Morning News Roundup (19 September)

Orange Alert on Green Leafy Spinach

• The number of people sickened by an E. coli outbreak traced to tainted spinach rose to 109 on Sunday, as federal officials announced more brands recalling their products. Natural Selection Foods, the world's largest producer of organic produce, has been linked to the infected greens, prompting a recall of 34 brands. They include the company's labels and those of companies contracting with Natural Selection, based in San Juan Bautista, Calif., to produce or package its spinach. [WaPo]
  
  
• First came the war on drugs. Then the war on terror. And now - in an America more than usually prone to fear, paranoia and the beeping of colour-coded alert systems - comes the war on organic spinach.
  
  Ever since an outbreak of infections from the E.coli bacteria was traced to bagged spinach a few days ago, the feds have been relentless. No danger of the governmental breakdown that characterised the response to Hurricane Katrina a year ago. No half-measures or mollycoddling of the green leafy vegetable lobby.
  [...]
  The crisis has had one intriguing side effect. The point of bagged salad is to spare consumers washing their greens before they eat them. Now, however, everyone is on notice that commercial washing and bagging is no guarantee of protection from germs. "Greens in a bag have been handled by two or more sets of human hands," Albert Goodwyn of San Francisco wrote to his local paper. "What else did those hands hold on to? 'Nuff said." [The Independent]

BushCo's Wars

• There is a “grave danger that the Iraqi state will break down, possibly in the midst of a full-scale civil war,” U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said yesterday, urging the international community to do more. At least 43 people were killed by bombers and gunmen yesterday in Iraq. [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• Canadian intelligence officials passed false warnings and bad information to American agents about a Muslim Canadian citizen, after which U.S. authorities secretly whisked him to Syria, where he was tortured, a judicial report found Monday.
  
  The report, released in Ottawa, was the result of a 2 1/2-year inquiry that represented one of the first public investigations into mistakes made as part of the United States' "extraordinary rendition" program, which has secretly spirited suspects to foreign countries for interrogation by often brutal methods. [WaPo]
  
  
• Former secretary of state Colin L. Powell said yesterday that he decided to publicly oppose the Bush administration's proposed rules for the treatment of terrorism suspects in part because the plan would add to growing doubts about whether the United States adheres to its own moral code.
  
  "If you just look at how we are perceived in the world and the kind of criticism we have taken over Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and renditions," Powell said in an interview, "whether we believe it or not, people are now starting to question whether we're following our own high standards." [WaPo]

Climate Crisis

• England has become a full degree Celsius warmer since the Beatles started playing - and human activity is the cause, according to research released yesterday.
  
  Since 1960, when John, Paul and George formed their legendary band - Ringo came later - the average temperature in England has undergone a remarkably steep rise, according to the research, released by the UK Met Office. Yet scientists are convinced that the new warmth, which is allowing red wine to be made in Surrey and olives to be grown in Devon, is not part of the climate's natural variability.
  
  Instead, it is part of the global warming being caused by emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from industry and transport. [The Independent]

Domestic Potpourri

• “The Bush administration’s faith-based initiative is reaching only a tiny percentage of the nation’s black churches.” A national survey of 750 black churches found that fewer than 3 percent are participating in the $2 billion/year program. [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• Senator John F. Kerry yesterday called for a new national commitment to reduce the number of abortions, saying that both sides on the abortion debate can reach "common ground" on the sharply divisive cultural issue that was prominent in his defeat in the 2004 presidential election.
  
  In an intimate speech laced with references to his Catholic upbringing, Kerry chastised abortion-rights supporters and anti-abortion activists for the "overly partisan" tone that has polarized the nation. Despite their intense opposition, Kerry said, there are areas of agreement -- such as tax credits for adoptive parents, more government aid for working mothers, and health insurance for everyone.
  
  "Even as a supporter of Roe v. Wade, I am compelled to acknowledge that the language both sides use on this subject can be, unfortunately, misleading and unconstructive," Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, told an audience at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. "Instead of making enemies, we need to make progress." [BoGlobe]

Big Blue Marble

• The Bush administration and big business interests have been accused of undermining efforts to exert financial pressure on the Sudanese government to stop the killing in Darfur.
  
  A bill that passed the US Congress endorsing state legislation to force publicly owned entities to sell off holdings in companies that do substantial business with Sudan, or sell Khartoum weapons, has now been blocked in the Senate, with campaigners blaming the White House. They say the long-delayed draft put forward last week by the Foreign Relations Committee had removed a clause known as Section 11 that would have thrown its weight behind a celebrity-backed campaign requiring publicly owned entities to dump stock. [The Independent]
  
  
• Bush adds to the pressure on Sudan's government by naming a new special envoy: former USAID administrator Andrew Natsios. But China's foreign minister meets with Sudanese president Bashir and says he understands their opposition to UN peacekeepers. [Foreign Policy's Passport]