Tobacco lobby? Why did the cellphone story break on World No-Tobacco Day?

Hmmm .... Could it be that the tobacco lobby influenced releasing this on World No-Tobacco Day?
To be clear - tobacco has been PROVEN to cause cancer and heart disease, while they are saying cell phones MAY cause cancer.

Breaking News Alert: Cellphones are possibly carcinogenic to human's, agency saysMay 31, 2011 12:50:21PM
-------------------------------------An international panel of experts says cellphones are possibly carcinogenic to humans after reviewing details from dozens of published studies.The statement was issued in Lyon, France, on Tuesday by the International Agency for Research on Cancer after a weeklong meeting of experts. They reviewed possible links between cancer and the type of electromagnetic radiation found in cellphones, microwaves and radar.

The agency is the cancer arm of the World Health Organization and the assessment now goes to WHO and national health agencies for possible guidance on cellphone use.

The group classified cellphones in category 2B, meaning they are possibly carcinogenic to humans. Other substances in that category include the pesticide DDT and gasoline engine exhaust.

http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/QJTXP3/LQ3F6J/UGYG4E/FGZ7QO/VYGOL/SN/h
For more information, visit washingtonpost.com
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Jamaica Night Sky for June

Courtesy of Jennifer Rowe - Jamaica Astronomical Society
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Barcelona's Lionel Messi hails 'incredible' Champions League victory over Manchester United at Wembley - Telegraph

Messi is so great and so humble!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/champions-league/8544737/Barcelonas-Lionel-Messi-hails-incredible-Champions-League-victory-over-Manchester-United-at-Wembley.html

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Strauss-Kahn ogling Michelle Obama?

The expression on President Obama's face says - 'whoa guy - don't you get too friendly!'
(Thanks for sending this Gillie!)
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Etana on 12-city tour of US

We got release below from Etana's PR folks - had to blog - Etana is the real deal - as the world is finding out!

Monday May 23, 2011

Kingston, Jamaica:—With her second album out and climbing reggae charts around the world, Etana embarked on a 12-city tour of the United States, which began on May 10.

The reigning princess of reggae, Etana has already performed to capacity crowds in places such as Denver, Salt Lake City and Oregon and she describes the experience as amazing. This tour comes hot on the heels of a hectic two-week tour of South America, which ended mid-April.

"South America was a good start to the summer," Etana said.

"Though we were the only dark skinned people there most of the time, race wasn't an issue and we were all one in reggae music. Ska music especially is alive and well over there, and trust me the people love reggae music bad! If you follow dem you sing all night for hours and they won't stop dancing."

Etana continued saying that while she knew her sophomore album Free Expressions was gaining significant traction in North America, the artiste did not expect for the crowds to know all the new songs she has incorporated into her performance set.

"People respond to the new songs just the same as the older ones. They love them and I'm so grateful about that. Some crowds have gone as far as to even ask me to sing certain songs in my set, like Dance off the new album or I Got You. All the crowds so far just go crazy over People Talk. They know it, love it and sing it word for word!" the excited songbird exclaimed.

"Everything about this tour so far has just been amazing. Mi excited about the vibes out here on the road. I could do another month! The clubs are always full to capacity and it is all screams during our performances. And even when both are shows are over and we walk out, people still hang around the stage."

The tour will see Etana completing performances San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and other places in California. After she ends her US west coast stint, the songstress heads to Miami for the Best of The Best Concert and comes home to rest before her European tour in July.

Fans and music lovers can keep in touch and in-tune with Etana on her website (www.etanastrongone.com) or Twitter (@EtanaStrongOne) and on Facebook (Etana)

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Miss Cherry is a hit!

Just stopped at Miss Cherry's One Stop at Faith's Pen - we four had ackee & saltfish, curry goat and jerk chicken - all delicious!
Miss Cherry's real name is Princess Elizabeth Dacres and she is a warm, intelligent lady - another beautiful rural Jamaican!
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Obama heading to Ireland

From the Washington Post
Sunday 22 May 11

A highlight of Obama's opening stop in Ireland will be a feel-good pilgrimage to the hamlet of Moneygall, where America's first black president will explore his Irish — yes, Irish — roots, and most likely raise a pint.

It turns out that Falmouth Kearney, who immigrated to the United States in 1850 at the age of 19, is the great great great grandfather of Obama on his white, Kansas-born mother's side. Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, will connect in Moneygall with distant relatives from the Irish branch of his family tree.

