XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World: May 2011

Tuesday, 31 May 2011

World Health Organization - Radiation from cell phones can cause cancer - now lists mobile phone "carcinogenic hazard" -

Radiation from cell phones can possibly cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization. The agency now lists mobile phone use in the same "carcinogenic hazard" category as lead, engine exhaust and chloroform.

Before its announcement Tuesday, WHO had assured consumers that no adverse health effects had been established.

A team of 31 scientists from 14 countries, including the United States, made the decision after reviewing peer-reviewed studies on cell phone safety. The team found enough evidence to categorize personal exposure as "possibly carcinogenic to humans."

What that means is that right now there haven't been enough long-term studies conducted to make a clear conclusion if radiation from cell phones are safe, but there is enough data showing a possible connection that consumers should be alerted.

"The biggest problem we have is that we know most environmental factors take several decades of exposure before we really see the consequences," said Dr. Keith Black, chairman of neurology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The type of radiation coming out of a cell phone is called non-ionizing. It is not like an X-ray, but more like a very low-powered microwave oven.

"What microwave radiation does in most simplistic terms is similar to what happens to food in microwaves, essentially cooking the brain. So in addition to leading to a development of cancer and tumors, there could be a whole host of other effects like cognitive memory function, since the memory temporal lobes are where we hold our cell phones."

The voices urging caution to consumers have gotten louder in recent years.

The European Environmental Agency has pushed for more studies, saying cell phones could be as big a public health risk as smoking, asbestos and leaded gasoline. The head of a prominent cancer-research institute at the University of Pittsburgh sent a memo to all employees urging them to limit cell phone use because of a possible risk of cancer.

Read more - http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/05/31/who.cell.phones/index.html

Food Stamp Usage Hits Fresh Record - average monthly benefit of $133.24 for 44.199 million people -

That average monthly benefit of $133.24 for 44.199 million people will help with the purchase of one third of a very edible iPad. Food stamp participation chart presented without further commentary.

Read more - http://www.zerohedge.com/article/time-celebrate-recovery-food-stamp-usage-hits-fresh-record

Monday, 30 May 2011

Al-Jazeera footage captures 'western troops on the ground' in Libya -

Armed westerners have been filmed on the front line with rebels near Misrata in the first apparent confirmation that foreign special forces are playing an active role in the Libyan conflict.

A group of six westerners are clearly visible in a report by al-Jazeerafrom Dafniya, described as the westernmost point of the rebel lines west of the town of Misrata. Five of them were armed and wearing sand-coloured clothes, peaked caps, and cotton Arab scarves.

The sixth, apparently the most senior of the group, was carrying no visible weapon and wore a pink, short-sleeve shirt. He may be an intelligence officer. The group is seen talking to rebels and then quickly leaving on being spotted by the television crew.

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Twitter will notify users before handing info to authorities - so they can defend themselves -

Twitter will seek to notify its users so they can defend themselves before it hands over user information to the authorities, a senior manager said on Wednesday when asked about a privacy dispute in Britain.

“Platforms should have responsibility not to defend the user, but to protect that user’s right to defend him or herself,” said Tony Wang, general manager of Twitter’s European operations.

Users have posted details on Twitter of celebrity scandals, in contravention of so-called super injunctions.

Super injunctions, issued by English courts, ban media outlets from mentioning not only the details of the case and the identities of those involved but even the existence of the injunction itself.

Breaching the order would put someone in contempt of court, liable to an unlimited fine and up to two years in prison.

Mainstream media organizations have reluctantly obeyed such court orders, but in recent weeks a string of identities have leaked, largely via Twitter and the wider Internet—in an echo of the unsuccessful attempts to suppress the publication of WikiLeaks cables on the Internet.

Lawyers representing one of the celebrities named, Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs, have asked U.S.-based Twitter via a London court for information about the users who published his name in tweets.

Wang, who was speaking at the e-G8 Internet forum in Paris, said he could not comment specifically on the cases in Britain, but said: “If we’re legally required to turn over user information, to the extent that we can, we want to notify the user involved, let them know and let them exercise their rights under their own jurisdiction.

“That’s not to say that they will ultimately prevail, that’s not to say that law enforcement doesn’t get the information they need, but what it does do is take that process into the court of law and let it play out there.”

