December 2, 2008, 2:55 am
By Atheer Kakan AND Stephen Farrell
Atheer A. Kakan writes on the historical lesson from a century ago which left many among Iraq’s Shiite leadership majority determined to pass the recent security agreement with the Americans.
Five years ago, just after the fall of Saddam, I worked with the Shiite Islamist party Islamic Dawa.
As a person who comes from Sunni roots I was very curious about who those people really are, and was it true what the Baath Party’s negative propaganda had said about them for years.
I worked with them for more than a year on their official newspaper in Iraq. Most of them had lived in exile during Saddam’s era, and it was the first time that many of them had been able to return to Iraq for many years. But they were not yet in power.
We had many differences, discussions and arguments at that time. One of the most noticeable things about them, that I have never forgotten, was the influence of history on those who came back home after decades of marginalization, pursuit and execution.
Now that they were victorious and it was time for them to exercise the influence that they had been prevented from doing before, the one historical fact they kept in front of their eyes was that they would not let history repeat itself and let what happened after the revolution of 1920 against the British Empire happen again.
Then, their analysis was, that because the Shiites refused to deal, the British who negotiated with the Sunni minority and installed it in power, commencing nearly a century of Sunni dominance.
That historical ‘mistake’ of 1920 wasn’t just the obsession of Dawa. Many Shiites say that after this time they were marginalized and never treated fairly as a majority. Even now this historical fear still affects many of their decisions. They argue “we cannot neglect the political process, so that no one will ever turn around and take control again, after all the blood that we sacrificed.”
After a year I left and I carried with me all the memories about how the Shiites have suffered for centuries, and how history has influenced their positions and attitudes in the present time.
Iraqis adore history. You can hardly find an Iraqi who does not talk about the past in every conversation. Sometimes it prevents them from dealing with the present and planning for the future.
This what historians and sociologists say about Iraqis - they love history so much, to the level that they live in it.
Stephen Farrell writes:
I encountered the very phenomenon Atheer mentions on the streets of Basra in January 2004.
The most influential Shiite cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was chafing at decisions by President Bush’s proconsul L. Paul Bremer III, and called out more than 100,000 supporter onto the streets to demand a directly-elected parliament.
For hours the streets were packed with Shiite marchers, in numbers that could easily have overwhelmed the tiny number of British troops in their Land Rovers on the edge of the throng. There was no violence, not even the threat of it. But there were plentiful pointed references to historical violence against the British, just after the First World War.
From a mosque loudspeaker one of Ayatollah Sistani’s followers told the protesters that Basra and the southern provinces remained quiet “not because of weakness or the acceptance of the occupation” but because the people “are waiting to see if they will be able to get their rights in a peaceful way.”
All day Shiites on the march, including many of the black-garbed armed stewards who were there to ensure order, came up to me at the crossroads where I was standing and insisted on reciting the same mantra, almost word for word. It was to the effect of:
“We could easily kill you, as our grandfathers killed thousands of British a century ago. Make no mistake, we choose not to kill you, not because we are weak but because our leaders instruct us not to kill you. You are welcome today, and you are safe.”
I wrote it down the first few times, then stopped as it became too repetitive. I nodded, I smiled, I made sure my Irish passport was within easy reach.
Certainly in Basra and the south fragments of history are everywhere, even in the desert. Half an hour’s drive outside Basra, where the demonstration was taking place, I had just visited a deserted British-built monument to the 40,000 plus “Officers and Men of the Armies of the British Empire Who Fell in the Iraq Campaign in The Years 1914-1921 and Whose Graves are Not Known.”
Those armies of empire included regiments drawn from colonial Indian units, whose fallen British officers’ names were inscribed on the walls, but whose junior ranks were for the most part identified only as nameless tallies of “other Indian soldiers.”
One that stuck in my mind was the 124th Duchess of Connaught’s Own Baluchistan Infantry, dating back to before the British 1947 partition of India, when that remote mountainous region was part of pre-Independence colonial India.
Now the westernmost province of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan, it is unlikely that Baluchistan will be sending soldiers to Iraq again any time soon. It being caught up in another - historic - conflict altogether closer to home.
Atheer Kakan is an Iraqi journalist with The New York Times in Baghdad. Stephen Farrell is Baghdad Correspondent.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Monday, December 01, 2008
Baghdad Blasts
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Blasts at Baghdad's police academy and in the northern city of Mosul killed 29 people and wounded dozens more Monday, hours after a roadside bomb wounded a senior Iraqi official, police said.
Violence has fallen sharply over the last year as successive security crackdowns dealt insurgent groups heavy blows, but officials say militants are now concentrating their efforts on attention-grabbing attacks ahead of elections next year.
People were queuing at the back entrance of the police academy in east Baghdad to enroll when a car bomb exploded, followed minutes later by a suicide bomb attack, police said. Fifteen people were killed and 45 wounded.
Shortly after, a suicide car bomber killed 14 people and wounded 30 in Mosul, the last holdout of al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups in Iraq that once fought U.S. soldiers across swathes of the country.
The attack in Mosul targeted an Iraqi police and U.S. military joint patrol, they said.
Monday's blasts came as Iraq tries to prepare its security forces to take over responsibility from U.S. troops, who under a security pact passed by parliament Thursday will have to withdraw from towns by mid-2009 and leave Iraq by end-2011.
The Iraqi government is also in the process of taking responsibility for largely Sunni neighborhood patrolmen -- who number some 100,000 across Iraq -- from the U.S. military, while also preparing for provincial elections on January 31.
The attacks are aimed at reigniting sectarian bloodshed between the minority Sunni Arabs who dominated Iraq under former dictator Saddam Hussein and Shi'ites who are now in control.
In a separate attack hours earlier, Major-General Mudhar al-Mawla, who is dealing with the transfer of mainly Sunni patrolmen to government control, was targeted by a roadside bomb as his convoy left his home in the Sulaikh district of northern Baghdad. The bomb killed three people and wounded 13 others, police said.
Mawla was also seriously wounded, they said.
Baghdad security spokesman Major-General Qassim Moussawi said only one bodyguard had been killed in the blast and six people wounded. Mawla was only slightly wounded, he added.
(Writing by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Louise Ireland and Michael Christie)
Violence has fallen sharply over the last year as successive security crackdowns dealt insurgent groups heavy blows, but officials say militants are now concentrating their efforts on attention-grabbing attacks ahead of elections next year.
People were queuing at the back entrance of the police academy in east Baghdad to enroll when a car bomb exploded, followed minutes later by a suicide bomb attack, police said. Fifteen people were killed and 45 wounded.
