Eating blueberries helps build strong bones, suggests study

Thursday, June 30, 2011
by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer

(NaturalNews) Move over calcium, there is a new bone builder in town. Research published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research back in 2010 showed that blueberry compounds helped improve bone development in lab rats, and new research conducted by the same team of scientists is now investigating how the fruit works in humans to boost bone development.

Jin-Ran Chen and his colleagues from the Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center in Little Rock recently received funding from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to explore bone development in humans during infancy, childhood, and early adulthood. Part of this includes studying how blueberry compounds play a role in bone development.

In their first study, Chen and his colleagues observed that blueberry polyphenols, which are the pigments in the fruit that give them their bluish, purple, and red colors, are clearly associated with building strong, healthy bones. Rats fed freeze-dried blueberry powder as ten percent of their diets developed significantly more bone mass than rats not fed the powder, which spurred further research into which blueberry compounds were responsible for this amazing effect.

Blood samples taken from the blueberry-fed rats revealed high rates of phenolic acids, the antioxidant compounds believed to help improve bone development. When blood serum taken from the blueberry-fed rats was applied to lab cultures of osteoblasts, the cells responsible for forming bones, researchers noted that osteoblasts formed into mature, functional bone cells much more quickly than they otherwise would apart from exposure to the polyphenol-rich serum.

TCF and LEF, two types of human genes, promote the synthesis of beta-catenin, a type of protein. Beta-catenin is responsible for telling osteoblasts to form into fully mature bone cells, and it is blueberry polyphenols' interaction with these various human components that Chen and his team believe is responsible for improved bone synthesis.

Source: NaturalNews.
Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/032861_blueberries_strong_bones.html.

Former army commander announces candidacy for president

Colombo – The Sri Lankan army commander who led the military victory over separatist Tamil rebels this year officially announced his candidacy for president Sunday. General Sarath Fonseka, who survived a rebel suicide bomb attack in 2006 and commanded the army to victory in May will challenge the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the January 26 elections.

"Two years back I promised that I will never leave the war to be completed by another commander of the army and I have done exactly what I have said," Fonseka told a news conference.

He will stand as a candidate for the opposition United National Alliance.

Fonseka said his objective was be elected and then abolish the executive presidential system, which he said was leading to a "dictatorship" benefiting one family.

He pledged to work toward ending corruption, restoring democracy and improving the economy.

Fonseka said he was not satisfied with how tens of thousands of war refugees were being treated and objected to the government's resettlement programs.

"The government has failed to look after the displaced persons," he said referring to the 300,000 minority Tamils war refugees, of which 130,000 remain in camps in the northern part of the country.

Two weeks after Fonseka led the army to victory on May 18, he was relieved of his command and appointed to be chief of defense staff, a ceremonial post. That demotion caused him to break with the government.

Government ministers who hailed Fonseka as a war hero have started criticizing him for joining the opposition.

"The former army commander has fallen in a local and international conspiracy," Agriculture Minister Maithriapala Sirisena said.

President Rajapaksa and Fonseka both claim credit for winning the war, and the issue is likely to be key to the electoral campaign.

Yahoo improves its search engine

Munich - Searches on the Yahoo engine should soon deliver more results, thanks in part to new filter functions, reports the company. Those new filters could allow a searcher, for example, to limit results to those found on major websites like Amazon or Wikipedia. The company also reports that its filter allows searches by related terms.

The engine's search methods have also been upgraded, reports Yahoo. It now analyzes the search habit of users over a certain period of time to come up with logical connections between past and present searches.

"For example, if the word 'Paris' is input followed by 'flights' or 'affordable hotels,' then Yahoo Search understands that a person is looking for travel information and not for gossip about Paris Hilton.

Son of late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos seeks senate seat

Manila - Congressman Ferdinand Marcos Junior, son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, on Saturday filed his certificate of candidacy for senator in next year's elections. It will be the second attempt of a Marcos scion to seek a national post since Imelda Marcos, the widow of the late dictator, lost her presidential bid in 1992.

The Marcoses and their associates were forced into exile in Hawaii in February 1986 after they were chased out of the country by a mass of protesters in a four-day bloodless uprising led by the late democracy icon and former president Corazon Aquino.

Bongbong, as Marcos Junior is called, said he believes that he can greatly contribute as a senator in providing a leadership that will uplift the lives of the country's impoverished millions.

He vowed to push for reforms in education and economy and to fight graft and corruption.

Bongbong claims that being a son of a dictator is not disadvantageous to his bid.

"There seems to be this assumption that my name is becoming a hindrance," he said. "I am proud and I feel very lucky to be a Marcos. The fact that my name is Ferdinand Marcos has been nothing but advantageous to my entire political career. I consider myself to be lucky to be born out of a remarkable parents and public servants."

The young Marcos is running under the ticket of Nacionalista Party whose presidential bet is real-estate magnate Manuel Villar. Villar was expected to file his certificate of candidacy on Monday.

UNICEF worker killed in southern Philippines

Manila - A Filipino worker with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) was shot dead by an unidentified gunman in the southern Philippines, a police report said Friday. Police identified the victim as Nestor Bulahan, an employee of the UNICEF in Cotabato City, 960 kilometres south of Manila.

Bulahan was shot by the lone gunman while waiting for a friend at a passenger terminal in nearby Parang town in Maguindano province, the police report said.

He was shot in the abdomen and died while being treated in a nearby hospital, the report added.

Investigators were still determining a motive for the killing, police said.

The shooting occurred despite heightened security in Maguindanao, where 57 civilians were killed in a massacre linked to a political rivalry in Ampatuan town.

Helping The Lost Dead Of World War II Rest In Peace

During battles at the end of World War II, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians never got a decent burial. For almost 30 years, one man has been finding these bodies and helping them rest in peace.

The first thing one sees is a jawbone. Erwin Kowalke picks it carefully up out of the loamy soil and sets it in a small, gray cardboard coffin sitting next to the freshly unearthed grave. Two probes of his spade later he pulls out a skull.

"This boy was about 20. Not much older," he says, pointing out the well-preserved teeth. "The wisdom teeth aren't quite in yet." In all likelihood, he's handling the remains of a Soviet soldier. The teeth are a clue. "Russians were differently nourished. That's why their teeth are ground down more than Germans," he explains.

