Latest News - Kate Upton Topless: Kate Upton Sheds Clothes In Nude Esquire PHOTOS |  |
- Kate Upton Topless: Kate Upton Sheds Clothes In Nude Esquire PHOTOS
- Coleen Rooney In Bikini: Coleen Rooney Shows Off Bikini Body As She Unveils New Swimwear Collection
- Natasha Giggs In Underwear: Natasha Giggs Racy During Lingerie Photo Shoot
- Shailene Woodley Strips Off : Shailene Woodley Topless To Kiss Woman For Dirty Photo Shoot
- Shahryar Died: Bollywood Lyricist Akhlaq Mohammed Aka Shahryar Died
- Kate Upton Sports Illustrated 2012: Kate Upton Is Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Cover Girl For 2012
- Jesy Nelson In Bikini: Little Mix Singer Jesy Nelson In Bikini In Barbados
- Anushka Sharma Vogue: Anushka Sharma Topless For Vogue India PHOTOS
- Blasts In Delhi: Car Blasts Near Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s House
- Sherlyn Chopra Nude Jism: Sherlyn Chopra Tweets Nude Picture Resembling Jism 2
- Whitney Houston Killed: Singer Whitney Houston Killed by Xanax-Alcohol Mix-Report
- Rozlyn Khan Valentine Anna: Rozlyn Khan Wants Anna Hazare To Be Her Valentine!
- Greece Athens Riots 2012: Athens Ablaze In Riots As Greece Votes In Favour Of £110bn Bailout
- Mystery Disease In America: Mystery Kidney Disease In Central America Kills Thousands
| Kate Upton Topless: Kate Upton Sheds Clothes In Nude Esquire PHOTOS Posted: 13 Feb 2012 07:37 PM PST Kate Upton has just been named as the cover girl for the Swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated and it appears Kate Upton is in high demand. The 19-year-old beauty is also appearing in Esquire's March edition – showing off her flawless figure in a series of racy snaps. Kate is seen wearing just a tiny pair of knickers and a white top – which she takes a pair of scissors to. In one shot she is seen holding with one leg in a bath dangling a pair of scissors from her left hand. Her top fails to cover her curves and her breasts are seen peeking out from below the shirt. Kate gazes at the camera with her blonde locks falling partially across her face. In other shots that appear in the magazine Kate is seen cutting off more material until she is completely topless, using just her arms to cover her modesty. The model has seen her star rise dramatically over the past year after she was labelled Rookie Of The Year in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit magazine for 2011. This year she posed in a barely-there bright red bikini with her hand placed behind her head for the coveted cover shot. As well as appearing in magazines the teenager has also worked for Guess and Victoria's Secret which has further helped her star to rise. Related posts:
|
| Coleen Rooney In Bikini: Coleen Rooney Shows Off Bikini Body As She Unveils New Swimwear Collection Posted: 13 Feb 2012 07:22 PM PST Last month Coleen Rooney endured several days on a beach shooting images for a new catalogue campaign, but it seems all of Coleen Rooney’s hard work has paid off. The 25-year-old looks fantastic in new images released by Littlewoods which show her modelling their latest collection of swimwear. As she poses against a painted wall of palm trees and a waterfall, Coleen stares into the distance with her arms spread as she shows off her trim figure. The brunette – who is married to Manchester United footballer Wayne Rooney – is seen wearing a black halterneck two-piece as well as a pink frilly design and a patterned bikini too. The swimwear will already be familiar with her fans who caught a glimpse of her modelling the garments in Miami in January. The mother-of-one spent less than a week in the U.S. shooting images for the new campaign and seems to be a natural at it. However, she must have put herself under immense pressure not to gain any weight over the festive period if she already had the modelling work pencilled in. While many people spend the first month of the year detoxing and hiding under winter clothes, Coleen bared her body to photographers and stylists as she posed on the beach. Her partnership with Littlewoods has been a success ever since she struck a deal with them – rumoured to be worth £2million – back in June 2010. At the time, Coleen said of her partnership with the fashion catalogue: ‘The role is a perfect match in enabling me to select and wear my favourite styles as well as share my ideas on how to carry off the season’s new trends. ‘I am often asked about the clothes that I wear and my sense of style. By creating a range myself I hope to make my favourite looks available to all.’ Related posts:
|
