And this fact has been known for years. Scientists don't like to talk about it. It's extremely embarrassing. The West Nile virus has never been isolated. "Isolated" means discovered. In fact, Robert McLean, director of the National Wildlife Center of the US Geological Survey, told ABC's Nick Regush, "We don't have a purified form of the [West Nile] virus." A stunning admission.

Two questions immediately pop up. How are people being diagnosed with West Nile if the virus has never been proved to exist; and what is making people sick if not West Nile?

The answer to the first question is: antibody tests. These extremely unreliable diagnostic tests are indirect. They supposedly show that elements of the patient's immune system have encountered, in this case, the West Nile virus, in the patient's body. But antibody tests can and do register positive for irrelevant reasons. It's called cross-reaction. The test is pinging positive because other germs or debris in the patient's blood have caused the sensitive material in the test to respond.

As to the second question, there are some good reasons people in the Dallas area are getting sick. These reasons have nothing to do with "West Nile." A decade ago, another independent journalist, Jim West, launched an original investigation into the so-called "West Nile epidemic" in New York City.

http://www.naturalhorse.com/archive/volume4/Issue6/article_8.php

West correlated clusters of human and bird "West Nile" cases with several factors; among them, nearby polluting oil refineries, other air pollution (certainly exacerbated by hot summer weather), and the presence of toxic MTBE, an additive that makes gasoline in cars burn cleaner.

Citizens of Dallas should take a clue from Jim West's work and examine their own environment for these factors. There are listings for at least eight refineries in the Dallas area. There are also reports of increased air pollution coming from natural gas production in the Barnett Shale. The 2012 summer has been hot. As of the year 2000, Texas refineries were producing 75% of all the MTBE in the United States.

The cardinal has also turned down an invitation to meet government ministers to discuss the new legislation. The Scottish government said Mr Salmond continued to hold the cardinal in the "highest regard". In a letter to Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the cardinal asked for any future discussions between the church and government on the issue to take place between officials.

The cardinal's spokesman, Peter Kearney, told BBC Scotland: "Cardinal O'Brien is really keen that the perspective and the position of the Catholic church is conveyed to the Scottish government, but he isn't convinced that he necessarily has to do that in person. Also the situation we find ourselves in is one where we want to maintain a dialogue, and the cardinal wants to maintain a dialogue with the government, but that can be difficult when you feel all the things you have to say, to date at least, have been completely ignored."

The Scottish government decided to change the law despite most of those who replied to its consultation opposing reform. The policy has been backed by the leaders of all five parties in the Scottish parliament, as well as by gay rights campaigners and some faith groups. But it has been vigorously opposed by the Church of Scotland as well as the Roman Catholic Church.

This crop is said to be on a par with that of 1988 crop, the worst in the past thirty years. Note that the US is the top producer and exporter of corn. The US accounts for nearly half of the world's corn and also a third of the world's soybeans, the harvest for which will be the lowest in five years. The director-general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, José Graziano da Silva, characterizes the present global food situation as "precarious," as do experts we have contacted.

One issue that is sure to be raised by the UN is biofuel policies and the government-mandated biofuel production targets of the US and European Union. The US is projected to divert about 40% of its corn crop into ethanol, and about 60% of Europe's rapeseed crop goes to the production of biodiesel.

Brazilian ethanol production consumes half of their sugarcane crop. This is a politically divisive issue, and we do not anticipate the G20 will be able to reach agreement on the UN's call for an immediate suspension of biofuel production mandates.

A record number of traders, seed dealers and government researchers have signed up for a first-hand look at corn and soybeans on the four-day, seven-state tour next week organized by Pro Farmer, the agricultural advisory firm. Demand was so strong that eight people who signed up late are on a waiting list. Tour members want an on-the-ground look at the crops as new technology like satellite imagery was slow to detect a turn in conditions earlier this summer. In other words, in times of crisis nothing beats getting your hands dirty and your feet wet.

Satellite imagery, a premium product for food companies and funds, did not detect problems right away because there was a period of time when images showed plants were turning green, as they typically do in early stages of development, said Corey Cherr, agriculture research manager for Lanworth, a private analysis firm that uses satellites as a forecasting tool.

It was not until later that images began picking up on signs of stress, he said. Sky-high imagery can fall short in estimating yields because it provides a view of the crop canopy and does not actually delve into the crop to count, say, the number of corn ears.

"Just to be able to survive, we have to look for other sources of nutrition," he said. His 1,400 cattle are no longer feeding off corn. The prices, Watson says, are too high to keep corn in stock. So earlier this year, he began to buy second-hand candy. "It has a higher ratio of fat than actually feeding straight corn," Watson explained. "It's hard to believe it will work but we've already seen the results of it now."

Watson mixes the candy with an ethanol by-product and a mineral nutrient. He says the cows have not shown any health problems from eating the candy, and they are gaining weight as they should. "This ration is balanced to have not too much fat in it," he said. The packaged candy comes from various companies at a discounted rate because it is not fit for store shelves.

His views were supported hours later by the parliamentary head of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, Volker Kauder.“There is no room for maneuver, either in terms of time or substance. That would be yet another agreement broken. That’s exactly what led us to the crisis," [Mr] Kauder told Der Spiegel. Their comments come just days before Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras are set to hold talks in Berlin.

According to The Financial Times, [Mr] Samaras plans to discuss extending the deadline for Athens to meet its budget cuts by an extra two years. But Germany has so far insisted that Greece must stick to the agreed-upon timeline if it wants to continue to qualify for European aid.

Greece’s current rescue deal, worth €130 billion, is believed to be crucial in preventing Athens from defaulting on the euro – a move that could have grim consequences for the global economy.

The decision to deploy forces must be approved by the federal government. Severe restrictions on military deployments were set down in the German constitution after Nazi-era abuses. The court says the military still cannot shoot down a hijacked passenger plane - fighter jets would have to intercept the plane and fire warning shots to force it to land.

After World War II the new constitution ruled that soldiers could not be deployed with guns at the ready on German soil, the BBC's Stephen Evans reports from Berlin. The court has now changed that, saying troops could be used to tackle an assault that threatens scores of casualties.

The judges had in mind a terrorist incident involving armed attackers in public places. German troops have been deployed abroad since the war, but it has been a gradual process. German warplanes have been used in the Balkans and troops are on the ground in Afghanistan, protecting construction workers, but able to return fire if attacked.

It is alleged Mortgage Miracles, in Canning Vale in Western Australia, obtained investment loans for customers by using falsely inflated earnings and assets. Ms Thompson admits that is exactly what she did. “I would get upfront commission. I would get a trailing commission. I was probably earning about $5 million a year. It was great. It was wonderful. But it was all a lie,” she said.

But she was not alone. “Hook me up to a lie detector test and hook them up. I’ll lay my evidence on the table. They will fail a lie detector test miserably. They are corrupt. They are protecting each other,” Ms Thompson said. Along with similar claims before a parliamentary inquiry in Canberra last week, her evidence has the potential to rock the finance industry.

Consumer advocate Denise Brailey says there needs to be a royal commission into the banking sector. She says she has received about 500 loan application forms from people in trouble with low-doc loans and not one is clean. "The figures fudged, the details forged, by brokers or bank officers themselves," she said.

She says banks were targeting pensioners, people who were asset rich, but income poor. "These people are losing their homes. There is nothing I can do now except tell it like it is."