When he finds a decomposed leather shoe a few minutes later, his suspicions are confirmed. "This is a Russian," Kowalke reports. The shoe has a knobby rubber sole. "And those belonged only to soldiers of the Red Army."

Kowalke is a specialist in his field. He started working for the German War Graves Association (VDK) in 1980 and ever since he has traveled to the last battlefields of the World Wars to do his job. He is actually retired these days but he continues to volunteer for the organization, which has located, identified and buried German soldiers since 1919. And Kowalke's expertise is in demand. After the Balkan wars of the 1990s, he spent months in the former Yugoslavia uncovering and identifying bodies.

Kowalke pulls about 10 bodies a day out of what was once blood-soaked ground in the east of Berlin. Around 60,000 people died in the Battle of Halbe during the last few days of April in 1945 toward the end of World War II. The Red Army annihilated the remains of Germany's Ninth Army in the last major battle of the war. In the battle of Seelow Heights, east of Berlin, around 50,000 German, Russian and Polish soldiers were killed in the space of a few days. Only a few were properly buried. The majority were simply hurriedly covered up. And thousands of them are apparently still buried somewhere in Brandenburg.

These bodies are usually found during the course of road building or when unexploded bombs are being sought. Metal detectors pick up anything metallic. "And if the guy had a field shovel or a weapon on him, then we have him," Kowalke says. That's what happened this time. The metal detector beeped because the fallen soldier had a helmet, bayonet and pistol underneath him. Munitions excavation crews are responsible for the weaponry. And Kowalke is responsible for the dead.

'Not Exactly Digging For Potatoes'

Which is why the corpse expert is submerged up to his hips in a pit in a forest along the Oder-Havel canal northeast of Berlin. He digs carefully, so as not to accidentally damage any bones. "We're not exactly digging for potatoes," he notes. Suddenly, a second skull is revealed. It's no surprise though. Larger bomb craters will often contain more than one soldier.

He finds an enamel filling in a tooth. For Kowalke, this is an important clue that he's dealing with a German - the Russians didn't have that sort of amalgam filling at the time. Shortly afterwards he uncovers a broken yellow comb and a leather briefcase. Inside are a few coins but there is still no clue to the identity of the soldier. Nevetheless, Kowalke can tell he was about 25 years old and 1.7 meters (5 feet 7 inches) tall.

He reads the bones like a book. "From the size of the upper arm, for example, one can tell the overall height. And from the state of the end of the bone one can tell the age," he explains. When lightly rusted dog tags turns up in the big sieve used to sift the dirt around the bones, Kowalke can barely contain himself. "We'll soon know who you are," he says, addressing the corpse directly as is his wont. "The dog tags are like an identification document." After about three hours Kowalke carefully stows the remains of the three men discovered today, then he notes the details of his finds on a form.

Adding To A Morbid Collection

After Kowalke finds the remains, the case is turned over to the German Information Office (WASt), formerly known as the Wehrmacht Information Office for War Losses and P.O.W.s. For every number on an insignia, there exists a file which will indicate the fallen soldier's identity. In the chaos of war and its aftermath, a lot of information was lost. Nevertheless, the bureau is still the place to seek the identity of a fallen soldier after more than 60 years. Whether it's a wedding ring, an insignia, a rank or a love letter, the WASt gets all the personal items Kowalke finds. They're numbered, packed and compared with the files of 18 million members of the Wehrmacht, as the German armed forces were called during World War II. In the evidence room the belongings of soldiers whose relatives can't be found - dentures, watches, glasses - are collected.

Kowalke has been adding to this morbid collection for more than 30 years. The wiry 68-year-old is actually a cabinetmaker by trade. He tells of how, as an apprentice, he had to build a coffin as his first assignment. At the time he had absolutely no idea that dealing with the dead would become his career.

In 1980, he was asked by his minister in Buckow to take responsibility for war graves in the Oderland region. The fate of his father, killed in France in 1944, was another motivating factor. Kowalke still has vivid memories of a rainy day at the end of the 1980s when he stood by his father's grave in Andilly in Lothringen - which, with more than 30,000 graves, is the largest German war cemetery in France . He felt sad and happy at the same time: "Finally, I had a place to focus my grief." Additionally it is important to him to give those who lost brothers, sons and fathers a little knowledge.

Around 20,000 Dead Soldiers Found

Before 1990, that was no easy task. In the former East Germany (GDR), soldiers who had served in Hitler's army were viewed as wrongdoers and GDR leaders frowned upon according them any last honor or even last resting place. For this reason, Kowalke's unearthing, and then reburial, of fallen soldiers all had to be done under the auspices of the church.

It was only in 1990, the year of Germany's reunification, that what he did started to become accepted and publicly acknowledged. At that time, in the western part of Germany, there was no longer any official organization responsible for reburials and the search for the bodies of fallen German soldiers, from Scandinavia to North Africa, had generally been called off. However in the eastern part of the country, where the war's most deadly battles had been fought in early 1945, the work was really only just beginning. This was true for all of eastern Europe. And since 1990, Kowalke has dug up the bodies of 20,000 fallen soldiers.

Every year, Kowalke and his 25 colleagues, who search for fallen soldiers in Eastern Europe and Russia on behalf of the VDK, rebury between 35,000 and 40,000 soldiers. Generally the fallen soldiers are buried in the country they died in. For example, Russian soldiers found in Brandenburg are buried in a military graveyard in Lebus, a town north of Frankfurt an der Oder. Likewise, soldiers of the former Wehrmacht who died abroad are buried in German military cemeteries there. However relatives of the fallen are entitled to submit an application to the VDK requesting that their loved ones be buried in Germany.

The Worst Thing Is Finding Remains of Children

Kowalke has lost a lot of sleep thinking about his job and the fate of the young men he finds. Happily, over time, he has become accustomed to the situation and has even been able to find a greater sense of inner peace. Still, there are places that continue to haunt him, such as the area south of Berlin where the Battle of Halbe was fought. Here, at the very end of the war, tens of thousands of German soldiers in the Ninth Army and civilians died as they desperately tried to break through three lines of enemy forces to reach their comrades in the German Twelfth Army; all many of them wanted was to surrender to Western forces.

