By Reuters   
Tags: biofuels, Muslim nations, D8  
Warning that escalating food and fuel prices could lead to disaster, a group of developing Muslim nations called on Tuesday for urgent measures
to lift food and oil output and a rethink on bio-fuels.  
Malaysia and Indonesia, the world's largest producers of palm oil, told the summit of eight developing Muslim-majority countries (D8), that they wanted to see an end to the conversion of arable land for bio-fuel production.
Palm oil is used as a feedstock to produce biofuel and also widely consumed in the region as cooking oil.
Leaders of the eight nations comprising nearly one billion people said at the summit in Kuala Lumpur that the twinproblems of food and energy security were putting a severe strain on their countries, especially on the poor.
The group of Developing Eight (D-8) countries - Iran, Indonesia, Egypt, Malaysia, Turkey, Pakistan, Nigeria and Bangladesh - represent about one billion people, or 14 percent of the world's population.
"We must act on it once and in concert. To delay action on this great challenge of our time is to court disaster," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the meeting. Yudhoyono's popularity in his ...   more »

Posted by Martin LaMonica 14 commentsDemand for biofuels in Europe and the United States has forced up food prices 75 percent around the world, according to a World Bank report that was leaked and published in The Guardian newspaper on Friday.
The number stands in sharp contrast to the 3 percent contribution to higher food pricing estimated by the United States Department of Agriculture.  
Meanwhile, a study commissioned by food manufacturers pegs the contribution of biofuels on food prices at between 25 percent and 35 percent. (Click here for PDF).
The reports will surely heat up the debate on biofuels policy one week before the scheduled G8 meeting in Japan. Both the U.S. and Europe have biofuels mandates to lessen dependence on imported fossil fuels.
The World Bank argues that these policies have distorted the market for grains in three ways, according to The Guardian. First, crops that would have been sold for food have been diverted for biofuels production. Second, land is now being used for fuels rather than food. And third, the mandates have set off speculation in financial markets
"Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price ...   more »

Kimberly Johnson
Rapid changes in the churning movement of Earth's liquid outer core are weakening the magnetic field in some regions of the planet's surface, a new study says.
"What is so surprising is that rapid, almost sudden, changes take place in the Earth's magnetic field," said study co-author Nils Olsen, a geophysicist at the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen.
The findings suggest similarly quick changes are simultaneously occurring in the liquid metal, 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) below the surface, he said.
The swirling flow of molten iron and nickel around Earth's solid center triggers an electrical current, which generates the planet's magnetic field.
The study, published recently in Nature Geoscience, modeled Earth's magnetic field using nine years of highly accurate satellite data.
Flip-Flop
Fluctuations in the magnetic field have occurred in several far-flung regions of Earth, the researchers found.
In 2003 scientists found pronounced changes in the magnetic field in the Australasian region. In 2004, however, the changes were focused on Southern Africa.
The changes "may suggest the possibility of an upcoming reversal of the geomagnetic field," said study co-author Mioara Mandea, a scientist at the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam.
Earth's magnetic field has reversed ...   more »

PUPILS are being fingerprinted for food at a Huddersfield school.
All Saints Catholic College at Bradley Bar has followed other Kirklees schools in introducing a biometric payment system to replace cash for school dinners.
Students have had their fingers scanned to set up accounts like bank accounts.
They contain information about cash balances and what they have bought and when.
Instead of handing over cash at the till the pupils press their finger against a machine which recognises the print and relays the information.
A spokeswoman for the school said: “Each individual’s finger and thumb prints are unique.
“The biometric cashless system will store only a section of the print as a unique number and not as an image
“Each student will have that unique number stored on a central server.
“This is done by scanning the finger or thumb with a non-evasive electronic scanner, which passes light over the finger or thumb.”
The system is designed to make serving quicker and more efficient.
Information on the purpose for which fingerprints are gathered and who will use the data is provided to students to comply with the Data Protection Act. The college says it will “only be used by parties ...   more »

'This will be as inspirational
as Alamo, without the guns'
By Bob Unruh
At least two counties in California have begun reviewing a plan to uphold the state's laws regarding marriage as being between one man and one woman and disregard a state Supreme Court opinion that has yet to be implemented by the Legislature.
In the next step in the state's war over marriage – defined by voters as involving only one man and one woman and by the Supreme Court as two people of either gender – traditional marriage supporters will be attending the Kern County board of supervisors meeting tomorrow when the issue will be discussed.
In an alert from the Bakersfield Republican Assembly, officials suggested people "respectfully call the county supervisors and remind them that 80 percent of the voters in Kern County voted for Prop. 22 that defined marriage as between a man and a woman."
On the agenda at the meeting will be a proposed ordinance and exhaustive legal brief in its support that would have the county continue to uphold California laws and regulations – which have not been changed – providing for marriage only between one man and one woman.
That's despite ...   more »

Former Clinton OB-GYN makes admission in e-mail
By Bob Unruh
An abortionist who claims to have destroyed more than 20,000 unborn children and who once was Hillary Clinton's OB-GYN says he is doing "God's work" when he terminates a pregnancy.
"Embryos and fetuses spontaneously aborted – most, but not all of those 'canceled' by 'God' – are ... luckless human souls," wrote William Harrison, referring to an ancient poem describing the plight of mankind. "But a few spontaneous abortions occur in desired pregnancies with no discernable abnormalities. For those girls and women and their families whose circumstances would make their babies 'luckless human souls,' I 'cancel' them before they become babies."
Harrison's comments came in an e-mail to Warren Throckmorton, whose work has been published by journals of the American Psychological Association, the American Mental Health Counseling Association and the Christian Association for Psychological Studies. He documented his exchange with Harrison on his blog.
"In this e-mail exchange, Hillary Clinton's former OB-GYN and abortionist William Harrison admits that abortion kills a human soul. He euphemizes the language a bit but the effect is chilling by saying he is doing 'God's work,'" Throckmorton told WND. "I was surprised he would admit ...   more »