Ohio dairy industry wants European cheeses

Ohio dairy industry wants European cheeses

COLUBMUS

Ohio cheese producers are pushing back against an EU proposal to limit the use of European names such as Parmesan, feta and Gorgonzola on American-made cheeses.

The Ohio Dairy Producers Association, which represents Ohio’s $1 billion dairy industry, believes stripping the names from its products could hit the industry hard, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

The EU’s argument is that American-made cheeses pale compared with the originals and cut into sales and identity of authentic European varieties.

Study to test ‘chocolate’ pills for heart health

It won’t be nearly as much fun as eating candy bars, but a big study is being launched to see if pills containing the nutrients in dark chocolate can help prevent heart attacks and strokes

The pills are so packed with nutrients that you’d have to eat a gazillion candy bars to get the amount being tested in this study, which will enroll 18,000 men and women nationwide.

The study will be the first large test of cocoa flavanols, which in previous smaller studies improved blood pressure, cholesterol, the body’s use of insulin, artery health and other heart-related factors.

A second part of the study will test multivitamins to help prevent cancer. Earlier research suggested this benefit but involved just older, unusually healthy men.

16 killed in stampedes for jobs in Nigeria

ABUJA, NIGERIA

At least 16 people were killed in stampedes for government jobs in Nigeria when hundreds of thousands were invited to apply for fewer than 5,000 positions, officials and activists said Sunday. Interior Minister Abba Moro held the applicants responsible, saying they “lost their lives through their impatience.” Activists blamed his ministry and called for him to be fired. Emergency officials said the death toll could rise.

Nigerians are desperate for work, with official statistics putting the number of unemployed at nearly 41 million of the 170 million population.

16,000 detained in Egypt

CAIRO

Egypt’s crackdown on Islamists has jailed 16,000 people over the past eight months in the country’s biggest round-up in nearly two decades, according to previously unreleased figures from officials. Rights activists say reports of abuses in prisons are mounting, with prisoners describing systematic beatings and miserable conditions for dozens packed into tiny cells.

The Egyptian government has not released official numbers for those arrested in the sweeps since the military ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July. But four senior officials — two from the Interior Ministry and two from the military — gave The Associated Press a count of 16,000, including about 3,000 top- or mid-level members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.

The count, which is consistent with recent estimates by human rights groups, was based on a tally kept by the Interior Ministry to which the military also has access. It includes hundreds of women and minors, though the officials could not give exact figures.

Army ousts rebels

beirut

With rebels fleeing into neighboring Lebanon, Syrian government troops and Hezbollah fighters captured a strategic town near the frontier Sunday, ousting opposition fighters from their last stronghold in the vital border area. Yabroud was a major smuggling hub for the rebels trying to overthrow President Bashar Assad. The town’s fall is the latest in a string of strategic gains by Assad’s forces that have consolidated authority in the past months in Syria’s major cities, including the capital, Damascus.

Associated Press