"When it comes to the Battle of Halbe," he pauses a moment, "I still feel my heart ache." The very hardest thing for him, as a father of two girls, is when he comes upon the remains of children. "Even after so many years," he says, "coming across a pair of small shoes with tiny ankle bones in them cannot help but affect you."

What worries him most is leaving someone behind, forgotten in the ground. "Here in Brandenburg, the war is far from over," he says, in a reference to an 18th-century Russian general who said that a war is only over once the last fallen soldier has been given an honorable burial. That kind of "end" to war is something that Kowalke, who has already been awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, Germany's highest civilian honor, would like most.

'God Loves Them All'

When it comes to reburial, he believes even the smallest details are of paramount importance. "If I overlook something," he stresses, "no one else can make up for that. It's gone forever." And it doesn't matter to him if the person who he recovers is German or Russian, a member of the SS or the Red Army. "After death, we are all the same," Kowalke says. "I might not know the poor guy. But God knows and loves them all."

Even more than six decades after the end of the war, there is still grieving to be done for the fallen. When reburial ceremonies are held, guests may include wives, children, grandchildren, former comrades in arms and even former class mates.

Kowalke recently attended the reburial of a soldier he had found. It was held in the German military cemetery in Halbe, which is the country's largest, with 28,000 graves. The family of the soldier was also there. There was his widow, his daughter and his granddaughter.

All of them laid their hands on the small, gray coffin once more before it was lowered into the ground. Then they sang the Bach hymn, "Befiehl Du Deine Wege" together. "At moments like that, I know exactly why I do this job," says Kowalke.

Greece, Cyprus reject Turkey's call for five-party summit on Cyprus

Exchanges between Greek prime minister George Papandreou and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan are raising some hopes of a new dynamic in negotiations on Cyprus, but Athens and Nicosia have made it clear that they do not accept Ankara’s call for five-party talks on the future of the island.

Cyprus has been divided since the 1974 invasion by Turkey, which continues to maintain a military deployment in the part designated "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" which Ankara is alone in recognizing.

Two factors have given potential impetus to engagements between Athens and Ankara on a number of vexed bilateral issues, including Cyprus – the election of George Papandreou as prime minister, seen as having a track record of making progress when previously foreign minister in negotiations with Turkey; and Ankara’s stated aspirations to EU membership, an issue due for discussion when the European Council meets on December 7 2009.

On October 30, Erdogan wrote to Papandreou with a series of proposals on solving bilateral disputes including Cyprus and the long-standing row about air space in the Aegean.

Media reports said that Papandreou had composed a reply, underlining that he welcomed Ankara’s readiness to solve the problems but, among other things, rejecting the idea of a multilateral summit on Cyprus outside the existing UN-backed process.

Turkish media said earlier that Ankara wanted a summit involving Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, the "Northern Cyprus" state on the future of the island, with some reports saying that Ankara also wanted the United Kingdom to participate.

On November 24, quoting Greek and Turkish media, Bulgarian news agency said that Turkey wanted to arrange a meeting of Greek and Turkish ministers to discuss Cyprus.

Ankara wants referendums to be held in Cyprus in early 2010 and in northern Cyprus before presidential elections there in April 2010, while the negotiations process would continue.

While there had been a positive sign in the October 9 meeting between Erdogan and Papandreou, Greece’s alternate foreign minister Dimitris Droutsas has made clear that Athens wants to see Turkey make genuine progress on a number of reforms if it wants to make progress in its EU hopes.

"(Turkey) must fully respect international law and Greece’s territorial integrity; it must respect human and minority rights; it must protect the rights of the Greek minority in Turkey;
it must respect religious freedoms and protect the Ecumenical Patriarchate rather than obstruct its operation; it must cooperate effectively on tackling illegal migration; it must contribute constructively to the resolution of the Cyprus issue. it must have good neighbourly relations with everyone; it must normalize its relations with the Republic of Cyprus and of course, since we’re talking about December, it must implement the Protocol on the Customs Union vis-a-vis the Republic of Cyprus. At the European Council, we will judge Turkey based on the actions it has taken or not taken – rigorously and objectively. All the options are on the table and no one should take us for granted," Droutsas said in a November 20 interview.

Meanwhile, talks between Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias and northern Cyprus leader Mehmet Ali Talat have involved a review of issues discussed so far and areas of agreement and disagreement, Turkish media said on November 20. Talks between the two are expected to resume in early December.

Christofias has rejected the Turkish proposal for five-party talks, saying that it would mean an effective downgrade of the status of Cyprus at such talks.

Meanwhile, against a background of Cypriots being unable to access their property in the Turkish-occupied north, one of the several key elements of the dispute, the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus has announced court action because of inability to access and worship at churches and monasteries in the occupied north.

Australian drug runners using dead kangaroos

Sydney - Drugs are being smuggled into Aboriginal communities in Australia's far north inside dead kangaroos, the Northern Territory parliament was told Tuesday. Former indigenous affairs minister Alison Anderson said cannabis was being sewn inside kangaroo carcasses to get it past police patrols.

Outback roads are often littered with kangaroos killed by vehicles and the roadkill is often collected by Aborigines.

"You have now got 8-year-olds on ganja (marijuana) in communities," she said, urging a crackdown on marijuana, which she said had replaced petrol sniffing in terms of addiction.

Anderson also said that women were stuffing cannabis into their underwear and driving through checkpoints, knowing that police were not permitted to frisk females they suspect of smuggling drugs.

Philippines declares emergency after 46 killed

By AARON FAVILA, Associated Press Writer

AMPATUAN, Philippines – The Philippine president placed two southern provinces under emergency rule Tuesday as security forces unearthed more bodies, pushing the death toll to 46 in some of the deadliest election violence in the nation's history.

Police and soldiers found 22 bodies in a hillside mass grave Tuesday, adding to the 24 bullet-riddled bodies recovered near the scene of Monday's massacre in Maguindanao province, said Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna of the Central Mindanao region.

This southern region of the Philippines is wracked by violent political rivalries, in addition to a long-running Islamic insurgency, but the killings have shocked this Southeast Asian nation. One adviser to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has described the massacre as the worst in the country's recent history. A media rights watchdog also says that it appears to be the world's worst mass killing of journalists, with as many as 20 reportedly among the dead.

Dozens of gunmen abducted the group of journalists, supporters and relatives of a gubernatorial candidate as they traveled through Amputuan township Monday to file candidacy documents in the provincial capital for May 2010 elections.

