New Charges Confirm That 'Infiltration' Was An Aspect Of Russian 2016 Attack

New charges against a woman who tried to build bridges between the Russian government and American political leaders via the National Rifle Association delivered a breakthrough in understanding one aspect of the attack on the 2016 election: "infiltration."

After months of questions and speculation as to how or whether the NRA connection might have worked, prosecutors have proffered an answer: the Russian woman, Maria Butina, was the intermediary between Russian government officials and Americans, both in the NRA and elsewhere in politics, according to court documents

The government charges that she was acting as a foreign agent without registering. Her attorney called the charges overblown, as NPR's Carrie Johnson reported.

Butina serves or served as the deputy to someone identified in court papers only as a "Russian official," who is probably Alexander Torshin, a now-sanctioned Kremlin official who also cultivated relationships with American political leaders and the NRA over several years

Woman Survives For 7 Days After Plunging Over 250-Foot Cliff In California

An Oregon woman survived for seven days after plunging over a cliff in central California.

Angela Hernandez, 23, suffered a brain hemorrhage and fractured ribs after a violent crash on July 6.

She says she swerved to avoid an animal and plunged to the bottom of a rocky 250-foot cliff.

New Drexel Program Helped Man Lose 140 Pounds 

She managed to get out of her car and swam to a beach where she waited for help.

She says she used a hose from her car’s engine to drink water dripping off rocks.

She was found by some hikers who called for help.

#PADUPAFRICA distributed 1000 sanitary pads and informative materials to female students of #Government secondary school Nyanya Abuja Nigeria.

#PADUPAFRICA distributed 1000 sanitary pads and informative materials  to female students of  #Government secondary school Nyanya Abuja Nigeria. last week, the pad up africa campaign to help young teenagers, it is intrestine to know that Menstruation and menstrual            practices are still clouded by taboos and socio-cultural restrictions resulting in adolescent girls remaining ignorant of the scientific facts and hygienic health practices, which sometimes result into adverse health outcomes like reproductive tract infections .
Teenagers having better knowledge regarding menstrual hygiene and safe practices are less vulnerable to RTI and its consequences. Therefore PADUPAFRICA has focused on distribution of informative materials to , increase knowledge about       menstruation right from childhood may escalate safe practices and may help in mitigating the suffering of millions

Parasite-borne illness spurs McDonald's to pull salads from 3,000 restaurants

McDonald’s halted sales of its salads at 3,000 franchises in the Midwest on Friday, after authorities in Illinois and Iowa reported an outbreak of a parasite-borne illnesslinked to greens served by the fast-food chain.

More than 100 people have fallen ill in the two states since May, and many of them reported having eaten salad items at the chain, according to health authorities in Illinois and Iowa.
Tests of those who have fallen ill revealed the presence of the fecal-borne parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis, which can cause severe diarrhea, cramps and fever, those health departments reported.

McDonald’s said in a statement it has halted sales of salads at the franchises “out of an abundance of caution” until the company can switch to another supplier, which the company did not identify.

In addition to Illinois and Iowa, states affected by the salad ban include Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Kentucky, West Virginia and Missouri, the McDonald’s statement said.

“McDonald’s is committed to the highest standards of food safety and quality control,” the statement said. “We are closely monitoring this situation and cooperating with state and federal public health authorities as they further investigate.”

The illness caused by infestation with the parasite, called cyclosporiasis, is marked by severe and frequent bouts of diarrhea, cramps, bloating, nausea, fever, and loss of appetite and weight, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Illinois health authorities said about a quarter of the 90 cyclosporiasis cases reported since May had a connection to a McDonald’s franchise. Iowa authorities confirmed 15 cases linked to McDonald’s since June. Neither state reported any hospitalizations or deaths.

In addition to Illinois and Iowa, states affected by the salad ban include Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Kentucky, West Virginia and Missouri, the McDonald’s statement said.

“McDonald’s is committed to the highest standards of food safety and quality control,” the statement said. “We are closely monitoring this situation and cooperating with state and federal public health authorities as they further investigate.”

The illness caused by infestation with the parasite, called cyclosporiasis, is marked by severe and frequent bouts of diarrhea, cramps, bloating, nausea, fever, and loss of appetite and weight, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Illinois health authorities said about a quarter of the 90 cyclosporiasis cases reported since May had a connection to a McDonald’s franchise. Iowa authorities confirmed 15 cases linked to McDonald’s since June. Neither state reported any hospitalizations or deaths.
The outbreak follows the recall last month of salad trays sold by Del Monte Fresh Produce after 227 people fell ill with cyclosporiasis after eating vegetable-and-dip trays bought in convenience stores in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan, according to the CDC.

The agency last year reported a sharp increase in cyclosporiasis — more than 1,065 reported cases in 40 states. There were 384 cases reported during a similar period in 2016, compared with 546 in 2015 and 304 in 2014, according to the CDC.

“We are seeing more of these outbreaks popping up,” said Erin DiCaprio, a cooperative extension assistant specialist at the UC Davis’ Department of Food Science and Technology.

The parasites are specific to humans and tend to spread through poorly processed sewage that may find its way into irrigation sources, DiCaprio said. “It’s usually associated with produce that’s from outside the United States,” she said.
There is no routine testing for presence of the parasite in the U.S. produce industry, in part because it has been difficult to develop a test in the laboratory, DiCaprio said. Many physicians also overlook testing ill patients for the parasite, according to the CDC.

The outbreak comes as the produce industry is recovering from a 36-state outbreak of illnesses linked to E. coli bacteria in romaine lettuce, which killed five people and sickened more than 200 others, about half of whom had to be hospitalized, according to the CDC.

