa Strauss, got some help from Eugene Wong, a graduate student at the University of Guelph in Ontario, but these new quick DNA tests show both how easy testing is becoming -- and how prevalent fish fraud is.

The girls sampled 60 different kinds of sushi, then Wong ran them up against the growing library of DNA at the Fish-Barcode of Life. He could get a reading on 57 samples and found that 14 of them were mislabeled. And all the labeling errors went in the seller's favor, making the fish more expensive.

The most mislabeled fish was red snapper: seven of nine samples (77%) were really something else. Most egregiously, some of it was really the endangered Acadian redfish. Their results are no fluke. This spring the Chicago Sun-Times did a great investigation on Chicago sushi and found all 14 of its samples of red snapper were fake, mostly the cheaper tilapia. They say a congressional report found that 37% of fish and 80% of red snapper sold in America is mislabeled. That's consistent with a 2004 University of North Carolina study that found 75% of red snapper was fake.

The mislabeling is an obvious fraud. I'm not worried about the fish connoisseurs who pays extra for some fancy species. If they can't taste the difference, they were wasting their money anyway. I am worried about two other groups of eaters who are totally getting cheated: pregnant women and anyone paying extra to help conserve the world's shrinking fish stocks.

Pregnant women are the biggest worry. They aren't supposed to eat fish that live a long time like shark, mackerel, tilefish or swordfish and only eat a little light tuna because they are the ones that are likely to have more mercury built up in their systems. Mercury causes birth defects. The fish industry likes to play up fish's omega-3 health benefits and say that women just have to avoid certain species. But that's impossible when so much fish is totally mislabeled.

The other group I'm concerned about are the eaters who pay attention to what kinds of fish they should and shouldn't eat for environmental reasons. Here they're paying more not for taste, but to help save fish species, ecosystems and fishing communities. The red snapper wasn't that great of a fish to eat for the environment anyway. The National Marine Fisheries Service rates the red snapper as over-fished and that red snapper fishermen also accidentally catch a lot of sea turtles. The Gulf of Mexico has only 6% of what it needs for a sustainable breeding population. But certainly nobody expected to be eating an endangered fish.

As the DNA tests become more available, I hope more people will be doing them. One company, IdentiGEN Ltd., is even pushing DNA barcode testing as a way to make ensure the identity of pork sold as being as Nature's Premium Brand -- which treats the pigs humanely and doesn't feed them meat or anti-biotics. Geez, with private companies and high school kids using DNA-code testing, maybe some day it will occur to the regulators in charge of food safety to try it.

Researchers discovered that cattle have a good sense of direction and tend to point in a northerly direction.

It has long been observed that cows appear to have a talent for weather forecasting and are able to predict when rain is on the way, but until now their navigational abilities have been largely ignored.

Their innate ability to find north is believed to be a relic from the days when their wild ancestors needed an accurate sense of direction to migrate across the plains of Africa, Asia and Europe.

Dr Sabine Begall and colleagues from the University of Duisburg-Essen looked at thousands of images of cattle on Google Earth in Britain, Ireland, India and the USA. They also studied 3,000 deer in the Czech Republic. The deer tended to face north when resting or grazing.

Although, in many cases, the images were not clear enough to determine which way the cattle were facing they were aligned on a north/south axis.

The scientists concluded that they were behaving in the same way as the deer.

Huge variations in the wind direction and sunlight in the areas where the beasts were found meant that the scientists were able to rule out those factors as being responsible for the direction they were facing.

"We conclude that the magnetic field is the only common and most likely factor responsible for the observed alignment," the scientists wrote in an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

It is already known that many species use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate across the planet. Examples include migratory turtles, salmon, termites and birds.

Animals are thought to use their own internal magnets made of crystals of magnetite. Homing pigeons have a small amount of the substance on their beaks, which gives them their uncannily accurate powers of navigation.

The number of confirmed cases and deaths linked to listeriosis have risen as recalls of Maple Leaf Foods products increased, according to public health officials.