The gubernatorial candidate, Ismael Mangudadatu, who was not a part of the convoy, accused a powerful political rival from the Amputuan clan of being behind the slayings. There is a longstanding bitterness between the two families.

Mangudadatu's wife, Genalyn, and his two sisters, were among the dead.

The bodies found in the grave, about six feet (two meters) deep, were dumped on top of one another. They included a pregnant woman. Grieving relatives helped identify their loved ones before they were given the bodies, covered by banana leaves, for burial.

Officials were still trying to determine the exact number of people intercepted by the gunmen and whether any had survived. Authorities have said the convoy comprised about 40 people, but Cataluna said at least five other people were still missing.

Arroyo declared an emergency in the provinces of Maguindanao and nearby Sultan Kudarat, allowing security forces to conduct random searches and set up checkpoints to pursue the gunmen.

Arroyo said she ordered police and the military "to conduct immediate, relentless pursuit against the perpetrators to secure the affected areas."

"No effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law," she said.

The emergency will remain in place until the president is confident that law and order have been restored in the region, her spokesman Cerge Remonde said.

Police and Joy Sonza, head of a small private TV station, UNTV, identified at least three journalists among the dead.

Noynoy Espina, vice chairman of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, said in all, at least 20 journalists were among those killed, based on reports from union chapters in the area.

If confirmed, it would be the "largest single massacre of journalists ever," according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.

More than 100 journalists, many wearing black shirts and black arm bands with the words, "Stop Killing Journalists," staged a protest against the killings in Manila. Another 200 of their colleagues also denounced the massacre in southern Davao city.

The government stressed that it would go after the culprits, regardless of where the investigation leads.

"No one will be untouchable," Remonde told reporters.

National police chief Jesus Verzosa relieved Maguindanao's provincial police chief and three other officers of their duties and confined them to camp while they are investigated. One of the police officers was reported to have been seen in the company of the gunmen and pro-government militiamen who stopped the convoy, police said.

Such militiamen are meant to act as an auxiliary force mobilized by the police or military to fight rebels and criminals, but often they act as private enforcers of local warlords.

Mangudadatu said Tuesday that four witnesses had told him the convoy was stopped by gunmen loyal to Andal Ampatuan Jr., a town mayor belonging to a powerful clan and his family's fierce political rival.

He refused to name the witnesses or offer other details.

"It was really planned because they had already dug a huge hole (for the bodies)," Mangudadatu said.

The Ampatuans could not be reached for comment.

The region, among the nation's poorest and awash with weapons, has been intermittently ruled by the Ampatuan family since 2001. It is allied with Arroyo.

Arroyo's political adviser Gabriel Claudio said he was meeting with Zaldy Ampatuan, governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, where Maguindanao province is located, to try to mediate in the long-running rivalry between the Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus.

He said the most important thing was to ensure there was no more violence.

"There has to be swift and decisive justice," Claudio said.

Philippine elections are particularly violent in the south because of the presence of armed groups, including Muslim rebels fighting for self-rule in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, and political warlords who maintain private armies.

The last elections in 2007 were considered peaceful, even though about 130 people were killed.

The decades-long Muslim insurgency has killed about 120,000 people since the 1970s.

Julkipli Wadi, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of the Philippines, said he doubted the national government's resolve in trimming the powers of political dynasties like the Ampatuans because they deliver votes during elections.

"Because of the absence of viable political institutions, powerful men are taking over," he said. "Big political forces and personalities in the national government are sustaining the warlords, especially during election time, because they rely on big families for their votes."

Tea may help control blood sugar

DALLAS, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Tea has long been heralded as promoting heart health and may reduce cancer risk but a U.S. researcher suggests tea may also help control blood sugar.

Dr. Jo Ann Carson, professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, says studies from various countries suggest a lifetime consumption of at least two to four cups of tea per day -- black tea, in particular -- reduces the incidence of type 2 diabetes.

However, Carson says while scientific evidence on tea's health benefits is limited, all teas -- green, white, black and oolong -- can be part of a healthy diet.

Carson says people have two choices -- learn to enjoy iced tea with little or no sugar, or drink sugared iced tea in moderation, generally once a day or less.

Early presidential elections announced in Sri Lanka

Colombo - President Mahinda Rajapaksa Monday announced new elections for January, two years ahead of schedule, a cabinet minister said. Rajapaksa made the announcement to the leaders of his coalition partners, and told them that he had decided to run for re-election, Media Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa said.

"Considering that President Rajapaksa provided leadership in winning the war against the terrorists (Tamil rebels) the party leaders unanimously decided to support decision," Yapa said.

According to the constitution, the incumbent president can call a new election after completing four years of the six-year term. Rajapaksa passed that milestone on November 19.

The dates for nominations will be announced by the Commissioner of Elections, but elections are due to be held in January.

The call for an early election is seen as a step to gain maximum advantage from the military victory in May over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and the death of rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran.

However, former Army commander general Fonseka - who led the successful military campaign - retired from service last week and is planning to run against Rajapaksa as the opposition candidate.

21 Filipinos killed on way to file election papers

By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Writer

MANILA, Philippines – Dozens of gunmen abducted and fatally shot at least 21 people in the southern Philippines on Monday — a massacre that appeared related to local politics.

There was no claim of responsibility for the bloodshed in the predominantly Muslim region wracked by political tensions between rival clans ahead of elections. It was the worst such mass killing in the area in years.

A convoy of vans carrying about 40 people was hijacked in Maguindanao province, about 560 miles (900 kilometers) south of Manila, and army troops later found the bullet-riddled bodies of 13 women and eight men, regional military commander Maj. Gen. Alfredo Cayton said.

It was unclear if there were any survivors. An army and police search was under way for the other hostages, which included the wife and relatives of a politician seeking to become provincial governor and local journalists.

The identities of the gunmen were unknown but victims' relatives blamed political rivals in national elections slated for May 2010.

Philippine elections are particularly violent in the south because of the presence of armed groups, including Muslim rebels fighting for self-rule in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, and political warlords who maintain private armies.

The decades-long Muslim insurgency has killed about 120,000 people since the 1970s. But a presidential adviser, Jesus Dureza, said Monday's massacre was "unequaled in recent history."

