PARIS — The French Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill banning the burqa-style Islamic veil on public streets and other places, a measure that affects less than 2,000 women but that has been widely seen as a symbolic defense of French values.

The Senate voted 246 to 1 in favor of the bill in a final step toward making the ban a law - though it now must pass muster with France’s constitutional watchdog. The bill was overwhelmingly passed in July in the lower house, the National Assembly.

Many Muslims believe the legislation is one more blow to France’s No. 2 religion, and risks raising the level of Islamophobia in a country where mosques, like synagogues, are sporadic targets of hate. However, the law’s many proponents say it will preserve the nation’s values, including its secular foundations and a notion of fraternity that is contrary to those who hide their faces.

In an attempt to head off any legal challenges over arguments it tramples on religious and other freedoms, the leaders of both parliamentary houses said they had asked a special body to ensure it passes constitutional muster. The Constitutional Council has one month to rule.

The bill is worded to trip safely […]

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Native Canadians living near the Athabasca River, downstream from the oil sands mines have long suspected that their high incidence of cancer is related to the mines. Now research carried out by researchers at the Univseristy of Alberta have confirmed their fears. A new study published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, confirms fears that Native Canadians have held for some time relating to the mining of oil sands in Alberta.

The mines which consist of massive open pits recover a tar, sand and metal mixture. The tar, or bitumen is recovered and processed into synthetic oil. This constitutes the vast majority of Canada’s oil industry that produces 178 billion barrelsoil, and has flourished over the last decade. It is estimated that Canadian oil sands hold about 13 per cent of the world’s oil reserves and the US is becoming more and more dependent on them to fulfil their requirements.

The research found that in regions in or around, and downstream of the oil sands mines, levels of lead, mercury, zinc, cadmium and other toxic pollutants were present in levels that exceeded federal and local guidelines. These disturbing findings were backed up by data that showed the […]

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Americans’ consumption of corn syrup has fallen to a 20-year low on consumer concerns that it is more harmful or more likely to cause obesity than ordinary sugar, perceptions for which there is little scientific evidence.

However, some scientists have linked consumption of full-calorie soda - the vast majority of which is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup - to obesity.

The Food and Drug Administration could take two years to decide on the name, but that’s not stopping the industry from using the term now in advertising.

There’s a new online marketing campaign at http://www.cornsugar.com and on television. Two new commercials try to alleviate shopper confusion, showing people who say they now understand that ‘whether it’s corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can’t tell the difference. Sugar is sugar.’

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Renaming products has succeeded before. For example, low eurcic acid rapeseed oil became much more popular after becoming ‘canola oil’ in 1988. Prunes tried to shed a stodgy image by becoming ‘dried plums’ in 2000.

The new name would help people understand the sweetener, said Audrae Erickson, president of the Washington-based group.

‘It has been highly disparaged and highly misunderstood,’ she said. She declined to say how much the campaign costs.

Sugar and high […]

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Bloomberg Markets magazine’s David Evans talks about an agreement between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Prudential Financial Inc. that enabled the insurer to withhold lump-sum payments of life insurance benefits for survivors of fallen soldiers. The veterans agency said today that Prudential will now send beneficiaries a check when they ask for a lump-sum benefit payment rather than keeping the money and mailing a checkbook. Evans speaks with Margaret Brennan on Bloomberg Television’s ‘InBusiness’.

This signed amendment to Prudential’s contract is the first document to show how Department of Veterans Affairs officials sanctioned a payment practice that has spurred investigations by lawmakers and regulators.

This signed amendment to Prudential’s contract is the first document to show how Department of Veterans Affairs officials sanctioned a payment practice that has spurred investigations by lawmakers and regulators.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs failed to inform 6 million soldiers and their families of an agreement enabling Prudential Financial Inc. to withhold lump-sum payments of life insurance benefits for survivors of fallen service members, according to records made public through a Freedom of Information request.

The amendment to Prudential’s contract is the first document to show how VA officials sanctioned a payment practice that […]

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BOSTON — An infectious-disease nightmare is unfolding: Bacteria that have been made resistant to nearly all antibiotics by an alarming new gene have sickened people in three states and are popping up all over the world, health officials reported Monday.

The U.S. cases and two others in Canada all involve people who had recently received medical care in India, where the problem is widespread. A British medical journal revealed the risk last month in an article describing dozens of cases in Britain in people who had gone to India for medical procedures.

How many deaths the gene may have caused is unknown; there is no central tracking of such cases. So far, the gene has mostly been found in bacteria that cause gut or urinary infections.

Scientists have long feared this - a very adaptable gene that hitches onto many types of common germs and confers broad drug resistance, creating dangerous ‘superbugs.’

‘It’s a great concern,’ because drug resistance has been rising and few new antibiotics are in development, said Dr. M. Lindsay Grayson, director of infectious diseases at the University of Melbourne in Australia. ‘It’s just a matter of time’ until the gene spreads more widely person-to-person, he said.

Grayson heads an American Society […]

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