Shortly after, a suicide car bomber killed 14 people and wounded 30 in Mosul, the last holdout of al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups in Iraq that once fought U.S. soldiers across swathes of the country.
The attack in Mosul targeted an Iraqi police and U.S. military joint patrol, they said.
Monday's blasts came as Iraq tries to prepare its security forces to take over responsibility from U.S. troops, who under a security pact passed by parliament Thursday will have to withdraw from towns by mid-2009 and leave Iraq by end-2011.
The Iraqi government is also in the process of taking responsibility for largely Sunni neighborhood patrolmen -- who number some 100,000 across Iraq -- from the U.S. military, while also preparing for provincial elections on January 31.
The attacks are aimed at reigniting sectarian bloodshed between the minority Sunni Arabs who dominated Iraq under former dictator Saddam Hussein and Shi'ites who are now in control.
In a separate attack hours earlier, Major-General Mudhar al-Mawla, who is dealing with the transfer of mainly Sunni patrolmen to government control, was targeted by a roadside bomb as his convoy left his home in the Sulaikh district of northern Baghdad. The bomb killed three people and wounded 13 others, police said.
Mawla was also seriously wounded, they said.
Baghdad security spokesman Major-General Qassim Moussawi said only one bodyguard had been killed in the blast and six people wounded. Mawla was only slightly wounded, he added.
(Writing by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Louise Ireland and Michael Christie)
Breast cancer forum targets schoolgirls
Hassna’a Mokhtar |
Arab News
CATCH ‘EM YOUNG: Dr. Samia Al-Amoudi addresses the forum for breast cancer awareness in Jeddah on Sunday. (AN photo)
JEDDAH: Dr. Eman Al-Ayesh, internist at King Fahd Hospital, delivered a comprehensive lecture on breast cancer to intermediate and high school students at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) yesterday.
“In the Kingdom, 22.6 percent of cancer cases are diagnosed as breast cancer. It’s very dangerous because 70 percent of the cases we treat are in late stages, which decreases chances of recovery and increases the cost of treatment,” said Al-Ayesh to a large audience of private school students and teachers.
The JCCI worked in close cooperation with the Private Schools Educational Owners Committee and Sheikh Mohammad Al-Amoudi’s Chair for Breast Cancer Research at King Abdulaziz University to organize the first breast cancer awareness forum, entitled “Our Students, Our Partners.”
“Our target in organizing this forum is the youth. We want to spread awareness among intermediate and high school students so that we create a knowledgeable generation ready to deal with crises,” said Dr. Samia Al-Amoudi, a breast cancer survivor and chairwoman of Al-Amoudi’s Chair for Breast Cancer Research.
Al-Amoudi explained that since changing the older generation’s ideas about breast cancer and the importance of early mammograms was such a challenge, her thoughts turned instead to addressing young girls and teenagers. “We consider our girls to be our ambassadors in delivering the message to the older generation. We also want to educate them and get them involved in meaningful social and human activities,” Al-Amoudi said.
In explaining the stages of breast cancer and the different medical treatments, Al-Ayesh highlighted the differences between benign (non-cancerous) and malignant (cancerous) tumors. She said that in the Kingdom, 20 percent of breast cancer cases occur before the age of 40 while in America only 7 percent occur before the age of 40. Breast cancer symptoms vary widely — from lumps to swelling to skin changes — and many breast cancers have no obvious symptoms at all. Symptoms that are similar to those of breast cancer may be the result of non-cancerous conditions such as infection or a cyst.
“Thus, self-examination is mandatory. It should be part of your monthly health care routine, and you should visit your doctor if you experience changes in your breast,” said Al-Ayesh, as she demonstrated how to do a breast self-exam to the students.
According to breastcancer.org, studies show that regular self-exams, combined with annual checkups, improve the chances of detecting cancer early.
====
Why Women In China Do Not Get Breast Cancer?
by Jeff Prager on Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 9:41am
By Prof. Jane Plant, PhD, CBE : “ Why I believe that giving up milk is the key to beating breast cancer…”
I had no alternative but to die or to try to find a cure for myself. I am a scientist – surely there was a rational explanation for this cruel illness that affects one in 12 women in the UK?
I had suffered the loss of one breast, and undergone radiotherapy. I was now receiving painful chemotherapy, and had been seen by some of the country’s most eminent specialists. But, deep down, I felt certain I was facing death. I had a loving husband, a beautiful home and two young children to care for. I desperately wanted to live.
Fortunately, this desire drove me to unearth the facts, some of which were known only to a handful of scientists at the time.
Anyone who has come into contact with breast cancer will know that certain risk factors – such as increasing age, early onset of womanhood, late onset of menopause and a family history of breast cancer – are completely out of our control. But there are many risk factors, which we can control easily.
These “controllable” risk factors readily translate into simple changes that we can all make in our day-to-day lives to help prevent or treat breast cancer. My message is that even advanced breast cancer can be overcome because I have done it.
The first clue to understanding what was promoting my breast cancer came when my husband Peter, who was also a scientist, arrived back from working in China while I was being plugged in for a chemotherapy session.
He had brought with him cards and letters, as well as some amazing herbal suppositories, sent by my friends and science colleagues in China.
The suppositories were sent to me as a cure for breast cancer. Despite the awfulness of the situation, we both had a good belly laugh, and I remember saying that this was the treatment for breast cancer in China, then it was little wonder that Chinese women avoided getting the disease. Those words echoed in my mind. Why didn’t Chinese women in China get breast cancer? I had collaborated once with Chinese colleagues on a study of links between soil chemistry and disease, and I remembered some of the statistics.
The disease was virtually non-existent throughout the whole country. Only one in 10,000 women in China will die from it, compared to that terrible figure of one in 12 in Britain and the even grimmer average of one in 10 across most Western countries. It is not just a matter of China being a more rural country, with less urban pollution. In highly urbanized Hong Kong, the rate rises to 34 women in every 10,000 but still puts the West to shame. The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have similar rates. And remember, both cities were attacked with nuclear weapons, so in addition to the usual pollution-related cancers, one would also expect to find some radiation-related cases, too.
The conclusion we can draw from these statistics strikes you with some force. If a Western woman were to move to industrialized, irradiated Hiroshima, she would slash her risk of contracting breast cancer by half. Obviously this is absurd. It seemed obvious to me that some lifestyle factor not related to pollution, urbanization or the environment is seriously increasing the Western woman’s chance of contracting breast cancer.
I then discovered that whatever causes the huge differences in breast cancer rates between oriental and Western countries, it isn’t genetic.
Scientific research showed that when Chinese or Japanese people move to the West, within one or two generations their rates of breast cancer approach those of their host community.