| Natasha Giggs In Underwear: Natasha Giggs Racy During Lingerie Photo Shoot Posted: 13 Feb 2012 07:12 PM PST Natasha Giggs may have denied getting back together with her husband, but Natasha Giggs has admitted living under the same roof as him. The 29-year-old brunette has revealed that footballer Rhodri is back in the family home as the couple try their best to repair their marriage. Natasha, who had an eight-year affair with her brother-in-law Ryan, is obviously hoping she will have a happy ending with her husband. Speaking to Closer magazine, she said: ‘If we do get back together properly, it would 150 per cent be forever. We wouldn't do it otherwise. ‘Rhodri and I are living together again, although it's not an intimate relationship at the moment. It's early days and it's still very raw for him – but we're getting on really well.’ Posing in a variety of sexy lingerie, the mother-of-two went on to say that she would even like to have more children with her husband. ‘I've always wanted a little girl,’ she said. ‘If I had another boy, I'd want to try again until I had a girl, like Victoria Beckham.’ In the shoot, Natasha certainly highlights her slender frame in a white corset and also relished in the opportunity to show off her bigger cleavage. The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant had a breast enlargement last November taking her from a 32B to a 34F. ‘I love nice lingerie now my body is in proportion,’ she revealed. ‘Before my boob job I was always in mismatched bras and knickers. Rhodri didn't want me to have surgery, but it was something I wanted to do for myself.’ Related posts:
|
| Shailene Woodley Strips Off : Shailene Woodley Topless To Kiss Woman For Dirty Photo Shoot Posted: 13 Feb 2012 06:58 PM PST Shailene Woodley has been the breakout star of this year’s awards season, nominated for a slew of accolades for her role in The Descendants. And as it nears to an end, Shailene Woodley is now making waves for other reasons. The 20-year-old starlet is seen in a provocative new shoot for Vs. magazine, which sees her strip down to her underwear and leaning in for a kiss with another woman. In the first part of a Vs. trilogy called Drew’s Muses, actress Drew Barrymore personally photographed the actress who was her first choice as a Muse. Titled Drew Barrymore vs. Shailene Woodley, the young star is seen standing in a shower stall in sheer underwear as she throws her head back in a provocative pose. With bright red lips, the red-haired beauty wears a sheer white lace bra and her hair in wild curls. For another risque snap she appears to lean in for a kiss with another woman. Later the pair are joined by another gal pal in the shower, where the trio all pose in variations of striped outfits, with Woodley showing off her legs in a red and beige T-shirt. The girls later move to the bedroom where they playfully jump up and down on the beds. Related posts:
|
| Shahryar Died: Bollywood Lyricist Akhlaq Mohammed Aka Shahryar Died Posted: 13 Feb 2012 06:50 PM PST Noted Urdu poet and Bollywood lyricist Akhlaq Mohammed Khan, generally known as,’ Shahryar’ died in Aligarh tonight after a prolonged illness. He was around 76. Shahryar, who was awarded with Jnanpith award in 2008 for his contribution towards Urdu language, was suffering from cancer and died at his residence in Aligarh city. Shahryar is also famous as a lyricist in Hindi films and has written lyrics for several famous films including Gaman (1978), Umrao Jaan (1981) and Anjuman (1986), In 1987, he was awarded with  Bollywood Lyricist Akhlaq Mohammed Aka Shahryar Died Besides, he wrote a number of poetry collections which brought glory to him in literary world. His son, Humayun, is presently settled in Australia. He was born on June 16, 1936 in a village named Anwalla, Bareilly district of UP in a Muslim family. He received his early education at Bulandshar and then studied at Aligarh Muslim University. He was appointed as a lecturer in Urdu at Aligarh Muslim University in 1986 and served till in 1996 when he retired as chairman of the Urdu Department of the University. He was living in Aligarh for the past several years and devoted his time entirely to poetry and also co-edited the literary magazine ‘Sher-o-Hikmat.’ The last rites of the poet would be performed tomorrow afternoon. Related posts:
|
| Posted: 13 Feb 2012 06:34 PM PST The 19-year-old, Kate Upton from Michigan, has been touted as a favourite to grace the iconic cover ever since she was named Rookie of the Year in 2011 and this afternoon websites were buzzing with gossip after a photograph of the exclusive edition emerged after copies were delivered to a gas station in Michigan. This time last year, Russian-born brunette stunner Irina Shayk won the coveted spot on the sports’ publication’s most popular issue. Miss Upton was signed by Elite Model Management in 2008 and has been attracting a growing number of admirers thanks to high-profile campaigns for Guess and Victoria’s Secret. Last year, her popularity skyrocketed as thousands of lusty fans logged on to watch a video of the curvy stunner dancing at a basketball game in Los Angeles which she had attended with fellow Sports Illustrated model Damaris