fufor's unregelmässige news

Ofek-7 Spy Satellite Launch Successful as US Ready to Strike Iran
By Amihai Zippor
(IHC News, 11 June 2007) Israel successfully launched its Ofek-7 spy satellite late Sunday night, 10 June 2006.

Replacing the older Ofek-5, the updated device has extensive improvements over its predecessor, Ofek-6, which failed after take-off in 2004.

“With this launch we have improved Israel's operational capabilities by dozens of percent,” director of Space Programming at the Ministry Of Defense (MOD) Research and Development Directorate, Brig.-Gen. Haim Eshet, said.

Though Defense Minister Amir Peretz also described the launch, as “an important layer to Israel's security and it is evidence of Israel's technological strength”, military officials refused to divulge what enhancements make the Ofek-7 of superior quality.

Meanwhile, as diplomatic moves aimed at forcing Iran to halt its nuclear program continue to fail, Ofek-7 will undoubtedly aid in any future military action that Israel or the US may take against Teheran.

Senior US military officers told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that they are giving President George W Bush their full backing to stop Iran from building the bomb.

US politicians are also raising their voices in favor of stopping Iran militarily, though not only because of the nuclear problem.

“I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq,” said Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman.

Lieberman noted, “that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers.”
http://tinyurl.com/3xqs2n

EU Directive could close 700 health stores
June 7, 2007

Over half of Britain’s health food stores could be forced to close if the European Commission imposes tough new limits on daily vitamin and mineral doses under the Food Supplements Directive (FSD).

That’s the stark warning from the National Association of Health Stores (NAHS) which recently polled retailers on the likely impact of the FSD on their businesses and on customer choice.

The NAHS says its survey confirms that in the worst-case scenario — in which maximum permitted levels (MPLs) are pegged to very low levels across Europe — the UK market would be “decimated” and that “millions of consumers would be denied products of their choice as many higher dose specialist supplements are removed from sale”.

The NAHS warns that this worst-case scenario is now regarded as the most likely option to be adopted by the Commission, which has indicated that it is prepared to “sacrifice” higher potency products to achieve EU harmonization on MPLs.

John McKee, Chairman of NAHS, said: “The British negotiating team, led by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) have done their best to secure an outcome that allows maximum consumer choice by lobbying for a two tier system. The main problem is that most other Member States seem quite happy to accept the ‘one-size fits all’ approach of very low dose levels being proposed.”

McKee continued: “Our survey was conducted in direct response to the FSA Regulatory Impact Assessment on setting daily dose levels of vitamins and minerals in food supplements, and we found the results quite shocking. It is clear that half of all independent health food shops face extinction by 2009 and it is quite likely that the bigger chains could reduce their numbers. It would be impossible for many to stay in business as consumers switch their allegiance to unregulated overseas Internet sources to obtain the supplements they need.
http://tinyurl.com/3ydu2y