The same thing happens when oriental people adopt a completely Western lifestyle in Hong Kong. In fact, the slang name for breast cancer in China translates as ‘Rich Woman’s Disease’. This is because, in China , only the better off can afford to eat what is termed ‘ Hong Kong food’.
The Chinese describe all Western food, including everything from ice cream and chocolate bars to spaghetti and feta cheese, as “Hong Kong food”, because of its availability in the former British colony and its scarcity, in the past, in mainland China.
So it made perfect sense to me that whatever was causing my breast cancer and the shockingly high incidence in this country generally, it was almost certainly something to do with our better-off, middle-class, Western lifestyle. There is an important point for men here, too. I have observed in my research that much of the data about prostate cancer leads to similar conclusions.
According to figures from the World Health Organization, the number of men contracting prostate cancer in rural China is negligible, only 0.5 men in every 100,000. In England, Scotland and Wales, however, this figure is 70 times higher. Like breast cancer, it is a middle-class disease that primarily attacks the wealthier and higher socio-economic groups ¨C those that can afford to eat rich foods.
I remember saying to my husband, “Come on Peter, you have just come back from China. What is it about the Chinese way of life that is so different?”
Why don’t they get breast cancer?
We decided to utilize our joint scientific backgrounds and approach it logically.
We examined scientific data that pointed us in the general direction of fats in diets. Researchers had discovered in the 1980s that only l4% of calories in the average Chinese diet were from fat, compared to almost 36% in the West. But the diet I had been living on for years before I contracted breast cancer was very low in fat and high in fibre. Besides, I knew as a scientist that fat intake in adults has not been shown to increase risk for breast cancer in most investigations that have followed large groups of women for up to a dozen years.
Then one day something rather special happened. Peter and I have worked together so closely over the years that I am not sure which one of us first said: “The Chinese don’t eat dairy produce!”
It is hard to explain to a non-scientist the sudden mental and emotional ‘buzz’ you get when you know you have had an important insight. It’s as if you have had a lot of pieces of a jigsaw in your mind, and suddenly, in a few seconds, they all fall into place and the whole picture is clear.
Suddenly I recalled how many Chinese people were physically unable to tolerate milk, how the Chinese people I had worked with had always said that milk was only for babies, and how one of my close friends, who is of Chinese origin, always politely turned down the cheese course at dinner parties.
I knew of no Chinese people who lived a traditional Chinese life who ever used cow or other dairy food to feed their babies. The tradition was to use a wet nurse but never, ever, dairy products.
Culturally, the Chinese find our Western preoccupation with milk and milk products very strange. I remember entertaining a large delegation of Chinese scientists shortly after the ending of the Cultural Revolution in the 1980s.
On advice from the Foreign Office, we had asked the caterer to provide a pudding that contained a lot of ice cream. After inquiring what the pudding consisted of, all of the Chinese, including their interpreter, politely but firmly refused to eat it, and they could not be persuaded to change their minds.
At the time we were all delighted and ate extra portions!
Milk, I discovered, is one of the most common causes of food allergy.
Over 70% of the world’s population are unable to digest the milk sugar, lactose, which has led nutritionists to believe that this is the normal condition for adults, not some sort of deficiency. Perhaps nature is trying to tell us that we are eating the wrong food.
Before I had breast cancer for the first time, I had eaten a lot of dairy produce, such as skimmed milk, low-fat cheese and yoghurt. I had used it as my main source of protein. I also ate cheap but lean minced beef, which I now realized was probably often ground-up dairy cow.
In order to cope with the chemotherapy I received for my fifth case of cancer, I had been eating organic yoghurts as a way of helping my digestive tract to recover and repopulate my gut with ‘good’ bacteria.
Recently, I discovered that way back in 1989 yoghurt had been implicated in ovarian cancer . Dr Daniel Cramer of Harvard University studied hundreds of women with ovarian cancer, and had them record in detail what they normally ate. wish I’d been made aware of his findings when he had first discovered them.
Following Peter’s and my insight into the Chinese diet, I decided to give up not just yoghurt but all dairy produce immediately. Cheese, butter, milk and Even many proprietary brands of margarine marketed as soya, sunflower or olive oil spreads yoghurt and anything else that contained dairy produce - it went down the sink or in the rubbish.
It is surprising how many products, including commercial soups, biscuits and cakes, contain some form of dairy produce. can contain dairy produce. I therefore became an avid reader of the small print on food labels.
Up to this point, I had been steadfastly measuring the progress of my fifth cancerous lump with callipers and plotting the results. Despite all the encouraging comments and positive feedback from my doctors and nurses, my own precise observations told me the bitter truth.
My first chemotherapy sessions had produced no effect – the lump was still the same size.
Then I eliminated dairy products. Within days, the lump started to shrink. About two weeks after my second chemotherapy session and one week after giving up dairy produce, the lump in my neck started to itch. Then it began to soften and to reduce in size. The line on the graph, which had shown no change, was now pointing downwards as the tumour got smaller and smaller.
And, very significantly, I noted that instead of declining exponentially (a graceful curve) as cancer is meant to do, the tumour’s decrease in size was plotted on a straight line heading off the bottom of the graph, indicating a cure, not suppression (or remission) of the tumour.
One Saturday afternoon after about six weeks of excluding all dairy produce from my diet, I practised an hour of meditation then felt for what was left of the lump. I couldn’t find it. Yet I was very experienced at detecting cancerous lumps – I had discovered all five cancers on my own. I went downstairs and asked my husband to feel my neck. He could not find any trace of the lump either.
On the following Thursday I was due to be seen by my cancer specialist at Charing Cross Hospital in London. He examined me thoroughly, especially my neck where the tumour had been. He was initially bemused and then delighted as he said, “I cannot find it.”
None of my doctors, it appeared, had expected someone with my type and stage of cancer (which had clearly spread to the lymph system) to survive, let alone be so hale and hearty.
My specialist was as overjoyed as I was. When I first discussed my ideas with him he was understandably sceptical. But I understand that he now uses maps showing cancer mortality in China in his lectures, and recommends a non-dairy diet to his cancer patients.
I now believe that the link between dairy produce and breast cancer is similar to the link between smoking and lung cancer. I believe that identifying the link between breast cancer and dairy produce, and then developing a diet specifically targeted at maintaining the health of my breast and hormone system, cured me.
It was difficult for me, as it may be for you, to accept that a substance as ‘natural’ as milk might have such ominous health implications. But I am a living proof that it works and, starting from tomorrow, I shall reveal the secrets of my revolutionary action plan.