Lewis. First published in 1964, the Swimsuit issue began as distraction to combat the winter lull in sporting events and news. Published only once a year, the cover is still a huge score for any model hoping to make it to the big time. To many, the exposure from this cover is unparalleled and can catapault a well know model in fashion circles and the world of beauty to fame far beyond the catwalk. Sports Illustrated has always favoured the more voluptuous looking models like Miss Upton and has featured the likes of Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley, Paulina Porizkova, Elle Macpherson, Rachel Hunter, Rebecca Romijn, Petra Nemcova, Valeria Mazza, Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks, and Marisa Miller among its cover stars. Thought many non-models have appeared within the magazine’s pages, the first such famous face to adorn the cover was Beyonce Knowles in 2007. Outside the modelling world, the blonde teen who was raised in Florida, is a keen equestrian and has won a number of championship competitions. 2012 has already been a busy year for Miss Upton was only last week was strutting the catwalks of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim in South Beach, Florida. Related posts:
|
| Jesy Nelson In Bikini: Little Mix Singer Jesy Nelson In Bikini In Barbados Posted: 13 Feb 2012 06:59 AM PST Jesy Nelson had a tough time of it on The X Factor, finding herself the victim of cyber bullying and cruel jibes about her weight. But now Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson has well and truly put her insecurities behind her, embracing her figure with pride. The 20-year-old singer displayed her newly-toned curves, the result of frequent personal training sessions, as she hit the beach in Barbados in a variety of bikinis. Jesy teamed her swimwear, which included a pink polkadot two-piece, a green version and a red bikini, with incredibly volumised hair, which fell down her back as she bounded around in the sea. And there was no sign of the insecurities Jesy, who has apparently been sticking to three workouts a week, admitted she was feeling in an emotional interview while on The X Factor. She said at the time: ‘When you've got your own insecurities and then people… write them on websites for everyone to see, it just makes you feel really rubbish. ‘Obviously, I know I'm a lot bigger [than the other girls].’The comments really got to me. I knew I'd get nasty stuff said about my weight from the start. ‘But it's not until you actually see it that it hits you. I thought I'd be alright and then I saw it and just burst out crying.’ The pretty singer was enjoying a break with her Little Mix bandmates ahead of the group headlining the X Factor tour, which begins in Manchester on February 25th. The tour will see the group take to the stage in 32 different shows for their adoring fans – a prospect Jesy is thoroughly looking forward to. She said: ‘I'm so excited to go on the X Factor tour. Our National Television Awards performance just gave us a taster about what it will be like.’ Incoming search terms:Jesy Nelson bikini (42), jesy nelson nude pic (1), justin bieber undies (1),Related posts:
|
| Anushka Sharma Vogue: Anushka Sharma Topless For Vogue India PHOTOS Posted: 13 Feb 2012 05:57 AM PST The Punjabi kudi in ‘Rab Ne Banaa Di Jodi’ which underperformed at the box office, has done a really hot photoshoot for Vogue India magazine. The lady displays her wild side wearing a black sheer transparent dress. Anushka Sharma was born in Bangalore, but her parents are from Garhwal, Uttarakhand. Her father, Col. Ajay Kumar Sharma, is an army officer and her mother Ashima Sharma is a housewife. She has an elder brother named Karnesh, who was a state-level cricketer and now, is in the Merchant Navy. She studied in Army School and graduated with specialization in arts from Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. She later moved to Mumbai to further pursue her modelling career, where she currently resides. The bindaas look of Anushka Sharma appears to be really bold. Related posts:
|
| Blasts In Delhi: Car Blasts Near Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s House Posted: 13 Feb 2012 04:33 AM PST Blasts in a vehicle near Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence today created a flutter among security agencies including elite Special Protection Groups (SPG) guarding the VVIP. Three people were injured in the incident around 2 PM. A high alert was immediately sounded and police rushed to spot to ascertain the nature of the blast. Initially thought to be a CNG-cylinder blast, police sources now say that explosives were used in the explosion. Officially the police are waiting for a report. The Associated Press reports that Israel’s Foreign Ministry is confirming a pair of attempted car bombings against Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia. Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor says one Israeli was wounded in the New Delhi attack near the Israeli Embassy. He would not identify the person or give details on the extent of the injuries.  Car Blasts Near Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's House Related posts:
|
| Sherlyn Chopra Nude Jism: Sherlyn Chopra Tweets Nude Picture Resembling Jism 2 Posted: 13 Feb 2012 12:26 AM PST Scorching beauty Sherlyn Chopra too has find this, the right way, to gain publicity as she has posted her nude pictures on micro-blogging website Twitter. Displaying self on the social networking websites have become a trend no-a-days as models and actresses luring fans by smartly exposing their flesh. From desi girl Poonam Pandey to Indo-Canadian porn actress Sunny Leone all have used social network as a publicity tool. Sherlyn's nude photographs resembled those of the 'Jism 2' campaign and actress gave a reason behind copying it as she said, "I have pushed the envelope by choosing to cover my nakedness with nothing but pure consciousness.” Pardaphash has earlier given the reports of Sherlyn Chopra's nude photoshoot. Well Sherlyn if you would have posted such pictures earlier, may be Mahesh Bhatt have offered you the lead role for Jism 2! Related posts:
|
| Whitney Houston Killed: Singer Whitney Houston Killed by Xanax-Alcohol Mix-Report Posted: 12 Feb 2012 11:18 PM PST Whitney Houston, whose death shocked music celebrities and fans around the world, may have died of a deadly combination between the sedative Xanax and lots of alcohol. Family members of Whitney told celebrity website TMZ that the singer had a prescription for the drug, which is commonly used to treat anxiety and depression. Mixed with alcohol it can cause severe sedation, which could cause someone to fall asleep in a bathtub. The iconic American singer was found in the bathtub of a hotel room with prescription drugs nearby, TMZ said. Whitney’s face was below the water and her legs were up like she had slid down the back of the tub, according to the report. There were no illegal drugs in the room, but a few bottles of pills, the website said, citing sources from the hotel and cops. Her friends reportedly said that she used to take Xanax before big shows to calm her nerves and perform better. Whitney Houston was said to have been found by one of her entourage in the bath and when she showed no signs of life they called the emergency services. Paramedics arriving on the scene at the Beverly Hilton Hotel tried to resuscitate her for 20 minutes but it did not work and she was pronounced dead at 3.55pm. TMZ sources said there were no obvious signs of foul play, but the Beverley Hills police were carrying out a full investigation. Houston was due to appear at the LA gala of music’s biggest occasion – the Grammy Awards – later tonight and had also been at rehearsals for the show, coaching singers Brandy and Monica. She was partying heavily and drank large amounts of alcohol before going back to her hotel room. It is believed she had been due to perform at the annual pre-Grammy party of her long-time mentor, record producer Clive Davis, at the Beverly Hilton, but was found hours before it began.  Singer Whitney Houston Killed by Xanax-Alcohol Mix - Report Incoming search terms:osama bin laden (3), country music singer dies mixed alcohal and depression meds (1), whitney houston report show xanax (1), whitney xanax (1),Related posts:
|
| Rozlyn Khan Valentine Anna: Rozlyn Khan Wants Anna Hazare To Be Her Valentine! Posted: 12 Feb 2012 11:06 PM PST Bollywood also seems to be in a different mood and celebs are enjoying spending time with their loved ones. However, Model and actress Rozlyn Khan has some different plans. The lady wants to ignore the hot hunks of Bollywood and wishes to propose the activist Anna Hazare on the Valentine’s Day. Furthermore, the model has done an obscene photo shoot for expressing her love towards Anna Hazare. This Jaipur girl feels that the anti  Rozlyn Khan Wants Anna Hazare To Be Her Valentine! With Poonam Pandey getting immense buzz after passing the bare it all statement during World Cup, is this act also an intention to gain publicity? The model responds, "If the politicians can watch porn in the Karnataka assembly, I am still decent and respectfully expressing my love for this great man. I think age is no bar and I don’t want people to take it as a publicity stunt, but it is sheer respect to the activist." "If given an opportunity, I would personally meet the man himself at his hometown and offer him a bouquet of red roses," asserts Rozlyn. Let's wait and watch what Anna Hazare followers have to say about this model and her bold proposition. Related posts:
|