The E. coli strain was traced to an irrigation canal in the lettuce growing region around Yuma, Arizona. The outbreak, which began in April, was declared over on June 28.

'Do Not Eat' Kellogg's Honey Smacks Cereal, CDC Warns

Bad news for your breakfast: Kellogg's cereal contaminated with salmonella is still being sold in some stores despite being recalled a month ago, according to a new report from the FDA.

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report warning consumers that Kellogg's Honey Smacks cereal had been linked to a salmonella outbreak across the U.S. According to their investigation, the contaminated cereal has resulted in 100 cases of salmonella infections (30 of which have resulted in hospitalizations) in 33 states so far.

Based on the CDC's findings, Kellogg's voluntarily recalled Honey Smacks on June 14 and shut down the facility responsible. But according to a new report from the Food and Drug Administration, the contaminated cereal is still on shelves a month later. This is totally illegal, as the FDA points out in their warning.

Salmonella causes diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps, according to the CDC. While most cases go away on their own (there are over a 1.2 million reported cases in the U.S. every year, the CDC says), it can be deadly. The CDC estimates 450 people die from salmonella infections every year.

So what does this all mean for your grocery list? The FDA is doing their part to go after retailers who are still selling Honey Smacks. If you see the cereal on shelves, that doesn't mean it's safe or a new, non-contaminated batch. You can report the cereal to your localFDA consumer complaint coordinator. And if you have any boxes of Honey Smacks at home, trash them ASAP. Regardless of when or where you bought your box, the CDC advises throwing it out or taking it back to your grocery store for a refund. (Already had Honey Smacks for breakfast? Read what to do when you've eaten something from a food recall.)

Neutrino From Supermassive Black Hole in Another Galaxy Detected in Antarctica

In the time it takes you to read this sentence, uncountable trillions of neutrinos have passed through your body. These ghostly particles rain down on us from the sun, but also from sources outside our solar system. Just a tiny fraction of neutrinos will run into anything on Earth, but scientists just detected one from outside our galaxy for the first time ever. It came from a supermassive black hole some 3.7 billion light years away, and then it collided with some ice in Antarctica.

Neutrinos are created by radioactive decay in stars, during supernovae, or as matter spirals into a black hole. They have the lowest known mass of any elementary particle, are electrically neutral, and only interact weakly with other matter. That means neutrinos fly right through planets, stars, and even you at nearly the speed of light. Scientists on Earth have managed to devise methods to detect the few neutrinos that do smack into atoms, and the National Science Foundation’s IceCube Neutrino Observatory spotted a very special Neutrino last year.
On Sept. 22, 2017, scientists using the IceCube observatory detected a high-energy neutrino striking the Antarctic ice. It had an energy of 300 trillion electron volts. That’s 45 times more energy than the Large Hadron Collider can produce in a collision. That provided good evidence that the neutrino came from outside our solar system. The team was able to calculate.
The IceCube observatory operates out of the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, so the team had to look at the possible neutrino sources in the sky over that location. Data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope Collaboration pointed to an object known as a blazar. These are active galaxies with supermassive black holes at the center. That also describes quasars, but the difference is a blazar is spewing a jet of particles and radiation in the direction of Earth. Around the time IceCube detected the impact, Fermi noted that the blazar TXS 0506+056 was brighter (in gamma rays) than it had been in more than a decade, and it was in just the right place to match the trajectory of the neutrino.

This is the first time we’ve detected a neutrino from such a distant source. The study of these particles can help unravel the mysteries lurking in the most extreme environments of the universe. Imagine what secrets are hidden in all the neutrinos that passed through your body while reading this.

British authorities investigating the poisoning of two people have found a bottle believed to have contained Novichok, a nerve agent

British authorities investigating the poisoning of two people have found a bottle believed to have contained Novichok, a nerve agent that was also used against a former Russian spy and his daughter, the Metropolitan Police said Friday.

Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old woman who was exposed to the poison, died in a hospital on Sunday. Charlie Rowley, her 45-year-old partner, was said to be in critical condition before he regained consciousness. He is in serious condition but is stable, police said Friday.

SHARE THIS —

British authorities investigating the poisoning of two people have found a bottle believed to have contained Novichok, a nerve agent that was also used against a former Russian spy and his daughter, the Metropolitan Police said Friday.

Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old woman who was exposed to the poison, died in a hospital on Sunday. Charlie Rowley, her 45-year-old partner, was said to be in critical condition before he regained consciousness. He is in serious condition but is stable, police said Friday.

The small bottle was found during searches of Rowley's house in Amesbury on Wednesday, police said in a statement. It was tested, and scientists confirmed the substance inside was Novichok, a military-grade, Soviet-produced nerve agent that was used in an attack on the ex-spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia. Sturgess and Rowley were hospitalized in late June, authorities have said.

Authorities said they were investigating where the bottle came from, how it turned up in Rowley's house, and whether the substance came from the same batch that poisoned the Skripals, who survived the March attack. They have been released from a hospital, but are in a secret protected location, according to the Associated Press.

"This is clearly a significant and positive development," Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said in a statement. "However, we cannot guarantee that there isn't any more of the substance left and cordons will remain in place for some considerable time."

Investigators have spoken with Rowley and will continue to talk with him to "further establish how he and Dawn came to be contaminated," police said. In a previous statement, police said there was no evidence that Sturgess or Rowley visited any of the sites that were decontaminated after the poisoning of the Skripals

he Skripals were found unconscious on a park bench on March 4 in Salisbury, around 7 miles from Amesbury.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has blamed the Russian government for the attack on the Skripals. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any involvement.