There are now 26 confirmed cases of the bacterium, Listeria monocytogenes, up from 21, Dr. Mark Raizenne, director general of the Public Health Agency of Canada's centre for food-borne, environmental and zoonotic infectious diseases, said Monday afternoon at a news conference in Ottawa.

Of those 26, there are 12 confirmed deaths, up from four in Ontario and B.C., Raizenne said. Eleven deaths were in Ontario and one was in B.C., he said. The listeria strain was the underlying or contributing factor in seven of those 12 deaths but the other five, which had the bacterium in their system, are still under investigation, he said.

The number of suspected cases is now 29, down from 30, he said. Those cases are in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan.

Public health officials said over the weekend to expect the number of suspected and confirmed cases of listeriosis to increase as the investigation continues because of the bacterium's long incubation period.

The numbers also have changed because provincial public health officials have redefined how they count people affected by the listeria outbreak strain, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said.

"Our number of confirmed cases will include anyone that had this strain in their body at the time of death, whether it's the actual cause of death or not," he said.

He said this altered the death count and that the change in the case definition was made to "ensure the numbers are as comprehensive as possible."

When government lab tests linked the outbreak strain to some recalled products made by Maple Leaf Foods over the weekend, the company expanded its recall as a precaution to include everything that was made at its plant in Toronto.

Earlier on Monday, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency also said Calgary-based Lucerne Foods was recalling 27 kinds of sandwiches because some contained Maple Leaf Foods deli meats involved in the massive recall.Lucerne Foods, a Calgary-based distributor of sandwiches, has recalled 27 types of sandwiches sold in Saskatchewan and Alberta. (Larry MacDougal/CP)
The sandwiches are sold under the Safeway and TakeAway Café brands at Safeway and Mac's convenience stores in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Lists of the recalled sandwiches and other meat products are available on the CFIA's website.

There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of the sandwiches, the agency said.

More cases of listeriosis expected
On Sunday, federal Health Minister Tony Clement said the number of cases is expected to rise, since people can be infected for a length of time before showing symptoms.

Symptoms of listeriosis — which include high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea — occur up to 70 days after consuming contaminated food, though the average incubation period is 30 days, the federal food agency said.

Clement's comment came a day after government lab tests showed a conclusive link between the bacteria strain in the listeriosis outbreak to one in some products recalled earlier this month by Maple Leaf Foods.

The test results prompted the company to expand its voluntary recall Saturday to all 220 products made at the Toronto plant as a precaution.

Plant's reopening delayed
The scheduled reopening of the Bartor Road Maple Leaf plant on Monday was postponed to Tuesday due to transportation problems shipping out products so all rooms could be cleaned, company spokeswoman Linda Smith said. But Ritz said the reopening likely won't happen until the end of the week at best and the plant production lines and foods would be tested before any products go to store shelves.

Smith said the problem is a "very localized situation specific" to two of the facility's production lines, which have been dismantled and sanitized under the supervision of microbiologists.

She acknowledged that inspectors failed to detect listeria in this case, but they are constantly swabbing for the bacterium.

"Did we find it? Absolutely not. We did not find that listeria," she said. "Did we let people down? Yes. But we were doing the right things."

Smith said Maple Leaf's practices "meet or exceed regulatory standards by a substantial margin."

"We're inspected regularly by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. All of our plants are federally registered, the highest level of food safety in Canada and they have full-time inspectors on site," she said.

Rick Holley, a food science professor with the University of Manitoba, said he wasn't surprised to learn of the listeria outbreak since Canada's tracking of food-related illnesses is inadequate.

"I am constantly troubled by the lack of surveillance information on food-borne and water-borne illnesses in Canada," said Holley.

He said the United States tracks down each type of food-borne illness, resulting in safer practices and better detection.

Maple Leaf Foods estimates the recall will directly cost the company at least $20 million, with further losses expected due to lost sales and advertising to rebuild its image.

