News for August 20, 2005

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Fish Oil “Calms” Kids With ADHD In New Study Teresa Neumann (Aug 19, 2005) - It appears that a daily dose of fish oil -- just under one-gram per day -- helps calm children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a report in the Australian, citing a double-blind study. PhD psychology student Natalie Sinn, of the University of South Australia and CSIRO Nutrition, studied 145 children aged seven to 12 with ADHD -- who were not taking medication for their condition -- over a 15-week period. Half were given a commercially available dietary supplement containing a combination of fish oil and evening primrose oil, in a ratio of four to one. The other group was given a placebo. MS Sinn said when parents were later questioned, children on the active fish oil capsules, rich in omega-3 fatty acids, showed improvements. “They were able to concentrate better, they were calmer, less impulsive, that sort of thing,” she said. “The same improvements were not reported from children who took the placebo.” When the placebo group switched to the fish oil capsules for a further 15 weeks, they showed similar benefits. Ms. Sinn explained that 60 per cent of the brain is composed of fats, the most important being omega-3 fatty acids, adding that many people in western societies are deficient in the omega-3 fatty acids. “There’s a growing body of research that’s finding evidence of links between omega-3 deficiency and mental health problems like depression and schizophrenia,” Ms. Sinn said. “Research is also suggesting that some children with developmental problems, including ADHD and dyslexia, can benefit from taking omega-3 supplements.” more...

‘Tomorrow Jerusalem,’ Abbas exults Link Lost (August 16, 2005) - Less than three days after he urged Palestinians to refrain from excessive celebrations over the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Friday presided over a huge celebration in Gaza City where he declared: “Today we are celebrating the liberation of Gaza and the northern West Bank; tomorrow we will celebrate the liberation of Jerusalem.” PA Civil Affairs Minister Muhammed Dahlan, who appeared next to Abbas, told the crowd that the Palestinians were celebrating “the day of victory and the beginning of a new era that was achieved with the blood of our martyrs.” Hamas and Islamic Jihad also held separate celebrations in the Gaza Strip, where leaders of the two groups announced that the fight against Israel would continue even after the “escape of the Zionist enemy” from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank. They also declared that their groups would not abandon their weapons after the disengagement and would not join the PA security forces. Local reporters were invited on Friday to watch more than 1,000 Hamas gunmen in military fatigue and armed with AK-47 rifles and RPG rocket-propelled grenades stage a mock attack on an Israeli settlement. It was the biggest show of strength by Hamas’s armed wing in years. At another Hamas rally in Jabalya refugee camp, thousands of Palestinians attended a “graduation ceremony” for new recruits belonging to the movement’s armed wing, Izzaddin Kassam. more...

Praying school board likened to terrorists (August 17, 2005) - A local ACLU director equated al-Queda terrorists with members of a Louisiana school board seeking to open their meetings with prayer. Joe Cook of the ACLU of Louisiana spoke on camera with WAFB-TV, Baton Rouge, La., while staff and teachers of the Tangipahoa Parish district in New Orleans were at a seminar being informed of their free-speech rights by a member of the Alliance Defense Fund. Referring to the school board, Cook said, “They believe that they answer to a higher power, in my opinion. Which is the kind of thinking that you had with the people who flew the airplanes into the buildings in this country, and the people who did the kind of things in London.” Mike Johnson, senior counsel and southeastern regional coordinator for the Alliance Defense Fund, said Cook has become increasingly outlandish in his statements. “It shows the ACLU has become more and more extreme and marginalized,” said Johnson. “So, to that extent, I like it when he talks, because he simply reveals who they are.” Johnson said the ACLU tries to “come across as champions of liberty, but the truth of the matter is they are extremists.” “It’s clear in a number of recent cases that the ACLU of Louisiana wants to impose a radical form of secularism that the Constitution doesn’t require, and frankly, that people of this state are not willing to accept,” Johnson said. more...