A British politician identified Giggs on Monday in parliament as the soccer star fighting a legal battle to prevent newspapers publishing allegations of an affair.

John Hemming, who campaigns for press freedom, used parliamentary privilege, which allows parliamentarians to raise legal issues without fear of prosecution.

Hemming said he had acted after lawyers asked for information about Twitter users. “If you are going to have an expensive firm of lawyers chasing down ordinary people, with a view to threatening them with a jail sentence because they have gossiped about a footballer, that is fundamentally wrong,” he told BBC television.

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron has promised a review of privacy laws.

Facebook post is calling for Saudi men to beat women who plan to drive cars in a protest next month - Iqal Campaign -

Facebook post is calling for Saudi men to beat women who plan to drive cars in a protest next month - Iqal Campaign -

A campaign on Facebook is calling for Saudi men to beat women who plan to drive cars in a protest next month, AFP reports.
"The Iqal Campaign: June 17 for preventing women from driving" advocates a cord be used to beat women who plan to drive. Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.
Some 6,000 people have "liked" the campaign on Facebook.
It was created in response to female activist Manal al-Sharif, who created a page calling for Saudi women to defy the driving ban on June 17.
Her page was taken down following her arrest for driving May 22 in the Saudi city of Khobar.
A petition has been launched to release al-Sharif from jail, garnering more than 300 signatures, according to AFP.
Saudi Arabia is the last country in the world to ban women from driving.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/05/25/saudi-facebook-campaign-calls-men-beat-women-drivers/#ixzz1NNoiK0nZ

Union members are only 12 percent of all employees but have gotten 50.3 percent of Obamacare waivers -

Question: What do the following have in common? Eckert Cold Storage Co., Kerly Homes of Yuma, Classic Party Rentals, West Coast Turf Inc., Ellenbecker Investment Group Inc., Only in San Francisco, Hotel Nikko, International Pacific Halibut Commission, City of Puyallup, Local 485 Health and Welfare Fund, Chicago Plastering Institute Health & Welfare Fund, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Teamsters Local 522 Fund Welfare Fund Roofers Division, StayWell Saipan Basic Plan, CIGNA, Caribbean Workers' Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Health and Welfare Plan.

Answer: They are all among the 1,372 businesses, state and local governments, labor unions and insurers, covering 3,095,593 individuals or families, that have been granted a waiver from Obamacare by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

All of which raises another question: If Obamacare is so great, why do so many people want to get out from under it?

More specifically, why are more than half of those 3,095,593 in plans run by labor unions, which were among Obamacare's biggest political supporters? Union members are only 12 percent of all employees but have gotten 50.3 percent of Obamacare waivers.

Just in April, Sebelius granted 38 waivers to restaurants, nightclubs, spas and hotels in former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco congressional district. Pelosi's office said she had nothing to do with it.

On its website HHS pledges that the waiver process will be transparent. But it doesn't list those whose requests for waivers have been denied.

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Pet insurance scam / ordeal riles dog owner - PetCare denies claim, then pays tiny share, citing miscommunication -

A Vancouver pet owner is going public to warn others about the perils of buying health insurance for their pet.

"If I were to buy another dog or get another pet I would not buy insurance. I would take my chances," said Ralph Eastman. "The customer service was absolutely terrible — and there was not even an apology."

Eastman paid well over $6,000 for health insurance for his two dogs, Chester and Ted, in monthly payments over a 10-year period.

However, after his dog Chester became ill this winter with diabetes and then cancer, PetCare insurance denied his claim for $8,000 in veterinarian bills.

"For several weeks and months we were at the vet quite often," Eastman said. "Vet bills can get high, and you think insurance is a great idea because you never know. Only there's a whole bunch of things that [Chester's] health insurance didn't cover."

After Go Public got involved, the company reassessed the claim and couriered Eastman a cheque for $1,877, because Chester had cancer, which is covered by the policy. Eastman said the company also waived his $250 deductible because of the problems with his claim.

PetCare is a subsidiary of Pethealth Inc., an Ontario-based company selling pet insurance in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. It says it is the No. 2 provider of pet insurance in North America.

Obama signs Westminister Abbey guestbook, dates it May 24, 2008? -

Obama signs Westminister Abbey guestbook, dates it May 24, 2008? -

President Obama Has No Idea What Year It Is

This is how President Obama signed the guestbook at Westminster Abbey earlier today, where he got a tour from the Very Reverend Dr. John Hall and laid a wreath on the Grave of the Unknown Warrior.