| Greece Athens Riots 2012: Athens Ablaze In Riots As Greece Votes In Favour Of £110bn Bailout Posted: 12 Feb 2012 10:46 PM PST Greek MPs last night voted in favour of a controversial austerity bill as rioters again took to the streets and set buildings alight. The punishing cuts to wages and pensions are fiercely stoking tensions in the near-bankrupt country. Yet if the bill was not passed, Greece would have been denied a £110billion EU bailout package and finally run out of money. During a stormy debate, MPs said the country faced a grim choice between bankruptcy through leaving the euro or approving the bailout and suffering years of hardship. Prior to the vote, five ministers had quit and the prime minister warned Greece was just a ‘breath away from Ground Zero’. Lucas Papademos warned that any rejection of the deal would lead to ‘uncontrollable economic chaos and social explosion’. Despite his words, thousands took to the streets urging the MPs to reject the cuts bill. They were greeted by almost 4,000 riot police and the two sides fought battles. Tear gas was fired by police as rocks were thrown by protesters. At least ten buildings went up in flames including a three-storey corner property. A closed cinema, a bank, a mobile phone dealership, a glassware store and a cafeteria were among the burning buildings, the fire department said. There were no reports of injuries. The clashes broke out at around 6pm local time as tens of thousands of people, responding to calls from unions, streamed into Syntagma Square facing parliament. Peaceful protesters fled to nearby streets as anarchists threw bottles, rocks, pieces of marble and firebombs at police, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades. Police say an officer was injured by a flare shot at him from a gun. He was taken to hospital. The austerity measures include more than £200million in pension cuts and a 22 per cent reduction in the minimum wage. The plan also aims to cut Greece’s bloated state sector workforce by about 150,000 by 2015 and introduce new laws to make it easier for workers to be sacked. The Greek government has to pay back more than £12billion of its debt to holders of its bonds on March 20 – the deadline for the bill to be passed. The legislation has caused turmoil within the ruling coalition and deepened a social crisis among Greeks already hit by a round of cuts and tax hikes to ease the country’s huge debt burden. Many Greeks see the introduction of cuts as a national humiliation. But Germany raised the pressure, warning that Europe had had enough of the country’s ‘broken promises’. German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warned: ‘The promises from Greece aren’t enough for us any more.’ Mr Schaeuble said the majority of Germans were willing to help, but he added: ‘It’s important to say that it cannot be a bottomless pit. ‘That’s why the Greeks have to finally close that pit. And then we can put something in there. At least people are now starting to realise it won’t work with a bottomless pit.’ Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos told parliament that Greece had no easy way out and the alternative – bankruptcy and a departure from the eurozone – would be far worse. Speaking during a stormy debate ahead of the vote, Mr Venizelos said: ‘Anyone who wants to remain in the euro and in the eurozone must abide by some rules.’ With Greece already in its fifth year of recession, opponents argued the austerity measures are stifling the economy and leading to soaring unemployment. Roughly half of young Greeks are jobless. Yesterday’s riots were the third in less than a year as the Greek public demonstrated their disapproval at the way their politicians have brought the country to its knees. In June last year, police fought pitched battles with protesters in Syntagma Square after MPs voted through the deeply unpopular austerity package. Again, tens of thousands gathered outside the Greek parliament while politicians debated the cuts. Related posts:
|
| Mystery Disease In America: Mystery Kidney Disease In Central America Kills Thousands Posted: 12 Feb 2012 10:25 PM PST A mysterious epidemic is devastating the Pacific coast of Central America, killing more than 24,000 people in El Salvador and Nicaragua since 2000 and striking thousands of others with chronic kidney disease at rates unseen virtually anywhere else. Scientists say they have received reports of the phenomenon as far north as southern Mexico and as far south as Panama. Last year it reached the point where El Salvador’s health minister, Dr. Maria Isabel Rodriguez, appealed for international help, saying the epidemic was undermining health systems. Wilfredo Ordonez, who has harvested corn, sesame and rice for more than 30 years in the Bajo Lempa region of El Salvador, was hit by the chronic disease when he was 38. Ten years later, he depends on dialysis treatments he administers to himself four times a day. “This is a disease that comes with no warning, and when they