Source: Extracted from Your Life in Your Hands, by Professor Jane Plant
Arab News
CATCH ‘EM YOUNG: Dr. Samia Al-Amoudi addresses the forum for breast cancer awareness in Jeddah on Sunday. (AN photo)
JEDDAH: Dr. Eman Al-Ayesh, internist at King Fahd Hospital, delivered a comprehensive lecture on breast cancer to intermediate and high school students at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) yesterday.
“In the Kingdom, 22.6 percent of cancer cases are diagnosed as breast cancer. It’s very dangerous because 70 percent of the cases we treat are in late stages, which decreases chances of recovery and increases the cost of treatment,” said Al-Ayesh to a large audience of private school students and teachers.
The JCCI worked in close cooperation with the Private Schools Educational Owners Committee and Sheikh Mohammad Al-Amoudi’s Chair for Breast Cancer Research at King Abdulaziz University to organize the first breast cancer awareness forum, entitled “Our Students, Our Partners.”
“Our target in organizing this forum is the youth. We want to spread awareness among intermediate and high school students so that we create a knowledgeable generation ready to deal with crises,” said Dr. Samia Al-Amoudi, a breast cancer survivor and chairwoman of Al-Amoudi’s Chair for Breast Cancer Research.
Al-Amoudi explained that since changing the older generation’s ideas about breast cancer and the importance of early mammograms was such a challenge, her thoughts turned instead to addressing young girls and teenagers. “We consider our girls to be our ambassadors in delivering the message to the older generation. We also want to educate them and get them involved in meaningful social and human activities,” Al-Amoudi said.
In explaining the stages of breast cancer and the different medical treatments, Al-Ayesh highlighted the differences between benign (non-cancerous) and malignant (cancerous) tumors. She said that in the Kingdom, 20 percent of breast cancer cases occur before the age of 40 while in America only 7 percent occur before the age of 40. Breast cancer symptoms vary widely — from lumps to swelling to skin changes — and many breast cancers have no obvious symptoms at all. Symptoms that are similar to those of breast cancer may be the result of non-cancerous conditions such as infection or a cyst.
“Thus, self-examination is mandatory. It should be part of your monthly health care routine, and you should visit your doctor if you experience changes in your breast,” said Al-Ayesh, as she demonstrated how to do a breast self-exam to the students.
According to breastcancer.org, studies show that regular self-exams, combined with annual checkups, improve the chances of detecting cancer early.
====
Why Women In China Do Not Get Breast Cancer?
by Jeff Prager on Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 9:41am
By Prof. Jane Plant, PhD, CBE : “ Why I believe that giving up milk is the key to beating breast cancer…”
I had no alternative but to die or to try to find a cure for myself. I am a scientist – surely there was a rational explanation for this cruel illness that affects one in 12 women in the UK?
I had suffered the loss of one breast, and undergone radiotherapy. I was now receiving painful chemotherapy, and had been seen by some of the country’s most eminent specialists. But, deep down, I felt certain I was facing death. I had a loving husband, a beautiful home and two young children to care for. I desperately wanted to live.
Fortunately, this desire drove me to unearth the facts, some of which were known only to a handful of scientists at the time.
Anyone who has come into contact with breast cancer will know that certain risk factors – such as increasing age, early onset of womanhood, late onset of menopause and a family history of breast cancer – are completely out of our control. But there are many risk factors, which we can control easily.
These “controllable” risk factors readily translate into simple changes that we can all make in our day-to-day lives to help prevent or treat breast cancer. My message is that even advanced breast cancer can be overcome because I have done it.
The first clue to understanding what was promoting my breast cancer came when my husband Peter, who was also a scientist, arrived back from working in China while I was being plugged in for a chemotherapy session.
He had brought with him cards and letters, as well as some amazing herbal suppositories, sent by my friends and science colleagues in China.
The suppositories were sent to me as a cure for breast cancer. Despite the awfulness of the situation, we both had a good belly laugh, and I remember saying that this was the treatment for breast cancer in China, then it was little wonder that Chinese women avoided getting the disease. Those words echoed in my mind. Why didn’t Chinese women in China get breast cancer? I had collaborated once with Chinese colleagues on a study of links between soil chemistry and disease, and I remembered some of the statistics.
The disease was virtually non-existent throughout the whole country. Only one in 10,000 women in China will die from it, compared to that terrible figure of one in 12 in Britain and the even grimmer average of one in 10 across most Western countries. It is not just a matter of China being a more rural country, with less urban pollution. In highly urbanized Hong Kong, the rate rises to 34 women in every 10,000 but still puts the West to shame. The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have similar rates. And remember, both cities were attacked with nuclear weapons, so in addition to the usual pollution-related cancers, one would also expect to find some radiation-related cases, too.
The conclusion we can draw from these statistics strikes you with some force. If a Western woman were to move to industrialized, irradiated Hiroshima, she would slash her risk of contracting breast cancer by half. Obviously this is absurd. It seemed obvious to me that some lifestyle factor not related to pollution, urbanization or the environment is seriously increasing the Western woman’s chance of contracting breast cancer.
I then discovered that whatever causes the huge differences in breast cancer rates between oriental and Western countries, it isn’t genetic.
Scientific research showed that when Chinese or Japanese people move to the West, within one or two generations their rates of breast cancer approach those of their host community.
The same thing happens when oriental people adopt a completely Western lifestyle in Hong Kong. In fact, the slang name for breast cancer in China translates as ‘Rich Woman’s Disease’. This is because, in China , only the better off can afford to eat what is termed ‘ Hong Kong food’.
The Chinese describe all Western food, including everything from ice cream and chocolate bars to spaghetti and feta cheese, as “Hong Kong food”, because of its availability in the former British colony and its scarcity, in the past, in mainland China.
So it made perfect sense to me that whatever was causing my breast cancer and the shockingly high incidence in this country generally, it was almost certainly something to do with our better-off, middle-class, Western lifestyle. There is an important point for men here, too. I have observed in my research that much of the data about prostate cancer leads to similar conclusions.
According to figures from the World Health Organization, the number of men contracting prostate cancer in rural China is negligible, only 0.5 men in every 100,000. In England, Scotland and Wales, however, this figure is 70 times higher. Like breast cancer, it is a middle-class disease that primarily attacks the wealthier and higher socio-economic groups ¨C those that can afford to eat rich foods.
I remember saying to my husband, “Come on Peter, you have just come back from China. What is it about the Chinese way of life that is so different?”
Why don’t they get breast cancer?
We decided to utilize our joint scientific backgrounds and approach it logically.