It is a great privilege to commemorate our common heritage, and common sacrifice.
Barack Obama
24 May 2008

It was really nice until he got the date wrong by three years. Granted, 2008 was a great year for him, and we might try to live it for as long as possible, too, if we were him. Also, though, he may have had a stroke.

Update: For those who find the European-style date suspicious, the Telegraph reports that a "Westminster Abbey spokeswoman confirmed it was the president who had written the wrong date."

New Zealand Casino Staff Forced To Wear Flea Collars to Keep Blood Suckers At Bay -

Workers at the casino in New Zealand's largest city have been forced to wear flea collars to work in a bid to ward off the blood-sucking critters, the New Zealand Herald reported Tuesday.
The alarming report follows news of similar infestations forcing nurses at some Auckland hospitals to adopt a similar course of action in December -- sparking a warning from health authorities against humans wearing the pet collars, which emit toxins.
Employees at SkyCity Casino were spraying themselves with insect repellent and wearing pet flea collars around their ankles to ward off fleas, according to Unite Union national director Mike Treen.
He said staff had been complaining about infestations on the casino floor "for years" and that although the business had been undertaking a cleaning process, "it doesn't seem to be working."
SkyCity management told The NZ Herald the casino floors were cleaned every day and it was not aware of any complaints about insect bites.
The facility, which also features a convention center, bars, restaurants and hotels, is the only casino in Auckland.
SkyCity Entertainment Group has casinos in three New Zealand cities -- Auckland, Hamilton and Queenstown -- while in Australia it owns properties in Darwin and Adelaide.

Read more: http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/offbeat/new-zealand-casino-staff-forced-to-wear-flea-collars-to-keep-blood-suckers-at-bay-ncxdc-052411#ixzz1NHl2KSSV

Saturday, 21 May 2011

Top Texas Government Officials Covered Up Unsafe Radiation Levels In Texas Drinking Water -

An investigative report by a local Houston Texas news stations reveals numerous top-level Texas Government officials participated in a massive cover upof dangerous levels of radiation in Texas drinking water.

The report from KHOU 11 in Houston shed light on what government watchdogs are calling “a conspiracy of the highest order” in the aftermath of the release of several email communications between Top Texas Officials in the Governors office, the state legislation, and the state agency in charge of protecting the environment in Texas.

The emails that were ordered to be released by the state attorney general reveal radiation tests of public drinking water were falsified to prevent Federal violations that would have required the local water systems to be cleaned up.

Instead the Texas bureaucrats went along with the ploy to cover up the levels of radiation in water to protect their fascist corporate puppet masters and poisoned the public over the last 20 years causing an untold number of cancers and other illnesses.

Perhaps more shocking is the fact that they knew Texas wasn’t complying with Federal regulations and even gave them a stern warning in 2004 that basically stated:

“If you don’t comply, we probably aren’t going to step in and take you over because we only take over state radiation monitoring in very severe cases”.

Texas was then allowed to continue to falsify their radiation reports for another 4 years while the EPA turned a blind eye to the cover up until a random audit caught them red-handed manipulating the drinking water radiation results in 2008.

Classrooms vandalized by Girls ages 8 & 6 - $20K in damage, poured paint, glitter and sand around & released butterflies -

It’s a sad and unexpected ending to the school year for kindergarten students at Franklin Elementary School in Holdrege.

Because of vandalism to both kindergarten classrooms at Franklin during the weekend, kindergarten students will not be able to return to their classrooms for the last week of school.

Instead, Franklin kindergartners and their parents were informed by a recorded phone call from Franklin Elementary Principal Amber Porter late Sunday night that they will not have school this week.

“The damage was severe enough that we cannot have class in the classrooms,” Porter wrote in a brief email statement.

The district looked at all options but could not find the space or supplies to have class for the kindergarten students for this last week.

“If we could have figured out someplace, somewhere to put them, we would have,” Superintendent Cinde Wendell said. She said she regrets the inconvenience this has caused to parents now looking for day care.

According to Holdrege Police Department Officer Leland Rodewald, the incident was reported by parents who discovered the vandalism after their children came home Sunday evening covered in paint.