The recalled meats bear the establishment number of the Toronto facility, 97B, on their packages next to the best before or packed on dates. That establishment number will not appear on the sandwiches.

People most at risk include newborns, the elderly, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, public health officials said. The public should wash produce and avoid unpasteurized milk and dairy products, the CFIA advised.

Public health and company officials said the source of the contamination may never be found since listeria is so widespread and commonly found in the environment, such as in soil and in water.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Sci Fi Channel isn't about to let down "Stargate" fans.
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The network is set to announce the order of a new series from MGM Television, "Stargate: Universe," that will mark the third entry in Sci Fi's longest-running original series franchise.

The green light comes on the heels of Sci Fi's confirming Thursday that "Stargate: Atlantis" will not receive a sixth-season order. The "Universe" pickup ensures the continuation of the popular "Stargate" franchise, which has been on the air in various incarnations since 1997.

"Universe" -- which will premiere as a two-hour movie in early 2009 and assume a regular hourly slot in the summer -- introduces a team of explorers who find an ancient unmanned ship called the Destiny. Unable to return to Earth, the crew must fend for themselves aboard the ship, which has a preprogrammed mission taking them to the far reaches of the universe.

Brad Wright and Robert Cooper, co-creators of "Stargate: SG-1" and "Atlantis," will serve as executive producers and writers on the new series.

The show will involve more space-based action than "SG-1" or "Atlantis." With the "Star Trek" television franchise having folded in 2005 and Sci Fi's "Battlestar Galactica" airing its final episodes next year, the network hopes "Universe" will become sci-fi fans' new favorite space-travel series.

'YOUNGER VIBE'

"We've had great success with 'Enterprise' repeats on Monday night, and there's an appetite for space opera as 'Battlestar' goes away," Sci Fi president Dave Howe said. "There's an opportunity to keep the space opera as part of our programming strategy."

Howe said the new series will reinvigorate the franchise by targeting a younger audience.

"This is an opportunity to reinvent this franchise and make it relevant to a new generation," Howe said. "We really don't want to be more of the same. It's going to build clearly off the existing franchise but with a cast that gives it a younger vibe."

Said co-creators Wright and Cooper: "In 'Universe,' we plan to keep those elements that have made the franchise a success, such as adventure and humor, while breaking new ground in the relationships between mostly young and desperate explorers, thrust together and far from home. Above all, we believe the Stargate itself remains an enduring icon with infinite potential as a jumping-off point for telling stories."

Also on Thursday, Sci Fi announced an order for a two-hour "Atlantis" movie in lieu of a sixth-season order. Airing two-hour movies of such franchises as "Stargate" and "Galactica" and quickly releasing the films as stand-alone DVDs has been a successful strategy for the network. But the news depressed "Stargate" fans, who saw the long-running sci-fi television franchise, like "Star Trek" a few years back, being retired as a weekly series.

"SG-1" ran for 10 seasons, launching on Showtime in 1997 and moving to Sci Fi after its fifth season. The spinoff "Atlantis" premiered in 2004 and will mark its 100th episode this year. Friday night airings of "Atlantis" have averaged more than 2 million viewers per episode.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

When Michael Phelps was a kid, his primary school teacher told his mother he would never amount to anything because he was unable to focus.

When Phelps won the first of his 14 Olympic gold medals, in Athens in 2004, he remembered those words as he stood on the podium and listened to the "Stars and Stripes".

Despite being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at the age of nine, Phelps went to prove that teacher spectacularly wrong.

"He was a very energetic little guy, always all over the place, 'Why are we doing this? When are we doing this? What are we doing next?'," his mother Debbie told Reuters in an interview.

"Naughty isn't a word that I would use, he was playful, inventive," she added. "Definitely athletics channeled a lot of that energy."

By Michael's own account, naughty is a word some people might have used.

In his autobiography, he talks of being a "pool rat, running around, sneaking up behind people, stealing their snacks and goggles, tapping them on the shoulder and running away and just causing general havoc".