find it, it’s too late,” Ordonez said as he lay on a hammock on his porch. Many of the victims were manual laborers or worked in sugar cane fields that cover much of the coastal lowlands. Patients, local doctors and activists say they believe the culprit lurks among the agricultural chemicals workers have used for years with virtually none of the protections required in more developed countries. But a growing body of evidence supports a more complicated and counterintuitive hypothesis. The roots of the epidemic, scientists say, appear to lie in the grueling nature of the work performed by its victims, including construction workers, miners and others who labor hour after hour without enough water in blazing temperatures, pushing their bodies through repeated bouts of extreme dehydration and heat stress for years on end. Many start as young as 10. The punishing routine appears to be a key part of some previously unknown trigger of chronic kidney disease, which is normally caused by diabetes and high-blood pressure, maladies absent in most of the patients in Central America. “The thing that evidence most strongly points to is this idea of manual labor and not enough hydration,” said Daniel Brooks, a professor of epidemiology at Boston University’s School of Public Health, who has worked on a series of studies of the kidney disease epidemic. Because hard work and intense heat alone are hardly a phenomenon unique to Central America, some researchers will not rule out manmade factors. But no strong evidence has turned up. “I think that everything points away from pesticides,” said Dr. Catharina Wesseling, an occupational and environmental epidemiologist who also is regional director of the Program on Work, Health and Environment in Central America. “It is too multinational; it is too spread out. “I would place my bet on repeated dehydration, acute attacks everyday. That is my bet, my guess, but nothing is proved.” Dr. Richard J. Johnson, a kidney specialist at the University of Colorado, Denver, is working with other researchers investigating the cause of the disease. They too suspect chronic dehydration. “This is a new concept, but there’s some evidence supporting it,” Johnson said. “There are other ways to damage the kidney. Heavy metals, chemicals, toxins have all been considered, but to date there have been no leading candidates to explain what’s going on in Nicaragua … “As these possibilities get exhausted, recurrent dehydration is moving up on the list.” In Nicaragua, the number of annual deaths from chronic kidney disease more than doubled in a decade, from 466 in 2000 to 1,047 in 2010, according to the Pan American Health Organization, a regional arm of the World Health Organization. In El Salvador, the agency reported a similar jump, from 1,282 in 2000 to 2,181 in 2010. Farther down the coast, in the cane-growing lowlands of northern Costa Rica, there also have been sharp increases in kidney disease, Wesseling said, and the Pan American body’s statistics show deaths are on the rise in Panama, although at less dramatic rates. While some of the rising numbers may be due to better record-keeping, scientists have no doubt they are facing something deadly and previously unknown to medicine. In nations with more developed health systems, the disease that impairs the kidney’s ability to cleanse the blood is diagnosed relatively early and treated with dialysis in medical clinics. In Central America, many of the victims treat themselves at home with a cheaper but less efficient form of dialysis, or go without any dialysis at all. At a hospital in the Nicaraguan town of Chinandega, Segundo Zapata Palacios sat motionless in his room, bent over with his head on the bed. “He no longer wants to talk,” said his wife, Enma Vanegas. His levels of creatinine, a chemical marker of kidney failure, were 25 times the normal amount. His family told him he was being hospitalized to receive dialysis. In reality, the hope was to ease his pain before his inevitable death, said Carmen Rios, a leader of Nicaragua’s Association of Chronic Kidney Disease Patients, a support and advocacy group. “There’s already nothing to do,” she said. “He was hospitalized on Jan. 23 just waiting to die.” Zapata Palacios passed away on Jan. 26. He was 49. Working with scientists from Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua, Wesseling tested groups on the coast and compared them with groups who had similar work habits and exposure to pesticide but lived and worked more than 500 meters (1,500 feet) above sea level. Some 30 percent of coastal dwellers had elevated levels of creatinine, strongly suggesting environment rather than agrochemicals was to blame, Brooks, the epidemiologist, said. The study is expected to be published in a peer-reviewed journal in coming weeks. Brooks and Johnson, the kidney specialist, said they have seen echoes of