The police report by Officer James Nelson said the suspects are an 8-year-old girl and a 6-year-old girl.

The girls allegedly gained access to the two portable classrooms, located northwest of the main building, but police aren’t sure how.

They poured paint, glitter and sand around the two classrooms. They also wrote on the walls with markers and tore up and broke books and toys. In both classrooms, they released butterflies the kindergartners were planning to release during their graduation ceremony.

Damage is estimated at $20,000.

The girls were released to their parents, and the matter was referred to the Phelps County Attorney’s Office.

The kindergarten students will still report to the school Wednesday and Thursday afternoons for graduation ceremonies and field day activities.

Friday, 20 May 2011

Japan's Fukushima Reactor May Have Leaked Radiation Before Tsunami Struck -

A radiation alarm went off at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima nuclear power plant before the tsunami hit on March 11, suggesting that contrary to earlier assumptions the reactors were damaged by the earthquake that spawned the wall of water.

A monitoring post on the perimeter of the plant about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) from the No. 1 reactor went off at 3:29 p.m., minutes before the station was overwhelmed by the tsunami that knocked out backup power that kept reactor cooling systems running, according to documents supplied by the company. The monitor was set to go off at high levels of radiation, an official said.
“We are still investigating whether the monitoring post was working properly,” said Teruaki Kobayashi, the company’s head of nuclear facility management. “There is a possibility that radiation leaked before the tsunami arrived.” Kobayashi said he didn’t have the exact radiation reading that would trigger the sensor.
Officials at the company, known as Tepco, had earlier said the plant stood up to the magnitude-9 quake and was crippled by the tsunami that followed, causing the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986. The early radiation alarm has implications for other reactors in Japan, one of the most earthquake prone countries in the world, because safety upgrades ordered by the government since March 11 have focused on the threat from tsunamis.

Read more - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-19/fukushima-may-have-leaked-radiation-before-quake.html

Thursday, 19 May 2011

Radioactive Substances Found in Breast Milk of 5 Japanese Women -

Small amounts of radioactive substances have been detected in the breast milk of five women in Japan, online newspaper Japan Today reported Thursday, citing a study by a citizen's group.
Taking samples from 41 women across five prefectures, the tests found cesium in the breast milk of four women in Tokyo, Fukushima and Ibaraki, and radioactive iodine in the breast milk of a woman in Fukushima.
The study, released Wednesday, was conducted one month after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami rocked Japan’s northeast coast, triggering a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant which saw radiation leak into the ground, sea and soil.
Reports of contamination in water and food emerged in the weeks following the March 11 twin disasters.
Safety levels of radioactive substances in breast milk have not been set by the Japanese government but readings -- 5.5 becquerels of iodine and up to 10.5 becquerels of cesium -- in all five cases were well below the safe levels -- 100 becquerels of radioactive iodine and 200 becquerels of cesium -- for tap water consumption by infants.
The group has called on health authorities to make testing available to concerned parents.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/05/19/radioactive-substances-breast-milk-5-japanese-women/#ixzz1MpfIWURI

Wednesday, 18 May 2011

CDC Warns Public to Prepare for 'Zombie Apocalypse' - and it's no joke, CDC says it's all about emergency preparation -

Are you prepared for the impending zombie invasion?
That's the question posed by the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention in a Monday blog posting gruesomely titled, "Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse." And while it's no joke, CDC officials say it's all about emergency preparation.
"There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for," the posting reads. "Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That's right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you'll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you'll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency."
The post, written by Assistant Surgeon General Ali Khan, instructs readers how to prepare for "flesh-eating zombies" much like how they appeared in Hollywood hits like "Night of the Living Dead" and video games like Resident Evil. Perhaps surprisingly, the same steps you'd take in preparation for an onslaught of ravenous monsters are similar to those suggested in advance of a hurricane or pandemic.
"First of all, you should have an emergency kit in your house," the posting continues. "This includes things like water, food, and other supplies to get you through the first couple of days before you can locate a zombie-free refugee camp (or in the event of a natural disaster, it will buy you some time until you are able to make your way to an evacuation shelter or utility lines are restored)."