Michael Collins, the Irish ambassador to the United States, says the president's visit will be "a golden moment" for a country that's been on the economic ropes after its boom time. The visit is sure to play well at home for Obama — make that O'bama — as he heads into re-election season after being pushed to great lengths simply to prove he was born on U.S. soil.


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Perfect Jamaican Lunch

Well done Chef Mark!
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Custard apple from my tree

It was better than any ice cream!

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Barack Obama - 'man of steel'

Little Barack having fun with his grandfather Stanley Dunham on a Hawaii Beach

Barack Obama - 'man of steel' | Jean Lowrie-Chin | Jamaica Observer

Monday, May 09, 2011: It was just last week that this column declared the Obamas the royalty of the Caribbean and African diaspora. Two days after we went to press, King Barack claimed headlines around the world for ordering the elimination of Osama bin Laden, the dreaded leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist group.
Now let me make a confession. When Obama first came to the fore as a presidential nominee, I said to my colleagues, "No way will he get anywhere far in the US with a first name that incredibly rhymes with Osama and to make it harder, a middle name like Hussein." But as we watched his masterful campaign gaining momentum, and his audiences growing from the hundreds to the thousands, we realised that this was a very special leader.
If Barack Obama's life had been a movie script, we would have probably said it was too unrealistic. How could his parents have met in Hawaii, the same place that the black/white young couple met in that movie classic Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, starring Sidney Poitier? How could these brilliant individuals — one from Kenya and one from Kansas — produce an even more brilliant son, who would become the first ever black editor of the Harvard Law Review?
The marriage of his parents dissolved when he was a toddler and his mother Ann Dunham (looking like the sister of that famous Kansan Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz) remarries an Indonesian and takes young Barack to live with his stepfather in that Asian country.
Ann awakened her seven-year-old son early every day to keep his English strong and resonant, playing inspiring recordings. The voice she played to young Barry over and over again: Martin Luther King saying his famous I Have a Dream speech.
As we watched the man with the impossible-to-win name, take the Oath of the Office as President of the United States in January 2009, we saw why former British PM Tony Blair wrote of Barack Obama in his autobiography: "The personal character is clear: this is a man with steel in every part of him." Blair went on to comment that Obama had incredible insight for someone so young.
In the same hands-on way that he managed his marvellous campaign, Barack Obama studied the information he received from US intelligence and after a series of discussions, last week ordered the operation in a little known suburb of Pakistan called Abbottabad. Finally, Osama bin Laden had been located and was duly eliminated by US Navy SEALs. Like Mustafa Muhammad, the leader of the Muslims in Jamaica, most of us are "not losing sleep" over bin Laden's demise.
Obama's visit last Thursday to the site of the bombing of the twin towers in New York City and the New York Fire Department which had lost over 300 firefighters, was a bookend to a horror story that had haunted the entire world.
I should have known something was up last Sunday. We had pitched for first-class from Fort Lauderdale because we wanted to get home in time for Leachim Semaj's press launch of his Asante Adonai Literary Lyme. This was the first time in many months that I had been asked to show all liquids in the security line. Now, I am one of those that the profilers always take out of the line. This Westmoreland girl does look a bit Middle-Eastern, much to the chagrin of my rainbow family who watch, a bit annoyed, from the other side of the room when I am asked to "step this way, please" to be questioned and eventually allowed to rejoin them.
When the first-class bags arrived at the Norman Manley Airport, we and the baggage handlers were puzzled that ours was not among them. We waited for nearly an hour until the final set was unloaded: obviously I had again been profiled and my luggage taken away and thoroughly examined, thus missing the first-class batch.
All this was happening last Sunday when brave Navy SEALs were approaching their target and security was being tightened around the world, just in case Al Qaeda got wind. Sorry, I am not questioning the method because I am relieved that this cold terrorist is no longer around to mastermind another plot to blow up buildings and trains full of innocent people.
So here we have Barack Hussein Obama, showing that steel long ago detected by Tony Blair. It tells us that we should never underestimate a real leader, whether of a family, a church, a business or a country. Effective leadership takes brains, wisdom and bravery and Obama has displayed them all. May he be kept safe as he and his forces work to make this a safer world for us all.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/Barack-Obama----man-of-steel-_8767173#ixzz1LufSwvNH

Fast, fit Shelly-Ann for Eat Jamaican!