"There must be a total stop to this senseless violence," he said, recommending a state of emergency be imposed in the area to disarm all gunmen. "Anything else will not work."

About 100 gunmen had stopped the convoy, military spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said.

The group comprised the wife of Buluan township Vice Mayor Ismael Mangudadatu, along with his two sisters, followers and several local journalists. They were traveling to nearby Shariff Aguak township to file Mangudadatu's nomination papers for the position of governor of Maguindanao province, Brawner said.

Mangudadatu, who was not in the convoy, said his wife and relatives were among the dead. He accused his political rivals belonging to a prominent clan for the massacre. Representatives of that family did not comment on the allegations.

Mangudadatu said his wife, Genalyn, called him by mobile phone shortly before she and her entourage were abducted.

"She said ... they were stopped by 100 uniformed armed men ... then her line got cut off," he said.

Maguindanao is part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which was created as part of a 1996 peace agreement with a large Muslim rebel group.

Army troops went on full alert in Maguindanao to prevent retaliatory killings, Cayton said.

Tamiflu-resistant swine flu spreading

Sat, 21 Nov 2009

Amid concerns about increasing numbers of swine flu victims despite the use of a vaccine, officials now warn of a new wave of Tamiflu-resistant strain.

Swine flu continues to spread globally and has already claimed the lives of some 5,000 individuals; the majority of them reported in the US.

Tamiflu, on the other hand, is one of two flu medications effective in treating the affected cases as it not only shortens the duration of the disease, but also reduces the risk of developing complications.

More than 50 resistant cases have been reported in the world since the appearance of the disease in April, including 21 in the US. Four North Carolina patients are the most recent of such cases detected at a single hospital on Friday.

Five other victims identified at the University Hospital of Wales, in the UK are believed to have acquired the infection in hospital, becoming the first confirmed cases of person-to-person transmission of a Tamiflu-resistant strain in the world.

"The emergence of influenza A viruses that are resistant to Tamiflu is not unexpected in patients with serious underlying conditions and suppressed immune systems, who still test positive for the virus despite treatment," said the director of the National Public Health Service for Wale's Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, Roland Salmon.

He stressed that such resistance strains are not more severe than the strain that has been circulating all around the world since April.

While health officials are concerned regarding the possible outbreak of a Tamiflu-resistant strain of the illness, they urge individuals to take Tamiflu if needed, stressing that Tamiflu is still the most appropriate medication to fight swine flu.

Galileo artifacts identified after auction

Two fingers and a tooth which belonged to the renowned Italian scientist Galileo Galileo have been found more than 100 years.

The astronomer's fingers --the thumb and middle finger-- and the tooth will be put on display next spring, an Italian museum director said Friday.

Galilei's three fingers, a vertebra and a tooth were removed from his body by admirers as his corpse was being moved from a storage place to a monumental tomb in 1737, 95 years after his death.

One of the fingers was found soon afterward and is now kept at the Museum of the History of Science in Florence. The vertebra has also been kept at the University of Padua, where Galileo taught for several years.

According to the Museum's director, Paolo Galluzzi, the tooth and two fingers from the scientist's right hand were kept by one of his admirers, an Italian marquis.

"But with time, the generations lost knowledge of what was actually inside the container," and the family sold it, Galluzzi said.

The Museum director added that the container was recently purchased by a private collector at auction. The collector contacted Galluzzi and other Florence officials to conclude that the relics belonged to Galileo.

The Museum said that Galileo's relics were held in an 18th-century blown-glass vase, which in turn was inside a wooden case topped with a wooden bust of Galileo.

Galileo died in 1642 after he was condemned by the Vatican for saying the Earth revolved around the Sun.

Celebrities Lead Charge Against Scientology

Hollywood figures quit "rip-off" church as Australian prime minister threatens parliamentary inquiry into its activities.

The security at the red-brick and glass-walled horseshoe of the John Joseph Moakley courthouse on Boston's waterfront was unusually tight. Anybody who was not a member of the city's bar association was swept with a search wand. Photo IDs were checked. Mobile phones were taken from guests, who included the Hollywood star Tom Cruise.

The occasion was a memorial service for Scientology's top legal adviser for a quarter of a century, Earle Cooley. The controversial head of Scientology worldwide, David Miscavige, delivered the eulogy, thanking his late friend for his contribution to the neo-religion during his career, much of which was spent pursuing journalists and former members who spoke out against it.

Miscavige may since have wondered privately what Cooley would have made of the events of last week. Scientology, founded in 1953 by the late science fiction pulp novelist, serial fantasist and inveterate self-publicist L Ron Hubbard, is under fire again across the globe, following years of struggle to be recognized - with some success - as a legitimate church.

The church has just been denounced in the strongest possible terms in the Australian parliament. Prime minister Kevin Rudd has expressed his concern over allegations of "a worldwide pattern of abuse and criminality" and is contemplating a parliamentary inquiry. The organization is under police investigation and yesterday angry ex-Scientologists, spurred on by the claims, converged on its Australian headquarters calling for its tax-exempt status to be revoked.

And it is not only in Australia that Scientology is facing problems. A new book in America - Blown for Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of the Church of Scientology - by Marc Headley, an employee of the church's Los Angeles headquarters for 15 years, details - as others have - allegations of systematic abuse and bizarre episodes, such as the three weeks Headley claims he spent under instruction from Cruise in how to move bottles and other objects by concentrating on them.

Headley's book follows a year in which Scientology has been plagued by unwelcome revelations from high-profile defectors and fresh media investigation into its practices.

Last month the church narrowly avoided being banned in France after being prosecuted for fraud, following claims that four leaders - all given suspended jail sentences - had preyed financially on several followers in the 1990s. In Belgium, too, Scientology is embroiled in a long criminal investigation. Perhaps most embarrassing for an organization that prides itself on its wealthy Hollywood followers, Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis, an adherent of 30 years, abandoned Scientology in October, accusing it of homophobia.

That is not all. Some of the worst damage done to Scientology in the past two years appears to have been self-inflicted. Earlier this year the official spokesman in the U.S., Tommy Davis, son of the actress Anne Archer, stormed out of an ABC TV interview with Martin Bashir when Bashir had the temerity to ask about one of its central beliefs - relating to an evil intergalactic warlord named Xenu.