We examined scientific data that pointed us in the general direction of fats in diets. Researchers had discovered in the 1980s that only l4% of calories in the average Chinese diet were from fat, compared to almost 36% in the West. But the diet I had been living on for years before I contracted breast cancer was very low in fat and high in fibre. Besides, I knew as a scientist that fat intake in adults has not been shown to increase risk for breast cancer in most investigations that have followed large groups of women for up to a dozen years.
Then one day something rather special happened. Peter and I have worked together so closely over the years that I am not sure which one of us first said: “The Chinese don’t eat dairy produce!”
It is hard to explain to a non-scientist the sudden mental and emotional ‘buzz’ you get when you know you have had an important insight. It’s as if you have had a lot of pieces of a jigsaw in your mind, and suddenly, in a few seconds, they all fall into place and the whole picture is clear.
Suddenly I recalled how many Chinese people were physically unable to tolerate milk, how the Chinese people I had worked with had always said that milk was only for babies, and how one of my close friends, who is of Chinese origin, always politely turned down the cheese course at dinner parties.
I knew of no Chinese people who lived a traditional Chinese life who ever used cow or other dairy food to feed their babies. The tradition was to use a wet nurse but never, ever, dairy products.
Culturally, the Chinese find our Western preoccupation with milk and milk products very strange. I remember entertaining a large delegation of Chinese scientists shortly after the ending of the Cultural Revolution in the 1980s.
On advice from the Foreign Office, we had asked the caterer to provide a pudding that contained a lot of ice cream. After inquiring what the pudding consisted of, all of the Chinese, including their interpreter, politely but firmly refused to eat it, and they could not be persuaded to change their minds.
At the time we were all delighted and ate extra portions!
Milk, I discovered, is one of the most common causes of food allergy.
Over 70% of the world’s population are unable to digest the milk sugar, lactose, which has led nutritionists to believe that this is the normal condition for adults, not some sort of deficiency. Perhaps nature is trying to tell us that we are eating the wrong food.
Before I had breast cancer for the first time, I had eaten a lot of dairy produce, such as skimmed milk, low-fat cheese and yoghurt. I had used it as my main source of protein. I also ate cheap but lean minced beef, which I now realized was probably often ground-up dairy cow.
In order to cope with the chemotherapy I received for my fifth case of cancer, I had been eating organic yoghurts as a way of helping my digestive tract to recover and repopulate my gut with ‘good’ bacteria.
Recently, I discovered that way back in 1989 yoghurt had been implicated in ovarian cancer . Dr Daniel Cramer of Harvard University studied hundreds of women with ovarian cancer, and had them record in detail what they normally ate. wish I’d been made aware of his findings when he had first discovered them.
Following Peter’s and my insight into the Chinese diet, I decided to give up not just yoghurt but all dairy produce immediately. Cheese, butter, milk and Even many proprietary brands of margarine marketed as soya, sunflower or olive oil spreads yoghurt and anything else that contained dairy produce - it went down the sink or in the rubbish.
It is surprising how many products, including commercial soups, biscuits and cakes, contain some form of dairy produce. can contain dairy produce. I therefore became an avid reader of the small print on food labels.
Up to this point, I had been steadfastly measuring the progress of my fifth cancerous lump with callipers and plotting the results. Despite all the encouraging comments and positive feedback from my doctors and nurses, my own precise observations told me the bitter truth.
My first chemotherapy sessions had produced no effect – the lump was still the same size.
Then I eliminated dairy products. Within days, the lump started to shrink. About two weeks after my second chemotherapy session and one week after giving up dairy produce, the lump in my neck started to itch. Then it began to soften and to reduce in size. The line on the graph, which had shown no change, was now pointing downwards as the tumour got smaller and smaller.
And, very significantly, I noted that instead of declining exponentially (a graceful curve) as cancer is meant to do, the tumour’s decrease in size was plotted on a straight line heading off the bottom of the graph, indicating a cure, not suppression (or remission) of the tumour.
One Saturday afternoon after about six weeks of excluding all dairy produce from my diet, I practised an hour of meditation then felt for what was left of the lump. I couldn’t find it. Yet I was very experienced at detecting cancerous lumps – I had discovered all five cancers on my own. I went downstairs and asked my husband to feel my neck. He could not find any trace of the lump either.
On the following Thursday I was due to be seen by my cancer specialist at Charing Cross Hospital in London. He examined me thoroughly, especially my neck where the tumour had been. He was initially bemused and then delighted as he said, “I cannot find it.”
None of my doctors, it appeared, had expected someone with my type and stage of cancer (which had clearly spread to the lymph system) to survive, let alone be so hale and hearty.
My specialist was as overjoyed as I was. When I first discussed my ideas with him he was understandably sceptical. But I understand that he now uses maps showing cancer mortality in China in his lectures, and recommends a non-dairy diet to his cancer patients.
I now believe that the link between dairy produce and breast cancer is similar to the link between smoking and lung cancer. I believe that identifying the link between breast cancer and dairy produce, and then developing a diet specifically targeted at maintaining the health of my breast and hormone system, cured me.
It was difficult for me, as it may be for you, to accept that a substance as ‘natural’ as milk might have such ominous health implications. But I am a living proof that it works and, starting from tomorrow, I shall reveal the secrets of my revolutionary action plan.
Source: Extracted from Your Life in Your Hands, by Professor Jane Plant
Iraqi doctors come to US for training, fellowship
By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer Kevin Freking, Associated Press Writer – Sun Nov 30, 12:25 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Being an ear, nose and throat specialist in Iraq doesn't feel so dangerous any more for Kareem, one of 27 Iraqi medical doctors who spent the past month learning about health care in the United States.
Amid the violence in his country, he often traveled in larger groups, tried not to stay on the job too late into the night and varied the roads he took to work. The Iraqi government sometimes sent security guards to watch his home.
Because of security concerns, he is comfortable talking to a reporter only on the condition that his last name and hometown not be identified.
U.S. officials report that an estimated 8,000 Iraqi doctors stopped practicing medicine in the past five years because doctors became targets for murder and kidnapping in an effort to discredit the American-supported government.
But recent months have brought improved security, a return of hundreds of doctors and a sense of hope.
"Our spirit is now changed. This is the point," Kareem said in an interview in Washington.
Kareem and a second Iraqi doctor, a psychiatrist named Hamood, recently spent three weeks at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit as part of a joint venture between the Health and Human Services Department and Iraq's Ministry of Health.
Both doctors described huge workloads at home. Kareem said he typically sees 50 to 70 patients a day in the outpatient setting and 10 more patients in the emergency room. Sinus infections, tonsillitis and cancer are conditions he regularly treats.
Hamood is the lone psychiatrist for a region with about 800,000 residents. Demand for his services has soared in recent years with many patients suffering from the fear and hopelessness that can accompany extreme trauma. Also, the stigma of seeking help for mental illness has waned, and that is driving demand.