Other items to be stashed in such a kit include medications, duct tape, a battery-powered radio, clothes, copies of important documents and first aid supplies.
"Once you've made your emergency kit, you should sit down with your family and come up with an emergency plan," the posting continues. "This includes where you would go and who you would call if zombies started appearing outside your doorstep. You can also implement this plan is there is a flood, earthquake or other emergency."
The idea behind the campaign stemmed from concerns of radiation fears following the earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan in March. CDC spokesman Dave Daigle told FoxNews.com that someone had asked CDC officials if zombies would be a concern due to radiation fears in Japan and traffic spiked following that mention.
"It's kind of a tongue-in-cheek campaign," Daigle said Wednesday. "We were talking about hurricane preparedness and someone bemoaned that we kept putting out the same messages."
While metrics for the post are not yet available, Daigle said it has become the most popular CDC blog entry in just two days.
"People are so tuned into zombies," he said. "People are really dialed in on zombies. The idea is we're reaching an audience or a segment we'd never reach with typical messages."

CDC Link - http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/05/preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse/

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/05/18/cdc-warns-public-prepare-zombie-apocalypse/#ixzz1MjSJPIzH

Atmosphere Above Japan Heated Rapidly Before M9 Earthquake - Infrared emissions increased dramatically days before quake -

Geologists have long puzzled over anecdotal reports of strange atmospheric phenomena in the days before big earthquakes. But good data to back up these stories has been hard to come by.

In recent years, however, various teams have set up atmospheric monitoring stations in earthquake zones and a number of satellites are capable of sending back data about the state of the upper atmosphere and the ionosphere during an earthquake.

Last year, we looked at some fascinating data from the DEMETER spacecraft showing a significant increase in ultra-low frequency radio signals before the magnitude 7 Haiti earthquake in January 2010

Today, Dimitar Ouzounov at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland and a few buddies present the data from the Great Tohoku earthquake which devastated Japan on 11 March. Their results, although preliminary, are eye-opening.

They say that before the M9 earthquake, the total electron content of the ionosphere increased dramatically over the epicentre, reaching a maximum three days before the quake struck.

At the same time, satellite observations showed a big increase in infrared emissions from above the epicentre, which peaked in the hours before the quake. In other words, the atmosphere was heating up.

These kinds of observations are consistent with an idea called the Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling mechanism. The thinking is that in the days before an earthquake, the great stresses in a fault as it is about to give cause the releases large amounts of radon.

The radioactivity from this gas ionises the air on a large scale and this has a number of knock on effects. Since water molecules are attracted to ions in the air, ionisation triggers the large scale condensation of water.

But the process of condensation also releases heat and it is this that causes infrared emissions. "Our first results show that on March 8th a rapid increase of emitted infrared radiation was observed from the satellite data," say Ouzounov and co.

These emissions go on to effect the ionosphere and its total electron content.

It certainly makes sense that the lithosphere, atmosphere and ionosphere are coupled in a way that can be measured when one of them is perturbed. The question is to what extent the new evidence backs up this idea.

The Japan earthquake is the largest to have struck the island in modern times and will certainly turn out to be among the best studied. If good evidence of this relationship doesn't emerge from this data, other opportunities will be few and far between.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1105.2841: Atmosphere-Ionosphere Response to the M9 Tohoku Earthquake Revealed by Joined Satellite and Ground Observations. Preliminary Results.

‘Historic’ budget cuts bill actually increased 2011 spending by $3 billion: CBO -

The fiscal 2011 funding bill roundly hailed for its "historic" spending cuts actually raised government spending by more than $3 billion, according to a new report.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded Monday evening, "Total discretionary outlays in 2011 will be $3.2 billion higher as a result of the legislation, CBO estimates—an increase of $7.5 billion for defense programs, partially offset by a net reduction of $4.4 billion in other spending."
In other words, the bill's increase in defense spending this year outweighed the cuts to discretionary programs -- something the CBO warned may potentially be the case. Now it's the official projection.
The finding is particularly embarrassing because President Barack Obama and leaders of both parties portrayed the measure as a monumental accomplishment in the realm of spending cuts, which they all agreed were vital to America's future.
"We have agreed to an historic amount of cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year," saidHouse Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) five weeks ago, promising that the measure would cut $39 billion from 2011 spending.
There was some good news in the CBO report for champions of spending cuts: the legislation is projected to lower the deficit by $122 billion between 2012 and 2021, with a reduction of $183 billion in spending authority during that period.
"[O]ne thing is clear: congressional Republicans were able to save American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in the long term," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Boehner.