More ridicule was invited, unwittingly, by Cruise, the church's most high-profile member, in a leaked video produced for the organization last year that went viral on the internet. It showed a rambling Cruise laughing inexplicably while saying that Scientologists were uniquely equipped with the knowledge necessary to cure most of the world's ills, including crime, drugs, mental health problems and violence.

A religion to some, a business certainly, and a cult to many, whose innermost cadres wear pseudo naval uniforms, Scientology's religious tenets are a mixture of therapy-style self-improvement steps - at least at first - mixed with a weird space-opera metaphysics, which is revealed only to its highest acolytes. The church has frequently been accused of breaking up families and preying on the vulnerable. The history of Scientology and its critics has been a story played out in the courts in interminable proceedings that supported Cooley's very lucrative career, underwritten by a very lucrative religious practice in which followers pay large sums of money to progress through a series of training courses called "auditing".

In a quote attributed in the U.S. courts to the late Hubbard himself, it is made clear that the court cases serve a useful purpose, even when they are lost. According to Hubbard, "law can be used very easily to harass... If possible, of course, ruin… entirely."

Scientology has attempted to sue newspapers, including the Washington Post. Time magazine beat off a court claim for $400 million after describing the church on its cover as "the Cult of Greed". It has pursued authors, those who have campaigned against it, defectors and rivals. It has also made unsuccessful claims that details of its most secret practices should be regarded as both copyright and a trade secret.

The repeated attempts to use the courts to silence critics have been criticised in the judgments that have been upheld against Scientology, including one in 1996 that described its "documented history of vexatious behavior" and abuse of "the [U.S.] federal court system by using it, inter alia, to destroy their opponents, rather than to resolve an actual dispute over trademark law or any other legal matter".

So when Nick Xenophon stood up last week in the Australian parliament he was the latest critic in a long line. Xenophon made a carefully calculated decision - to use the protection of parliamentary privilege to denounce an organization that he claims "abuses its followers, viciously targets its critics and seems largely driven by paranoia". Xenophon's aim was simple: to challenge the tax-exempt status of Scientology as a religion.

If the allegations Xenophon detailed - including the claims by former high-ranking members that David Miscavige physically assaulted senior Scientologists - were familiar ones to critics of the movement, Xenophon's speech brought to the widest audience possible a synthesis of the recent and not so recent claims against the leadership of Scientology, allegations picked up worldwide within minutes of him speaking.

He described claims of "false imprisonment, coerced abortions, embezzlement of church funds, physical violence, blackmail and the widespread deliberate abuse of information obtained by the organization". At the centre of Xenophon's long, impassioned speech were the allegations of Aaron Saxton, who was "born" into Scientology and "rose to a position of influence in Sydney and the United States".

According to Xenophon, Saxton's abuse started as a child when his mother was coerced into signing over guardianship of him to the organization and he was made a security guard at the age of 16. "In 1991 Aaron says he was sent to Scientology headquarters in Florida where he was involved in… putting five individuals under house arrest" and "ordered by superiors to remove documents that would link a Scientology staff member to murder".

"Aaron says women who fell pregnant were taken to offices and bullied to have an abortion. If they refused, they faced demotion and hard labor… Aaron says one staff member used a coat-hanger and self-aborted her child for fear of punishment. He says she was released from the organization and the files were destroyed."

Saxton also "ordered more than 30 people to be sent to Scientology's work camps, where they were forced to undertake hard labour", said Xenophon.

He said another former Scientologist, Carmel Underwood, who worked as a financial officer in the organization and claims to have been assaulted by another member, "witnessed a young girl who had been molested by her father being coached as to what she should say to investigating authorities in order to keep the crimes secret". In a letter described by Xenophon as "one of the saddest correspondences I have received", a father, Paul Schofield, admits to being part of a cover-up of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of his two daughters.

The Church of Scientology in Australia's response last week was to accuse Xenophon of abusing parliamentary privilege and adding that the allegations were "unquestionably false". "This was not free speech. It was abuse and slander protected by the forms of our parliament," spokesman Cyrus Brooks said in a statement. It did not, however, reply to a series of written questions from the Observer about the cases detailed.

But if something has changed in the past few years, it has been the emergence of an increasingly empowered and vocal global opposition to the Scientologists. The development has been fueled in part by the internet's Anonymous movement - which posted the Tom Cruise video to YouTube last year - and has been behind a series of denial-of-service attacks on Scientology websites, protests and prank calls since the Scientologists had it removed it from the site, inevitably claiming copyright infringement. The Australian intervention by Xenophon was part of a wider and growing backlash against one of the world's most controversial movements.

If there has been a catalyst for many of the Scientologists' most recent problems it has been provided by a newspaper in Tampa, Florida - the St Petersburg Times - which covers the area including the organization's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater. The paper ran an investigative series featuring interviews with former members of the church's leadership. These included Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder, two of the highest-ranking executives to leave Scientology.

According to the two men's accounts - denounced as "lies" by Miscavige and Tommy Davis - Miscavige routinely assaulted his lieutenants, including Rinder, 50 times. In one article, citing the testimony of four former members, the newspaper described Miscavige administering a vicious beating to another senior church figure, Tom De Vocht. The men described a complex system of internal justice, enforced by security checks and the threat of isolation as a so-called "suppressive person" or SP.

In the interviews the men admitted using violence against other members of the church, often, they claimed, at the behest of Miscavige, also alleging that the church used private information gathered on its members to bully them and force them to do its bidding.

At least some of the recent allegations will be familiar to Jason Beghe, the American actor. Last year he became the first of its celebrity followers - for whom the church maintains a "Celebrity Center" - to break with it, after giving Scientology more than $1 million in donations over 12 years.

These days Beghe prefers to warn that the church is "destructive and a rip-off". He claims that since his renunciation of Scientology he has been pursued to seminars in Europe - held to speak of its dangers - by private investigators employed by Scientology and "disconnected" from former friends who remain within it.

The decision of Beghe and Haggis to quit Scientology appears to have caused the movement its greatest recent P.R. difficulties, not least because of its dependence on Hollywood figures as both a source of revenue for its most expensive courses and an advertisement for the religion. The involvement of such high-profile figures as Haggis, Cruise and John Travolta has acted as a reassurance for potential recruits against the allegations of its critics.