Kingston, Jamaica: Olympic Gold Medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce gave a hearty endorsement of the Eat Jamaican campaign at the JCDC Regional Culinary Finals last May at the Chinese Benevolent Association on Old Hope Road in Kingston. 

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is one of six Olympic champions who endorsed the "Eat Jamaican" campaign, aimed at increasing local food production and encouraging consumers to make healthy food choices by eating local produce, fruits and vegetables. Track stars Brigitte Foster-Hylton, Melaine Walker, Asafa Powell, Michael Frater and Nesta Carter also gave their resounding endorsement at the Launch on the Campaign at the Coronation Market on March 1.

Shelley-Ann matched dance steps with the "Eat Jamaican" Campaign mascot Doctor Bird and showed great interest in the dishes entered in the JCDC Recipe Competition. She charmed the farmers who participated in the mini Farmers Market held at the CBA.

The "Eat Jamaican" campaign which was launched last March at the Coronation Market is being funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the Ministry of Agriculture.




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Phone call by Kuwaiti courier led US to bin Laden’s doorstep, capping a decade-long hunt

Intriguing story in today's Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/phone-call-led-us-to-bin-ladens-doorstep-capping-a-hunt-that-began-in-a-secret-cia-prison/2011/05/02/AFmXQyaF_story.html?nl_headlines

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PAJ President Jenni Campbell’s World Press Freedom Day message

A free press is essential to sustain, maintain and monitor a healthy democracy. Unfortunately only 17 percent of the world's citizens live in countries that enjoy a free press.

  Too many governments as well as non-state actors control the viewpoints that reach citizens and brutally repress independent voices which aim to promote accountability, good governance, and economic development.

Freedom of the press in Jamaica is guaranteed as an off-shoot of freedom of expression under the Constitution.

 It is full-time for us to declare press freedom in its own explicit terms, so that every Jamaican knows, without the shadow of a doubt, that he or she has the right to express himself or herself freely whether in private or as part of the national dialogue via media.

For the most part, we enjoy a free press in Jamaica. There are issues concerning the very strict, archaic libel laws which curtail the press' ability to expose corruption and concerns about public officials without fear of redress.

Recent efforts by our Parliament did very little to change this situation. Although there is talk to repeal the Official Secrets Act, there is still a damning culture of fear among public officials that ensures that secrecy remains the culture, whether or not it is the law. This makes it difficult if not impossible to bring some issues to public attention.

For changes to the libel laws, we argue for the Sullivan brand, which holds public officials to greater scrutiny by virtue of the fact that they make decisions in the public interest and are paid from the public purse. Hence, they ought to be held accountable by the public they serve.

If we do not ensure that the press is free to investigate and publish its findings, we would have taken a backward step in regard to our freedom for which our fore-parents fought long and hard.

As journalists, we do not take our freedom for granted, we too undergo self-examination to ensure that we hold fast to high standards and serve our public with dignity.

We abide by our Code of Practice which lays out the framework for responsible media and as we celebrate World Press Freedom Day, we recommit ourselves to the tasks of providing truths which will offer worthwhile options to our people.

Jenni Campbell

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Eat Jamaican!

My lovely homegrown lunch!

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LET’S RECALL A GREAT MAN: Claude McKay gets some shine at Asante Adonai launch

It was wonderful reading from the works of our literary legend Claude McKay yesterday at the press launch of the Asante Adonai Literary Lyme.

Loved the readings from Bert Samuels, Paula-Ann Porter-Jones, Fae Ellington and of course our brilliant Leahcim - thank you Andrea Dempster for hosting!

Thanks to Tyrone Reid's TALLAWAH blog for reporting - link below:

http://tyronereviews.blogspot.com/2011/05/lets-recall-great-man-claude-mckay-gets.html

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Obama confirms that Osama bin Laden has been killed

Breaking News Alert - Washington Post: Obama confirms that Osama bin Laden has been killed
May 1, 2011 11:39:14 PM

Osama bin Laden has been killed in a CIA operation in Pakistan, President Obama announced from the White House Sunday, ending a years-long manhunt for the leader of al-Qaeda and architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington.

http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/F490YD/QFL73Y/RTXT7D/QMG3F9/LV834/MQ/h
For more information, visit washingtonpost.com
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Bin Laden is dead

From Washington Post - Osama bin Laden has been killed in a CIA operation in Pakistan, President Obama will announce from the White House, according to multiple sources.
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