Read more - http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/17/historic-budget-cuts-bill-actually-increased-2011-spending-by-3-billion-cbo/

Barrick Gold's security kill 7 at Tanzania mine - 800 people armed with machetes, rocks and hammers came to steal gold -

Security forces at African Barrick Gold's North Mara mine in Tanzania killed seven “criminal intruders” and injured a dozen more after 800 people stormed the project armed with machetes, rocks and hammers in a bid to steal gold ore.

Police were called to the area on Monday and “came under sustained attack” by hundreds of people who illegally entered the mine site to try to remove ore from one of the crushers, said a statement released by the London-based company, which is a majority-owned subsidiary of Toronto's Barrick Gold Corp.

“A number of intruders sustained gunshot wounds, resulting in seven intruder fatalities and 12 injuries,” said the release.

The deadly clash is the latest in an ongoing battle between the giant Canadian miner and locals who scavenge for gold-laced rocks on the lucrative property, which Barrick acquired in 2006.

The price of gold has tripled in value since then, reaching a record high of $1,540.25 (U.S.) an ounce earlier this month and making it all the more attractive to villagers involved in illegal small-scale mining.

The violence Monday follows other clashes at the mine that killed at least seven others in the past two years, according to interviews with victims' relatives, witnesses, local officials and human-rights workers, Bloomberg News reported in December. African Barrick doesn't deny that security incidents have previously resulted in deaths.

Gargantuan trucks scale the mounds of grey waste rock surrounding the North Mara mine.

Meanwhile below, young men with hammers and hoes walk in groups along the dirt roads leading to their villages.

It's conflict between these groups of small-time miners and African Barrick that has apparently produced the majority of the alleged injuries and fatalities at the mine.

Neyakema Mwita, 39, said three of his friends have been killed at the mine while scavenging. Still, he said he has no other means of earning a livelihood besides returning there himself.

“I have a wife. If I don't go there, how else will I eat?”

On this recent morning, speaking as he walked toward his one-room mud home, Mwita had just come down from the mine after spending 10 hours overnight there, searching for gold.

He was not alone. A gold-rich cache was recently discovered and at least a couple of hundred locals had sneaked there the previous night to mine. Security came and chased them away at one point, discharging tear gas and firing guns.

But after officials had gone, miners just returned to the area.

Mwita learned to mine from his father when he was just 11 years old. Back in those days, it wasn't a dangerous profession for a father to pass on to his son.

But then commercial mining came to the area. “When the company came, they suppressed what we were doing. Now, when we go there, we go crawling, creeping on our stomachs. It's scary; we go there like commandos, looking out here and there.”

Police say Monday's deadly conflict was the third attack on the mine in a week, though they managed to keep invaders at bay in the previous two attacks.

“Police fired warning shots into the air and used tear gas to try to stop the attackers from advancing, but they would not heed,” Tarime-Rorya regional police commander Constantine Massawe told Reuters on Tuesday. “Police were forced to use live ammunition to protect themselves. Seven police officers were injured in the incident.”

The mine, located in Tarime district about 100 kilometres east of Lake Victoria and 20 kilometres south of the Kenyan border, has four open pits and produced almost 213,000 ounces of gold in 2010.

African Barrick is investigating the latest incident, as are the police, who have deployed additional forces in the area, the company said. There has been no material effect on production at the site, the company added.

Barrick Gold Corp. and African Barrick, which is 74 per cent owned by the Canadian miner, have previously paid the Tanzanian government for federal police protection at the mine and used private armed guards, according to company documents.

“African Barrick Gold sincerely regrets any loss of life or injury on or near its mine sites,” the company said. “The company will continue to support the government and the community in their efforts to improve law and order and security in the North Mara region.”

In 2008, some 200 people attacked the North Mara mine and destroyed property worth $7 million, forcing operations at one pit to be halted.

“This is an extreme situation in a very difficult tribal area, exacerbated by some poor management tactics,” said Fairfax IS analyst John Meyer.

A private member's bill from John McKay, the Liberal MP for Scarborough-Guildwood, aimed at toughening scrutiny of Canadian companies operating overseas was narrowly defeated in the House of Commons last October after the mining industry campaigned against it.

African Barrick was spun off by Barrick Gold in March 2010. The company operates four mines in northwest Tanzania.