While Haggis quit the church over its attitude to gay marriage, his lengthy leaked letter of repudiation of Scientology, written to Davis, included another complaint: that he had lied on television about a key Scientology practice.

Haggis said he had been stunned to see a CNN clip of Davis denying that the church practices a policy of "disconnection" by encouraging members to cut ties with non-members who may disapprove of their beliefs.

"I was shocked," wrote Haggis. "We all know this policy exists. I didn't have to search for verification - I didn't have to look any further than my own home." He then detailed how his wife was ordered by the church to disconnect from her parents because they were themselves ex-members.

His wife followed the orders and did not speak to her parents for a year and a half. "That's not ancient history, Tommy. It was a year ago… To see you lie so easily, I am afraid I had to ask myself: what else are you lying about?"

The answer to that question may now be sought within the context of an Australian parliamentary inquiry. Notoriously litigious and undoubtedly secretive, Scientology is under the microscope again.

After a bad year for Cruise's church, things could be about to become a whole lot worse.
History of Scientology

Founded by L Ron Hubbard (1911-1986), a science-fiction novelist who turned to pulp writing after a wartime military career marked by a number of disgraces. It was while writing for Astounding Science Fiction in 1949 that he published his first article on the subject of dianetics, which would later become Scientology. It was described by one critic as "a lunatic revision of Freudian psychology". His book Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health was published in 1950. Attempts to set up dianetics as a therapeutic practice collapsed.

1952: Having failed to present dianetics as an empirically supported scientific system, Hubbard founded a religion called Scientology, which he claimed was the result of years of research. Using "e-meters" to "measure" the mind, he claimed it could be "cleared" by a process of "auditing". At this point based in England, he ran into problems with the authorities. He founded the Sea Organization, or the Sea Org, which would become the movement's central group.

1970: Scientology establishes its celebrity center in Los Angeles, aiming to attract Hollywood high flyers.

1977: Scientology runs into trouble in the U.S., this time for domestic espionage against the federal government, for which Hubbard's wife and a dozen other officials were convicted of conspiracy.

1986: Hubbard dies of a stroke in California.

1993: Scientology is declared tax-exempt as a church in the U.S., ending a 40-year battle.

1999: Refused tax-exempt status by the U.K. charity commission, which rules it is not a religion. However, in the years that follow it is recognized as a religion in a number of countries, including Sweden, New Zealand and Portugal.

2006: A repeat of a South Park episode that spoofs Tom Cruise and Scientology is pulled from the air.

2009: The church is found guilty of fraud in France. Screenwriter Paul Haggis splits with Scientology amid accusations of homophobia. Tom Cruise and John Travolta are still members of the Church of Scientology.

Spain to end year atop FIFA ranking, Portugal jumps into top five

La Furia were able to leapfrog over Brazil in the past two weeks and take over the top spot in the November Coca-Cola FIFA rankings. Spain were helped out by Brazil's lack of urgency in their last two matches in World Cup qualifying play as they clinched the top spot in CONMEBOL on September 5th in Rosario against Argentina. The rankings have become a two-horse race as Brazilians and Spaniards have opened the gap even more between the rest of the world. Brazil is currently a whopping 313 points clear of third place Netherlands, who are now feeling the footsteps of the Azzurri ever so loudly.

Big Movers
Portugal was also an interesting story as they were the biggest mover in the top ten as they jumped into the top five after qualifying in the playoff against Bosnia-Herzegovina. Nigeria skyrocketed ten spots into the top 25 after rallying back and winning the qualifying group in Africa. Meanwhile the next big move was made by Uruguay after struggling against Costa Rica in the CONMEBOL/CONCACAF playoff. But the award goes to Slovenia after they were able to win 1-0 at home, leaving the Russians out of the World Cup in dramatic fashion. That triumph helped them move up 16 spots to 33. The Roy Keane Adding Salt to the Wound award goes to ... France. After barely getting by the Irish, the French moved up to seventh place. Based on that, and probably only that, Raymond Domenech saved his job. Meanwhile the Irish, you ask? They fell two spots to 33.

On Their Heels

The US see that Mexico are on their heels in more than one way. El Tri jumped up three spots while the US losses in Slovakia as well as in Aaborg against Denmark see the two CONCACAF giants. Mexico is only 49 points clear. Argentina fell another two spots to eighth after being outclassed by Spain this past weekend and the reality of the Albiceleste was once again exposed.

Thank you for participating

Croatia, Russia, Czech Republic, Israel, and Ukraine will be the only current top 25 teams that wil not be taking part in the World Cup next year.

Top 25 Team Pts. +/-
1 Spain 1622 1
2 Brazil 1596 -1
3 Netherlands 1279 0
4 Italy 1215 0
5 Portugal 1181 5
6 Germany 1170 -1
7 France 1122 2
8 Argentina 1085 -2
9 England 1063 -2
10 Croatia* 1050 -2
11 Cameroon 1035 3
12 Greece 1028 4
13 Russia* 1019 -1
14 USA 980 -3
15 Mexico 931 3
16 Ivory Coast 927 3
17 Chile 926 0
18 Switzerland 924 -5
19 Uruguay 901 6
20 Serbia 900 0
21 Australia 863 3
22 Nigeria 848 10
23 Czech Republic* 843 -8
24 Israel* 842 -2
25 Ukraine* 827 1

* Eliminated from World Cup

Childhood abuse speeds up aging

Children who endured mistreatment, varying from emotional neglect to physical abuse, may be faced with accelerated cellular aging as adults, a new study finds.

According to the study published in Biological Psychiatry, the telomeres of children experiencing abuse shortens more rapidly, speeding up the cells' aging process.

The telomerase — the short section located at the end of the chromosomes— keeps the cell's DNA stable. Each time a cell divides, its telomeres shorten and the cell becomes more susceptible to dying.

Previous studies have reported that telomeres shorten at an accelerated rate when exposed to toxins such as radiation and cigarette smoke.

Shorter telomere lengths have also been linked to a variety of aging-related medical conditions, including cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Childhood psychiatric problems and stress such as emotional abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect, physical abuse and sexual abuse have a similar effect, the new study finds.

The findings of this study "gives us a hint that early developmental experiences may have profound effects on biology that can influence cellular mechanisms at a very basic level," concluded lead researcher Audrey Tyrka.