"I think the open media has played a role in this," Hamood said.
U.S. health officials say Iraq probably needs about 100,000 doctors to meet the needs of its population, but has only 15,000 now.
The two Iraqi doctors emphasized that they found the practice of medicine is much the same in the two countries. Doctors in both countries ask patients the same questions. They record and chart a patient's symptoms the same way. They prescribe similar treatments. The main difference is the lack of high-tech equipment in Iraq. Iraqi doctors simply do not have access to the latest in imaging machines or robotic surgery.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said the visits came about because of a discussion he had with the Iraqi health minister, Dr. Salih al-Hasnawi, a psychiatrist.
"In the course of the last 15 years they've been cut off from any information in their areas of discipline. Even during the Saddam (Hussein) era, they were not able to communicate with people outside the country, and they feel like they're completely behind," Leavitt said. "What we need is for them to have access to people who are practicing at the state of the art. He asked if we could arrange shadowing experiences for physicians so they could learn and just form relationships."
The two Iraqi doctors said their time in the U.S. was devoted to observing patient care and attending lectures. They said it is hard to learn a great deal about medicine in such a short time, but they are excited about the contacts they made.
Doctors at Henry Ford are "ready to answer any questions or consultations," Kareem said.
The 27 Iraqi doctors were spread out throughout the U.S. Some went to Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, some to Children's National Medical Center in Washington, while others went to community health centers and Indian Health Service hospitals.
Dr. Kimberlydawn Wisdom, who helped set the visiting doctors' itinerary at Henry Ford, said the region's large Arab-American population helped ensure the doctors felt more at home.
"We tried to link them not only with physicians who could provide them with the clinical expertise they were looking for, but physicians who knew their language or were of Middle Eastern descent and could continue the dialogue long after they returned to their country," Wisdom said.
U.S. doctors were extremely curious about what it's like to practice in Iraq. Wisdom said she was struck by the reduced role of nurses there.
"In our country, nurses are a key backbone of the health care delivery system. They work very closely with physicians. However, in Iraq, the understanding is that nurses were the lowest ranked profession," Wisdom said.
The Iraqi doctors said they often got questions about security and pay. The pay was sure to startle their U.S. counterparts. The two said that doctors during Saddam Hussein's rule made as little as $3 a day, forcing many to have side practices. The pay now stands at about $1,600 a month, they said.
___
On the Net:
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt's blog on Iraq trip: http://secretarysblog.hhs.gov/my_weblog
State Department background: http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/c21468.htm
WASHINGTON – Being an ear, nose and throat specialist in Iraq doesn't feel so dangerous any more for Kareem, one of 27 Iraqi medical doctors who spent the past month learning about health care in the United States.
Amid the violence in his country, he often traveled in larger groups, tried not to stay on the job too late into the night and varied the roads he took to work. The Iraqi government sometimes sent security guards to watch his home.
Because of security concerns, he is comfortable talking to a reporter only on the condition that his last name and hometown not be identified.
U.S. officials report that an estimated 8,000 Iraqi doctors stopped practicing medicine in the past five years because doctors became targets for murder and kidnapping in an effort to discredit the American-supported government.
But recent months have brought improved security, a return of hundreds of doctors and a sense of hope.
"Our spirit is now changed. This is the point," Kareem said in an interview in Washington.
Kareem and a second Iraqi doctor, a psychiatrist named Hamood, recently spent three weeks at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit as part of a joint venture between the Health and Human Services Department and Iraq's Ministry of Health.
Both doctors described huge workloads at home. Kareem said he typically sees 50 to 70 patients a day in the outpatient setting and 10 more patients in the emergency room. Sinus infections, tonsillitis and cancer are conditions he regularly treats.
Hamood is the lone psychiatrist for a region with about 800,000 residents. Demand for his services has soared in recent years with many patients suffering from the fear and hopelessness that can accompany extreme trauma. Also, the stigma of seeking help for mental illness has waned, and that is driving demand.
"I think the open media has played a role in this," Hamood said.
U.S. health officials say Iraq probably needs about 100,000 doctors to meet the needs of its population, but has only 15,000 now.
The two Iraqi doctors emphasized that they found the practice of medicine is much the same in the two countries. Doctors in both countries ask patients the same questions. They record and chart a patient's symptoms the same way. They prescribe similar treatments. The main difference is the lack of high-tech equipment in Iraq. Iraqi doctors simply do not have access to the latest in imaging machines or robotic surgery.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said the visits came about because of a discussion he had with the Iraqi health minister, Dr. Salih al-Hasnawi, a psychiatrist.
"In the course of the last 15 years they've been cut off from any information in their areas of discipline. Even during the Saddam (Hussein) era, they were not able to communicate with people outside the country, and they feel like they're completely behind," Leavitt said. "What we need is for them to have access to people who are practicing at the state of the art. He asked if we could arrange shadowing experiences for physicians so they could learn and just form relationships."
The two Iraqi doctors said their time in the U.S. was devoted to observing patient care and attending lectures. They said it is hard to learn a great deal about medicine in such a short time, but they are excited about the contacts they made.
Doctors at Henry Ford are "ready to answer any questions or consultations," Kareem said.
The 27 Iraqi doctors were spread out throughout the U.S. Some went to Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, some to Children's National Medical Center in Washington, while others went to community health centers and Indian Health Service hospitals.
Dr. Kimberlydawn Wisdom, who helped set the visiting doctors' itinerary at Henry Ford, said the region's large Arab-American population helped ensure the doctors felt more at home.
"We tried to link them not only with physicians who could provide them with the clinical expertise they were looking for, but physicians who knew their language or were of Middle Eastern descent and could continue the dialogue long after they returned to their country," Wisdom said.
U.S. doctors were extremely curious about what it's like to practice in Iraq. Wisdom said she was struck by the reduced role of nurses there.
"In our country, nurses are a key backbone of the health care delivery system. They work very closely with physicians. However, in Iraq, the understanding is that nurses were the lowest ranked profession," Wisdom said.
The Iraqi doctors said they often got questions about security and pay. The pay was sure to startle their U.S. counterparts. The two said that doctors during Saddam Hussein's rule made as little as $3 a day, forcing many to have side practices. The pay now stands at about $1,600 a month, they said.