the Central American phenomenon in reports from hot farming areas in Sri Lanka, Egypt and the Indian east coast. “We don’t really know how widespread this is,” Brooks said. “This may be an under-recognized epidemic.” Jason Glaser, co-founder of a group working to help victims of the epidemic in Nicaragua, said he and colleagues also have begun receiving reports of mysterious kidney disease among sugar cane workers in Australia. Despite the growing consensus among international experts, Elsy Brizuela, a doctor who works with an El Salvadoran project to treat workers and research the epidemic, discounts the dehydration theory and insists “the common factor is exposure to herbicides and poisons.” Nicaragua’s highest rates of chronic kidney disease show up around the Ingenio San Antonio, a plant owned by the Pellas Group conglomerate, whose sugar mill processes nearly half the nation’s sugar. Flores and Zapata Palacios both worked at the plantation. According to one of Brooks’ studies, about eight years ago the factory started providing electrolyte solution and protein cookies to workers who previously brought their own water to work. But the study also found that some workers were cutting sugar cane for as long as 9 1/2 hours a day with virtually no break and little shade in average temperatures of 30 C (87 F). In 2006, the plantation, owned by one of the country’s richest families, received $36.5 million in loans from the International Finance Corp., the private-sector arm of the World Bank Group, to buy more land, expand its processing plant and produce more sugar for consumers and ethanol production. In a statement, the IFC said it had examined the social and environmental impacts of its loans as part of a due diligence process and did not identify kidney disease as something related to the sugar plantation’s operations. Nonetheless, the statement said, “we are concerned about this disease that affects not only Nicaragua but other countries in the region, and will follow closely any new findings.” Ariel Granera, a spokesman for the Pellas’ business conglomerate, said that starting as early as 1993 the company had begun taking a wide variety of precautions to avoid heat stress in its workers, from starting their shifts very early in the morning to providing them with many gallons of drinking water per day. Associated Press reporters saw workers bringing water bottles from their homes, which they refilled during the day from large cylinders of water in the buses that bring them to the fields. Glaser, the co-founder of the activist group in Nicaragua, La Isla Foundation, said that nonetheless many worker protections in the region are badly enforced by the companies and government regulators, particularly measures to stop workers with failing kidneys from working in the cane fields owned by the Pellas Group and other companies. Many workers disqualified by tests showing high levels of creatinine go back to work in the fields for subcontractors with less stringent standards, he said. Some use false IDs, or give their IDs to their healthy sons, who then pass the tests and go work in the cane fields, damaging their kidneys. “This is the only job in town,” Glaser said. “It’s all they’re trained to do. It’s all they know.” The Ingenio San Antonio mill processes cane from more than 24,000 hectares (60,000 acres) of fields, about half directly owned by the mill and most of the rest by independent farmers. The trade group for Nicaragua’s sugar companies said the Boston University study had confirmed that “the agricultural sugar industry in Nicaragua has no responsibility whatsoever for chronic renal insufficiency in Nicaragua” because the research found that “in the current body of scientific knowledge there is no way to establish a direct link between sugar cane cultivation and renal insufficiency.” Brooks, the epidemiologist at Boston University, told the AP that the study simply said there was no definitive scientific proof of the cause, but that all possible connections remained open to future research. In comparison with Nicaragua, where thousands of kidney disease sufferers work for large sugar estates, in El Salvador many of them are independent small farmers. They blame agricultural chemicals and few appear to have significantly changed their work habits in response to the latest research, which has not received significant publicity in El Salvador. In Nicaragua, the dangers are better known, but still, workers need jobs. Zapata Palacios left eight children. Three of them work in the cane fields. Two already show signs of disease. Incoming search terms:new kidney disease in central and south america (2), kidney disease central american (1),Related posts:
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from GaTaGaT Blogs Highlights To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 comments:
Post a Comment