ElBaradei: Iran has not totally rejected nuclear fuel plan

Berlin - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Friday that he believes that Iran has not totally rejected his agency's nuclear fuel plan, but that time was running out. "The ball is now in Iran's court. I hope they will not miss this fleeting chance," he told reporters in Berlin.

On Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brushed off international warnings after apparently rejecting a compromise deal on the country's controversial nuclear programme.

However, Iran has not made a formal written response to the IAEA's proposal.

The deal proposed that Iran would ship its low-grade enriched uranium to Russia and France, where it would be processed into fuel for Tehran's medical research reactor.

Top diplomats from the so-called "5+1" group of world powers were to meet in Brussels on Friday to discuss how to respond to Iran's so- far negative response to the proposed deal

On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Iran would only accept the fuel deal if the swap of low-enriched uranium for nuclear fuel would be effected simultaneously.

ElBaradei has accordingly proposed Turkey as a trusted intermediary, whereby Iran would ship the nuclear fuel to Turkey, which would hold on to it while Russia enriches a separate batch of nuclear fuel. Russia would only receive the original Iranian fuel once it had delivered the enriched fuel to Iran.

Iran "needed to rise above their domestic conflicts" on the nuclear issue, and take a "minimum risk" in the interests of peace, ElBaradei said.

"I hope to get an answer soon, within the next week or so," ElBaradei said.

"That would open a space for Iran and the US to engage in broad negotiations," he said.

Researcher says text proves Shroud of Turin real

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer

ROME – A Vatican researcher claims a nearly invisible text on the Shroud of Turin proves the authenticity of the artifact revered as Jesus' burial cloth.

The claim made in a new book by historian Barbara Frale drew immediate skepticism from some scientists, who maintain the shroud is a medieval forgery.

Frale, a researcher at the Vatican archives, said Friday that she used computers to enhance images of faintly written words in Greek, Latin and Aramaic scattered across the shroud.

She asserts the words include the name "Jesus Nazarene" in Greek, proving the text could not be of medieval origin because no Christian at the time, even a forger, would have labeled Jesus a Nazarene without referring to his divinity.

The shroud bears the figure of a crucified man, complete with blood seeping out of nailed hands and feet, and believers say Christ's image was recorded on the linen fibers at the time of his resurrection.

The fragile artifact, owned by the Vatican, is kept locked in a special protective chamber in Turin's cathedral and is rarely shown.

Skeptics point out that radiocarbon dating conducted in 1988 determined it was made in the 13th or 14th century.

While faint letters scattered around the face on the shroud were seen decades ago, serious researchers dismissed them due to the test's results, Frale told The Associated Press.

But when she cut out the words from photos of the shroud and showed them to experts they concurred the writing style was typical of the Middle East in the first century — Jesus' time.

She believes the text was written on a document by a clerk and glued to the shroud over the face so the body could be identified by relatives and buried properly. Metals in the ink used at the time may have allowed the writing to transfer to the linen, Frale claimed.

Frale claimed the text also partially confirms the Gospels' account of Jesus' final moments. A fragment in Greek that can be read as "removed at the ninth hour" may refer to Christ's time of death reported in the holy texts, she said.

On an enhanced image studied by Frale, at least seven words can be seen, fragmented and scattered on and around Jesus' face, crisscrossing the cloth vertically and horizontally. One short sequence of Aramaic letters has not been translated. Another Latin fragment — "iber" — may refer to Emperor Tiberius, who reigned at the time of Jesus' crucifixion, Frale said.

"I tried to be objective and leave religious issue aside," Frale told The AP. "What I studied was an ancient document that certifies the execution of a man, in a specific time and place."

Frale is noted in Italy for her research on the medieval order of the Knights Templar and her discovery of unpublished documents on the group in the Vatican's archives.

Earlier this year she published a study claiming the Templars at one time had the shroud in their possession. That raised eyebrows because the order was abolished in the early 14th century and the shroud is first recorded in history around 1360 in the hands of a French knight.

But her latest book, titled "The Shroud of Jesus Nazarene" in Italian, raised even doubts among some experts.

"People work on grainy photos and think they see things," said Antonio Lombatti, a church historian who has written books about the shroud. "It's all the result of imagination and computer software."

Lombatti said that artifacts bearing Greek and Aramaic texts were found in Jewish burials from the first century, but the use of Latin is unheard of.

He also rejected the idea that authorities would officially return the body of a crucified man to relatives after filling out some paperwork. Victims of the most cruel punishment used by the Romans would usually be left on the cross or were disposed of in a dump to add to the execution's deterring effect.

Lombatti said "the message was that you won't even have a tomb to cry over."

Unusual sightings in the shroud are common and are often proved false, said Luigi Garlaschelli, a professor of chemistry at the University of Pavia.

Garlaschelli recently led a team of experts that reproduced the shroud using materials and methods that were available in the 14th century, proof, they said, that it could have been made by a human hand in the Middle Ages.

Decades ago entire studies were published on coins that were purportedly seen on Jesus' closed eyes, but when high-definition images were taken during a 2002 restoration the artifacts were nowhere to be seen and the theory was dropped, Garlaschelli said.

He said any theory about ink and metals would have to checked by analysis of the shroud itself.

Holocaust denier says he’s ‘unbroken’ after prison

SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) -- A Holocaust denier released from an Australian jail after publishing material offensive to Jews says he is "unbroken" and "unrepentant."

Dr. Fredrick Toben, the founder of the Adelaide Institute, emerged from three months in a South Australia prison on Nov. 12.

The Federal Court had found him in breach of a 2002 court order to remove all offensive material from his institute’s Web site.

Toben's site this week carried a message saying that he is “unbroken and unrepentant,” and appears “refreshed and relaxed” after his “little holiday.”

The site features three links to video clips on YouTube during which Toben, 65, vows to continue his work “demolishing the Holocaust.” It also carries a banner saying that “The days are numbered for the greatest lie in the history of mankind.”

Toben also spent two months in Wandsworth Prison last year as German authorities tried unsuccessfully to extradite him on a European Arrest Warrant for publishing Holocaust denial material -- a crime in Germany. Toben was arrested at Heathrow Airport on his way to Dubai from America.

He had spent several months in prison in Germany in 1999 for denying the Holocaust.