___
On the Net:
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt's blog on Iraq trip: http://secretarysblog.hhs.gov/my_weblog
State Department background: http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/c21468.htm
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Ghalib was a was not a saint as he used to drink wine but was a great poet
International Urdu Conference: ‘Taboo’ was hallmark of Ghalib’s poetry
By Irfan Aligi
KARACHI: Intellectuals, writers, poets and authors of the Urdu language held a discussion with a special focus on eminent Urdu poet, Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, on the occasion of the fourth session of the International Urdu Conference (IUC) at the Arts Council of Pakistan (ACP) in Karachi on Saturday.
The session was held in collaboration with the Bazm-e-Ghalib, Karachi.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief guest, Sindh Minister for Trade and Industry Rauf Siddiqui, said that it is a global rule of thumb that the formation of a nation is always done by writers and intellectuals, while the state can only facilitate them.
Unfortunately, the concept of a united Pakistani nation is missing in Pakistan and the Pakistani people are divided along religious, sectarian and ethnic lines. The spirit of a single united nation is observed only at time of disasters on a national scale.
Urdu was born in Punjab and flourished in Indian cities Delhi and Lucknow, claimed Siddiqui.
The IUC organizers and intellectuals have honoured Siddiqui and the Sindh government by inviting the minister to attend the IUC. Siddiqui in turn promised support and said he would do whatever he could do for the promotion of arts and culture through an an advisory team that he had constituted.
Writers, poets and intellectuals have long been divided into groups, hampering the cause of the promotion of arts, culture and intellectual activities in Pakistan, regretted Siddiqui.
Efforts have been initiated to establish an intellectuals’ fund for the welfare of intellectuals, but the division of intellectuals into groups has proved a serious hindrance, he said, adding that had the fund established, hundreds of intellectuals could have been benefited from the millions of rupees in the fund.
He said that he had pioneered the Shah Latif Bhittai Award, with prize money of Rs 100,000, the Josh Award worth Rs 50,000 and Sheikh Ayaz Award worth Rs 50,000. The Josh award was reserved for Sindhi intellectuals while the Sheikh Ayaz award was for Urdu intellectuals only.
He urged that the IUC organizers hold the IUC in Nawabshah and Sukkur, for which the Sindh Ministry of Trade and Industry will bear all expenses.
He criticized the caricatures, cartoons and anecdotal depictions of writers, poets and intellectuals by artists and actors for peoples’ amusement, which the masses have wrongly admired.
He announced Rs 100,000 for the ACP to meet IUC expenses while Jamshed Town Nazim Kamran offered Rs 250,000 as well.
Speaking at the IUC, eminent Urdu scholar Dr Aslam Farrukhi briefly said that Ghalib was a poet whose fame was initially limited but now, after his death, he is widely known, more so than any other Urdu poet.
It is difficult to end a discussion on Ghalib once it has started, claimed Farrukhi.
ACP Honorary Secretary Ahmed Shah suggested that the minister pursue the Sindh governor to form the Josh Chair at the Karachi University. Shah also requested the minister to rename Shahrah-e-Noor Jehan in North Nazimabad after Josh Malehabadi, since he had lived there.
Ghalib Institute, Delhi Director Shahid Mehalli said that his institute has so far awarded the Ghalib Award worth Rs 50,000 to over 150 Urdu intellectuals. Anjuman Tarraqqi-e-Urdu Hind President Dr Khalique Anjum focused on Ghalib’s prose in the letters that the poet had written to his friends. Dr Anjum highlighted the means of transportation available at that time as Ghalib revealed in his letters, which he used on his trips to other cities to plead his pension case with the East India Company.
Anjum also spoke of Ghalib’s childish behaviour and said that Ghalib practically used taboos against the city and people of Allahabad, a city of cultured people. He also discussed Ghalib’s extreme admiration of the city of Banaras, which Ghalib portrayed in his letters and is one of Ghalib’s landmark writings.
Anjuman Tarraqqi-e-Urdu Hind Secretary Siddiqur Rehman said that Ghalib should not be limited to the role of a poet but should be taken as the role model of cultural norms and values, which should be propagated across the world.
Former Karachi Port Trust Chairman Rear Admiral (Retd) MI Arshad said that Ghalib was a great poet but not a saint, since he was a drunkard.
Poet and writer Shahzad Ahmed said that Ghalib is a mutual asset for Indians and Pakistanis.
He said that just as it is not clear whether Einstein was the pioneer of modern science or the last of the classic scientists, so is the case with Ghalib. It is difficult to ascertain whether Ghalib was a poet of modern Urdu or the last poet of classic Urdu.
He paid tribute to Ghalib, saying that Ghalib was the Koh-e-Toor (Mount Sinai) and so the pilgrimage is compulsory for us.
Bazm-e-Ghalib Patron Tanveer Kazmi said that whenever any sitting is organized or conference is held on Ghalib, the speakers normally read papers and their theses, which do not necessarily carry detailed information about Ghalib, his poetry and prose.
By Irfan Aligi
KARACHI: Intellectuals, writers, poets and authors of the Urdu language held a discussion with a special focus on eminent Urdu poet, Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, on the occasion of the fourth session of the International Urdu Conference (IUC) at the Arts Council of Pakistan (ACP) in Karachi on Saturday.
The session was held in collaboration with the Bazm-e-Ghalib, Karachi.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief guest, Sindh Minister for Trade and Industry Rauf Siddiqui, said that it is a global rule of thumb that the formation of a nation is always done by writers and intellectuals, while the state can only facilitate them.
Unfortunately, the concept of a united Pakistani nation is missing in Pakistan and the Pakistani people are divided along religious, sectarian and ethnic lines. The spirit of a single united nation is observed only at time of disasters on a national scale.
Urdu was born in Punjab and flourished in Indian cities Delhi and Lucknow, claimed Siddiqui.
The IUC organizers and intellectuals have honoured Siddiqui and the Sindh government by inviting the minister to attend the IUC. Siddiqui in turn promised support and said he would do whatever he could do for the promotion of arts and culture through an an advisory team that he had constituted.
Writers, poets and intellectuals have long been divided into groups, hampering the cause of the promotion of arts, culture and intellectual activities in Pakistan, regretted Siddiqui.
Efforts have been initiated to establish an intellectuals’ fund for the welfare of intellectuals, but the division of intellectuals into groups has proved a serious hindrance, he said, adding that had the fund established, hundreds of intellectuals could have been benefited from the millions of rupees in the fund.
He said that he had pioneered the Shah Latif Bhittai Award, with prize money of Rs 100,000, the Josh Award worth Rs 50,000 and Sheikh Ayaz Award worth Rs 50,000. The Josh award was reserved for Sindhi intellectuals while the Sheikh Ayaz award was for Urdu intellectuals only.
He urged that the IUC organizers hold the IUC in Nawabshah and Sukkur, for which the Sindh Ministry of Trade and Industry will bear all expenses.
