Beijing will start a daily report mechanism on food safety during the “Good Luck Beijing” International tournaments officially to kick off on Aug 8, a test run for a food safety monitoring system designed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Sources with the Beijing Municipal Food Safety Office said that Beijing is going to share this system with all other cities hosting the Olympic Games including Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang, Qingdao and Qinhuangdao.
The system will monitor 10 types of information including production, processing, sale and cooking of food.
Point Source

Norway’s revived electric carmaker, now called “Think Global,” is raising more capital with the goal of producing 10,000 cars a year by 2009. Now Jan-Olaf Willums, chief executive of Think Global, appears to have some solid investors behind him. The firm started rolling again earlier this year, with a line-up including retailing tycoon Stein-Erik Hagen, hotel developer Petter Stordalen and shipping heir Petter Sundt. The goal is to be the world’s leading electric carmaker. Willums said Think needs to produce 10,000 cars a year to be profitable, and will likely make some of the cars overseas. “England, the US, Switzerland and the Netherlands are possible production sites,” he said.
Point Source

Current APA policy stipulates that no therapy should occur without “informed consent” of a gay or lesbian client. Jason Cianciotto of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said he hoped the APA would declare that no young person could ever be deemed to have given informed consent, and thus no reparative therapy would be approved for minors.
The largest ministry that does counsel gays to change their sexual orientation is Exodus International. Its president, Alan Chambers — who says prayer and therapy enabled him to move away from homosexuality — is among those apprehensive of the APA review. “I had hoped for more diversity on that panel,” Chambers said. “I see a lot of people who represent the other side — who don’t believe that people like me have a right to self-determination.”
Check Our Sources

Hitchens, when he runs up against the authentic religious life, withers. He tries vainly to deny its existence, since its recognition punctures his pronouncement that “religion teaches people to be extremely self-centered and conceited.” He writes of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that “in no real as opposed to nominal sense, then, was he a Christian.” He disparages the faith of Abraham Lincoln and insists that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor put to death by the Nazis for resistance, was the product of a religious belief that had “mutated into an admirable but nebulous humanism.”
Check Our Sources

Pope Benedict recently addressed all young people saying “I have noticed that against the tide of secularism many young people are rediscovering the satisfying quest for authentic beauty, goodness and truth. Through your witness you help them in their search for the Spirit of God.”
Check Our Sources

Redeemed! 10 Ways to Get Out of the Gay Life, If You Want Out
Although I have lived as a lesbian for my entire adult life, it is without a doubt my soul’s purpose to use my gifts to LOVINGLY share the truth about how we got here: how we came to be gay or lesbian, how we came to enjoy our ‘lifestyle’ and how we came to believe that this was OK with God. [Romans 1:21-28]
Many argue that each individual should determine for themselves what God intends for him or her. This would indicate that we each have a separate set of biblical rules to live by. This is untrue. If you are ready for change and willing to open yourself to the truth, God’s love can bring your current belief system in line with His Word. Jesus will cleanse and forgive all confessed sin from a willing heart. Homosexuality is only one of them. It is no greater sin than any of the others, but it is sin.
By now you’re asking, ‘Has she lost her mind? My answer is NO. I didn’t lose it, I gave it away! In fact, I traded it in for a new one! [Romans 12:1-2]
Check Our Sources

Public Divided on “Pro-Choice” vs. “Pro-Life” Abortion Labels
When it comes to Americans’ specific attitudes about the legality of abortion, public opinion is somewhat more conservative than its attachment to these labels would suggest. Nearly 6 in 10 Americans (58%) think abortion should either be limited to only a few circumstances or illegal in all circumstances. Just 4 in 10 (41%) think it should be legal in all or most circumstances.
Check Our Sources

Structures of social oppression, actual or perceived, are argued by many to be among the causes of war and other violent conflict. Such conflict also has obvious effects on social structure and on the possibility of attaining justice. Conversely, one cannot attempt to evaluate the ethical implications of violence, whether it be war, revolution, or individual conflict, without considering the consequences it has for social and political structure. Any adequate understanding of the virtues of justice must at least outline the conditions under which people ought to be free from violence and war.
Point Source

Well, when Jesus said, “Love your enemies (Matt. 5:44),” I really think he meant, “Don’t kill ’em!” And when he said, “Blessed are those who work for peace (Matt. 5:9),” that sounds to me like “Study war no more (Isaiah 2:4).” I’d say everything Jesus taught, and how “God in flesh” lived is 180 degrees opposite of what is done in making war (Dale Aukerman). Oh, fighting to kill is not God’s way, ‘cause God’s way is love; (David Radcliff) fighting to kill is not God’s way, ‘cause God’s way is love.
Point Source

Peace is about having ‘social conversation’ – engaging with others in a way that affirms the mutuality in relationships and asks “How can we best live in relation to one another?”. Whether we ask the question in the context of relations between individuals, communities or nation states is irrelevant; what matters is that we ask it.
Having that ‘social conversation’ and seeking peace in our relationships does not however require us to shy away from conflict; rather it requires us to find creative ways of ‘doing’ conflict. For example, in a dispute with a neighbour, we may agree to ‘keep the peace’ but if we fail to address the underlying issues that caused the dispute in the first place, it is likely the issue will re-emerge in the future. On the other hand, if we engage with the issue and create a space where each party can be listened to and can themselves listen – in a mutually respecting and affirming manner – we are more likely to resolve the issue, and better able to understand the other perspective, thus creating peace in the long term.
In practice, a commitment to peace means being open to and respectful of others in all aspects: in the way we use language, the way we express our feelings, the way we include others. When we find ourselves in difficult situations, one way of doing this might be to ask ourselves “What is the most truthful and loving thing I can do?”.
Point Source