He was a handful at the dinner table too, because he always had to do something with his hands.

"In my middle fingers I liked to twirl pens and pencils, but if they weren't available at dinner, I might try to substitute a salt shaker or steak knife. I should have known I couldn't twirl glasses of milk."

His mother, not surprisingly, loved the fact Phelps swam because she wanted him to burn as much energy as possible.

They are a close family, and Phelps hugged his mother and two sisters after winning his eighth gold of the Beijing Olympics. It is an achievement she says made her "very, very proud".

GREATEST OLYMPIAN

In between watching her son becoming perhaps the greatest Olympian ever, Debbie runs a school in Baltimore County, Maryland and has recently been signed up to a discussion group on Facebook giving advice to "ADHD Moms" (http://www.facebook.com/ADHDMoms).

She says her son's extraordinary focus on swimming is common to many hyperactive children, unable to sit still for more than a few minutes at school but capable of devoting themselves entirely to something they love doing.

"You find children who have ADHD are very creative individuals, very determined, and they can focus, they can focus very intently on something that they love," she said.

"It is very important to be able to allow your child to experience all sorts of things, to be able to focus on what they enjoy and what they have a passion for."

Such is Michael's extraordinary obsession, he talks of "sleepswimming" as a child, waking the family up with a shout of "one, two, three.. go". Even now, he says he literally dreams some races in advance, from start to finish, or visualizes every "dive, glide, stroke, flip" as he is falling asleep.

What Debbie finds most extraordinary, though, is her son's mental clock, the way he can judge how fast he needs to go against the clock and deliver the exact time his coach demands.

Phelps' parents separated when he was young, his sister Whitney's successful swimming career derailed by a bad back and an eating disorder.

Phelps, though, makes it clear he drew enormous strength from the closeness of his family, and especially his mother's support.

He took medication to address the symptoms of ADHD, as do around 1 in 25 children in the United States, but only on schooldays and not at weekends or holidays.

After a while, he weaned himself off even that, and has become an extraordinarily calm individual in the public eye.

"He is quite relaxed, in fact I get more worked up," said Debbie. "I feel he is definitely settled, and if there is hyperactivity, he is able to handle it very calmly."

And what about the schoolteacher who wrote him off? Debbie resists the temptation to crow, simply saying "she did not understand Michael at all".

OSLO (Reuters) - Doubts surfaced over the future of military cooperation between NATO and Russia on Wednesday after Norway said Moscow had informed it of a decision to freeze all joint work with the alliance in the row over Georgia.

However Russia's ambassador to NATO played down any future steps, saying the decisions were "of temporary character, of regional character, not global character". A NATO spokeswoman said it had no notification of a Russian move.

"Norway has noted that Russia has decided for the time being to 'freeze' all military cooperation with NATO and allied countries," Norway's Defence Ministry said on its website.

A defence ministry spokeswoman told Reuters that Moscow had sent "a message" to Oslo -- with which it has had warm relations -- about the freeze but declined to provide further details.

On Tuesday NATO countries agreed after U.S. pressure on to freeze regular contacts with Russia until Moscow had withdrawn its troops from Georgia in line with a peace deal.

NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said the alliance had heard nothing from Moscow on military cooperation. "NATO has not received any notification from the Russians saying they are going to cut military cooperation activities," she said.

Russian envoy Dmitry Rogozin said curtailing contacts was "in nobody's interest". "Temporary decisions are being taken on current cooperation and not about cooperation in general," he told Reuters in English.

Asked which areas these involved, he said: "Military naval exercises in the Far East, the Mediterranean, in the Baltic."

NO DECISION

However he said no decision had been taken to end cooperation with the alliance's big operation against Islamist militancy in Afghanistan, under which Moscow allows the transit of non-lethal equipment for NATO via its territory.

"This is not going to happen. If Afghanistan is the new Vietnam for the Americans then it will be a problem for Russia itself ... We are not interested in the alliance's failure in Afghanistan."

