WASHINGTON, December 7 – Today a comprehensive report was issued indicating that television advertising and obesity among children are directly linked. The federal institute concluding this did so after a long study which finally confirm long-suspected views.

The National Academies’ Institute for Medicine has advised for a long-term and highly efficient campaign to educate parents and children on healthier food choices. Also the use of cartoon characters for promotion of low-nutrient high sugar foods should be disallowed. Many breakfast cereals successfully use this strategy to attract young fans.

It has been long suspected that television ads are very productive in influencing children, one of the researchers said that it’s no surprise since almost $10 billion is spent on advertising towards the younger audience yearly. Not only TV ads are to be blamed though, online advertising as well as product placement in video games and movies are used to achieve the same result. Even many kids shows are sponsored by certain food products and many schools sign exclusive contracts for soft drinks.

The food industry meanwhile responded mildly, saying that they acknowledge the outcome but blamed the institute for not admitting that the industry is already moving forward to healthier food choices as many parents require this.

To stay updated on children’s news please visit Kir.org Kids Radio Network

BAGHDAD, December 6 – In one of the deadliest attacks on Iraqi forces this year at least 27 police students were killed. Local reports have named numbers ranging from 27 to 43 but the official count is still on 27. At least 50 people were wounded in the process but this number is likely to increase as well. One U.S. contractor was among the wounded.

At around 1PM local time the police academy in eastern Baghdad faced these deadly strikes. First one suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in the middle of a group of police students standing outside a classroom. The students and officers were under the impression that they were fired on so they ran for cover to the bunker, at the bunker another bomber was waiting to detonate his vest wreaking total chaos.

First indication was that the attack was carried out by female muslims but these reports were withdrawn sometime later. At least seven female police students were among the victims.

It was already expected that the rate of terror attacks would increase in the last two weeks before the elections of December 15th. Insurgents still believe they can disrupt the democratic process by carrying out such elaborate and deadly strikes.

WASHINGTON, December 5 – Being as unspecific as possible Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to defend the U.S. policy on terror before embarking on her trip to Europe where many critics are patiently waiting for explanations.

Rice did everything possible to urge the importance of the CIA covert operations and implicitly confirmed the secret CIA flights that have been recorded in many European countries. She stated that the U.S. must use every lawful weapon to gather as much intelligence as possible. She also mentioned that thanks to these covert operations many terrorist attacks have been prevented, as well in Europe as in the United States. Naturally no specifics were given so it’s anyone’s guess whether this is a sincere statement or just a patch to fix all the critical notes.

Interestingly she used the word “lawful”, something many critics doubt as there have been reports of detainees being kidnapped from various European countries. Rice did not say anything about the existence of alleged secret prisons in Europe, she sufficed saying that she cannot disclose any information that could interrupt or compromise the gathering of intelligence and other military operations.

Explicitly she denied the use of torture to extract information from detainees, of course there is no proof or confirmation on any of this because it’s simply here word against any other.

WASHINGTON, December 4 – As far as the former 9/11 commissioners are concerned the United States have not learned much from the catastrophic events of 2001. Many of their recommendations haven’t been put in to place and the Katrina-disaster showed that the government is still not ready of a big event like a new terrorist attack.

Meanwhile Al Qaeda hasn’t been sitting still, many experts report that they are continuing to pursue weapons of mass destruction and a new attack is imminent, not a matter of “if” but a matter of “when”.

The former 9/11 commissioners are issuing a report on Monday which will shed a light on how many and how well their recommendations have been implemented. Today they disclosed that the government is scoring more F’s than A’s. The situation is increasingly worrisome because it seems like they are not even aware of the urgency of this matter.

For example a bill to allow communication between police forces and firefighters is still stalled in Congress, another bill to divide funds to fight terror based on the level of threat to the state is also being stalled, simply because they keep arguing over the money. The commissioners are very clear on this point, the terrorists want to hit hard and kill a lot of people so Washington and New York face the highest threat to get hit, so they should get the most money to defend their state.

It looks like the government did not learn from 9/11 and their blatant failure during hurricane Katrina did not change anything. We can only hope someone in the White House wakes up soon and smells the coffee, or in this case the imminent threat of 9/11 all over again.

LONDON, December 3 – Since the report indicating that the CIA is operating covert prisons in the European Union appeared many politicians have become anxious. The large consent among European citizens is that the U.S. approach is not working, if word came out that their governments are actually allowing the U.S. to transfer suspects and operate torture detention centers.

Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Europe next week will likely handle largely about this situation. It’s not yet clear how much the U.S. government knows about this network of detention centers but it’s already very clear that some politicians in Europe are turning red over the coming investigation.

At least one incident of a kidnapping, or transfer, however you want to call it, is known and prosecutors have detailed information about it. The incident involves an Egyptian terror suspect who was taken from Milan to Egypt, likely to use questionable techniques to extract information from him. Many experts believe it is mere impossible to simply kidnap a prisoner in Italy without some form of consent or cooperation. In light of the detention centers cooperation is even implied, so the governments facilitating these centers will be under very heavy fire.

Politicians in the opposition and human rights groups are already sharpening their knifes. It’s unlikely that these secret CIA transports and abductions will be answered for without, political, blood-shed.

BAGHDAD, December 2 – The U.S. military suffered one of the biggest strikes yet as a Marine foot patrol was surprised by a roadside bomb on Thursday. Ten of them were killed by the blast and at least eleven were wounded of which several severely.

This bombing is one of the worst to hit the U.S. military yet. Normally patrols stay well spaced out to prevent mass casualties but the outcome of this attack indicates that the blast was enormous. Concerns over these roadside bombs have been growing for some time now, the devices used are becoming more powerful and more advanced and there is almost no way to track them down.

Meanwhile in Baghdad Shiites joined a largely Sunni group to protest against the many arrests of alleged insurgents over the last few days. Especially in the area near the Syrian border many operations took place to secure the area and stabilize the situation for the elections on December 15th.