He criticized the caricatures, cartoons and anecdotal depictions of writers, poets and intellectuals by artists and actors for peoples’ amusement, which the masses have wrongly admired.
He announced Rs 100,000 for the ACP to meet IUC expenses while Jamshed Town Nazim Kamran offered Rs 250,000 as well.
Speaking at the IUC, eminent Urdu scholar Dr Aslam Farrukhi briefly said that Ghalib was a poet whose fame was initially limited but now, after his death, he is widely known, more so than any other Urdu poet.
It is difficult to end a discussion on Ghalib once it has started, claimed Farrukhi.
ACP Honorary Secretary Ahmed Shah suggested that the minister pursue the Sindh governor to form the Josh Chair at the Karachi University. Shah also requested the minister to rename Shahrah-e-Noor Jehan in North Nazimabad after Josh Malehabadi, since he had lived there.
Ghalib Institute, Delhi Director Shahid Mehalli said that his institute has so far awarded the Ghalib Award worth Rs 50,000 to over 150 Urdu intellectuals. Anjuman Tarraqqi-e-Urdu Hind President Dr Khalique Anjum focused on Ghalib’s prose in the letters that the poet had written to his friends. Dr Anjum highlighted the means of transportation available at that time as Ghalib revealed in his letters, which he used on his trips to other cities to plead his pension case with the East India Company.
Anjum also spoke of Ghalib’s childish behaviour and said that Ghalib practically used taboos against the city and people of Allahabad, a city of cultured people. He also discussed Ghalib’s extreme admiration of the city of Banaras, which Ghalib portrayed in his letters and is one of Ghalib’s landmark writings.
Anjuman Tarraqqi-e-Urdu Hind Secretary Siddiqur Rehman said that Ghalib should not be limited to the role of a poet but should be taken as the role model of cultural norms and values, which should be propagated across the world.
Former Karachi Port Trust Chairman Rear Admiral (Retd) MI Arshad said that Ghalib was a great poet but not a saint, since he was a drunkard.
Poet and writer Shahzad Ahmed said that Ghalib is a mutual asset for Indians and Pakistanis.
He said that just as it is not clear whether Einstein was the pioneer of modern science or the last of the classic scientists, so is the case with Ghalib. It is difficult to ascertain whether Ghalib was a poet of modern Urdu or the last poet of classic Urdu.
He paid tribute to Ghalib, saying that Ghalib was the Koh-e-Toor (Mount Sinai) and so the pilgrimage is compulsory for us.
Bazm-e-Ghalib Patron Tanveer Kazmi said that whenever any sitting is organized or conference is held on Ghalib, the speakers normally read papers and their theses, which do not necessarily carry detailed information about Ghalib, his poetry and prose.
Iraqi Central Criminal Court ordered the release of Reuters Photographer
An undated file photo shows Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, a freelance photographer working for Reuters news agency in Baghdad. The Iraqi Central Criminal Court on November 30, 2008 ordered the release of Jassam who has been held by U.S. forces since early September. The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled there was no evidence against Jassam, and ordered that the U.S. military release him from Camp Cropper prison near Baghdad airport. There was no immediate response from the U.S. military to the ruling.
REUTERS/Staff/Files (IRAQ)
Iraqi Forces Search For Suspects In Baghdad Rocket Attack
BAGHDAD (AFP)--Iraqi forces surrounded a working-class neighborhood in Baghdad on Sunday, searching cars and houses for militants behind a rocket attack that killed two U.N. contractors, officials said.
Security forces searched cars leaving the Al-Amin neighbourhood and distributed flyers requesting information on two men suspected of firing the rocket, which struck near the U.N. compound in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday.
"Security forces are looking for wanted individuals, and the people are supplying the forces with information on the gang that has been firing rockets," said Major General Qassim Atta, the military's Baghdad spokesman.
"The search operation will continue from this morning, and the goal of the forces is clear, it's the weapons that are hidden in Al-Amin and nearby areas," he told AFP.
A U.N. spokesperson confirmed that another 15 people were wounded in the rocket attack but declined to comment on the nationality of the contractors who were killed and wounded, saying only that they weren't Iraqis.
The victims were all workers for a catering company contracted by the U.N., and weren't national or international staff.
The Green Zone in the center of Baghdad, also known as the International Zone, houses parliament and a number of government buildings and embassies.
-------
Attack on Iraq's Green Zone near U.N. kills two
29 Nov 2008 09:02:58 GMT
Source: Reuters
BAGHDAD, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Rocket or mortar attacks on the heavily fortified Baghdad government and military Green Zone compound killed at least two foreign workers on Saturday near the United Nations offices, a U.N. official and police said.
The U.N. official said two catering workers, of unknown nationality and not affiliated with the world body, had been killed. A Green Zone security source put the toll at three foreign workers killed and 15 wounded.
The Green Zone compound houses many Iraqi government ministries and U.S. military and diplomatic offices, and comes under frequent bomb attacks, though rockets and mortars have been rare in recent months. (Writing by Mohammed Abbas: Editing by Michael Christie and Mark Trevelyan)
Security forces searched cars leaving the Al-Amin neighbourhood and distributed flyers requesting information on two men suspected of firing the rocket, which struck near the U.N. compound in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday.
"Security forces are looking for wanted individuals, and the people are supplying the forces with information on the gang that has been firing rockets," said Major General Qassim Atta, the military's Baghdad spokesman.
"The search operation will continue from this morning, and the goal of the forces is clear, it's the weapons that are hidden in Al-Amin and nearby areas," he told AFP.
A U.N. spokesperson confirmed that another 15 people were wounded in the rocket attack but declined to comment on the nationality of the contractors who were killed and wounded, saying only that they weren't Iraqis.
The victims were all workers for a catering company contracted by the U.N., and weren't national or international staff.
The Green Zone in the center of Baghdad, also known as the International Zone, houses parliament and a number of government buildings and embassies.
-------
Attack on Iraq's Green Zone near U.N. kills two
29 Nov 2008 09:02:58 GMT
Source: Reuters
BAGHDAD, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Rocket or mortar attacks on the heavily fortified Baghdad government and military Green Zone compound killed at least two foreign workers on Saturday near the United Nations offices, a U.N. official and police said.
The U.N. official said two catering workers, of unknown nationality and not affiliated with the world body, had been killed. A Green Zone security source put the toll at three foreign workers killed and 15 wounded.
The Green Zone compound houses many Iraqi government ministries and U.S. military and diplomatic offices, and comes under frequent bomb attacks, though rockets and mortars have been rare in recent months. (Writing by Mohammed Abbas: Editing by Michael Christie and Mark Trevelyan)
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