Months of tension between Georgia and Russia erupted on August 7, when Tbilisi sought to regain control of the breakaway South Ossetia region. Russia launched a massive counter-offensive that extended into the Georgian heartland.

Russia has been incensed by NATO's promise of membership to Georgia. This would take NATO right up to Russia's southern border and many analysts believe a similar promise of membership for Ukraine was behind this month's fighting.

Washington responded to Russian intervention in Georgia by excluding Moscow from discussions among the Group of Eight nations and making clear that Russia's membership of bodies like the World Trade Organization could be in jeopardy.

NATO has also barred a Russian ship from joining an anti-terrorism exercise and did not agree to a Russian request for an emergency meeting on the crisis in the Caucasus.

Norwegian Deputy Defence Minister Espen Barth Eide told the online version of newspaper Aftenposten that Oslo's relations with Russia had "cooled off".

"We wish to continue the cooperation with Russia as far as possible but now the conflict with Russia has escalated further. It's a quite demanding security policy landscape that's developing," Eide was quoted as saying.

Norway and Russia share a border in the Arctic and have good working relations in areas ranging from fishing rights to the exploitation of natural resources. A large swathe of the Barents Sea has overlapping claims by both Oslo and Moscow, however..

(Reporting by Wojciech Moskwa and Richard Solem in Oslo, Amie Ferris-Rotman in Moscow and David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Editing by Giles Elgood)

College presidents seek debate on drinking age

By JUSTIN POPE, Associated Press Writer Mon Aug 18, 3:07 PM ET

College presidents from about 100 of the nation's best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.


The movement called the Amethyst Initiative began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago to provoke national debate about the drinking age.

"This is a law that is routinely evaded," said John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont who started the organization. "It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory."

Other prominent schools in the group include Syracuse, Tufts, Colgate, Kenyon and Morehouse.

But even before the presidents begin the public phase of their efforts, which may include publishing newspaper ads in the coming weeks, they are already facing sharp criticism.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving says lowering the drinking age would lead to more fatal car crashes. It accuses the presidents of misrepresenting science and looking for an easy way out of an inconvenient problem. MADD officials are even urging parents to think carefully about the safety of colleges whose presidents have signed on.

"It's very clear the 21-year-old drinking age will not be enforced at those campuses," said Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of MADD.

Both sides agree alcohol abuse by college students is a huge problem.

Research has found more than 40 percent of college students reported at least one symptom of alcohol abuse or dependance. One study has estimated more than 500,000 full-time students at four-year colleges suffer injuries each year related in some way to drinking, and about 1,700 die in such accidents.

A recent Associated Press analysis of federal records found that 157 college-age people, 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005.

Moana Jagasia, a Duke University sophomore from Singapore, where the drinking age is lower, said reducing the age in the U.S. could be helpful.

"There isn't that much difference in maturity between 21 and 18," she said. "If the age is younger, you're getting exposed to it at a younger age, and you don't freak out when you get to campus."

McCardell's group takes its name from ancient Greece, where the purple gemstone amethyst was widely believed to ward off drunkenness if used in drinking vessels and jewelry. He said college students will drink no matter what, but do so more dangerously when it's illegal.

The statement the presidents have signed avoids calling explicitly for a younger drinking age. Rather, it seeks "an informed and dispassionate debate" over the issue and the federal highway law that made 21 the de facto national drinking age by denying money to any state that bucks the trend.

But the statement makes clear the signers think the current law isn't working, citing a "culture of dangerous, clandestine binge-drinking," and noting that while adults under 21 can vote and enlist in the military, they "are told they are not mature enough to have a beer." Furthermore, "by choosing to use fake IDs, students make ethical compromises that erode respect for the law."

"I'm not sure where the dialogue will lead, but it's an important topic to American families and it deserves a straightforward dialogue," said William Trout, president of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., who has signed the statement.

But some other college administrators sharply disagree that lowering the drinking age would help. University of Miami President Donna Shalala, who served as secretary of health and human services under President Clinton, declined to sign.

"I remember college campuses when we had 18-year-old drinking ages, and I honestly believe we've made some progress," Shalala said in a telephone interview. "To just shift it back down to the high schools makes no sense at all."

McCardell claims that his experiences as a president and a parent, as well as a historian studying Prohibition, have persuaded him the drinking age isn't working.

But critics say McCardell has badly misrepresented the research by suggesting that the decision to raise the drinking age from 18 to 21 may not have saved lives.

In fact, MADD CEO Chuck Hurley said, nearly all peer-reviewed studies looking at the change showed raising the drinking age reduced drunk-driving deaths. A survey of research from the U.S. and other countries by the Centers for Disease Control and others reached the same conclusion.

McCardell cites the work of Alexander Wagenaar, a University of Florida epidemiologist and expert on how changes in the drinking age affect safety. But Wagenaar himself sides with MADD in the debate.

The college presidents "see a problem of drinking on college campuses, and they don't want to deal with it," Wagenaar said in a telephone interview. "It's really unfortunate, but the science is very clear."

Another scholar who has extensively researched college binge-drinking also criticized the presidents' initiative.

"I understand why colleges are doing it, because it splits their students, and they like to treat them all alike rather than having to card some of them. It's a nuisance to them," said Henry Wechsler of the Harvard School of Public Health.

But, "I wish these college presidents sat around and tried to work out ways to deal with the problem on their campus rather than try to eliminate the problem by defining it out of existence," he said.

Duke faced accusations of ignoring the heavy drinking that formed the backdrop of 2006 rape allegations against three lacrosse players. The rape allegations proved to be a hoax, but the alcohol-fueled party was never disputed.

Duke senior Wey Ruepten said university officials should accept the reality that students are going to drink and give them the responsibility that comes with alcohol.

"If you treat students like children, they're going to act like children," he said.

Duke President Richard Brodhead declined an interview request. But he wrote in a statement on the Amethyst Initiative's Web site that the 21-year-old drinking age "pushes drinking into hiding, heightening its risks." It also prevents school officials "from addressing drinking with students as an issue of responsible choice."

Hurley, of MADD, has a different take on the presidents.

"They're waving the white flag," he said.

Just days after insurgents shot and killed two Canadian aid workers in eastern Afghanistan, the Taliban is warning similar attacks will occur.

The extremist group issued the warning in a letter posted on the internet, and the CBC confirmed its authenticity on Sunday after talking to Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid in Kandahar province.

The letter said Canadians should pressure their government to withdraw Canada's troops from Afghanistan and follow a neutral policy regarding Afghanistan or "the Afghans will be obliged to killed your nationals."

"Events such as Logar will happen again," the letter said, referring to an ambush an Aug. 13 that killed Canadian aid workers Jacqueline Kirk of Montreal and Shirley Case of Williams Lake, B.C., along with Trinidadian-American aid worker Nicole Dial and the group's Afghan driver, Mohammad Aimal.

"The Afghans did not go to Canada to kill Canadians. Rather it is the Canadians who came to Afghanistan to kill and torture the Afghans to please the fascist regime of America," the letter said.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday the threat toward Canadians is nothing more than a propaganda exercise and that it won't affect the government's policy on Afghanistan.

Most of the 23 aid workers killed in Afghanistan in the first eight months of 2008 were Afghans, although the attack on workers with the International Rescue Commission last week was the worst single attack on foreigners in several years.

Insurgents most often rely on roadside bombs to target foreign forces and those seen to support their presence.

On Saturday night, a roadside explosion killed 10 Afghan police officers in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province. The region's police chief, Mutillah Khan, blamed the deadly bombing on Taliban militants.

About 650 Afghan security forces have been killed in roadside bomb blasts and other attacks in the last five months, according to the Afghan interior ministry.