Red Bull gives you wings - and heart trouble?

Red Bull may claim to “give you wings” but drinking too much of the popular energy drink may also lead to heart damage, a study suggests.

A study of 30 university students aged between 20 and 24 years old found that drinking just one 250ml sugar-free can of the caffeinated energy drink increased the “stickiness” of the blood and raised the risk of blood clots forming.

Using tests to measure blood pressure and the state of blood vessels around the body, the Australian researchers said that after drinking one can participants had shown a cardiovascular profile similar to that of someone with heart disease.

Last year a research team from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit presented a paper to the American Heart Association suggesting that energy drinks may boost heart rates and blood pressure levels. The results, from a small study, prompted them to warn against consumption by those with cardiovascular problems.

Earlier this year a teenager from Darlington was sent to hospital after drinking eight cans of Red Bull. Paramedics reported that the 15-year-old suffered heart palpitations.

Last year a large study of American college students found that those who drank energy drinks mixed with alcohol during a night out were twice as likely to be injured or otherwise come to harm than those who consumed alcoholic drinks on their own.

More from The Times Online

Obama goes ballistic over Corsi best-seller - Issues blistering 40-page report challenging WND reporter's high-flying, No. 1 exposé

With the wreck of John Kerry's "swiftboated" 2004 campaign in his rearview mirror, Barack Obama and his surrogates are wasting no time mounting a counterattack against WND staff writer and columnist Jerome Corsi, the co-author of the Swift Boat Veteran's for Truth's "Unfit for Command" and the author of current No. 1 New York Times best-seller, "The Obama Nation."

Obama advisers have been tracking Corsi's media appearances, quickly telephoning producers to react to the book's charges, and last night, the Democratic presidential candidate's campaign issued a 40-page response to the book.

Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor accompanied the release with a shot at Corsi, calling him a "discredited liar who is peddling another piece of garbage to continue the Bush-Cheney politics he helped perpetuate four years ago."

"The Obama Nation" is ranked No. 1 among all books at Amazon.com and will debut at No. 1 on the New York Times non-fiction best-seller list next week. The book already has secured the Times' top spot for the following week, as the Democratic National Convention gets under way.

Corsi told WND the campaign has largely chosen to respond to his book with a series of personal attacks.

"Derision and ridicule are the lowest form of argument, suggesting the Obama camp already has lost the debate," he said. "The Obama camp and its supporters appear to be in disarray over the book, responding almost irrationally with an endless string of epithets and insults."

More from WorldNetDaily

Churches ordered closed during Olympics - Pastors forced to sign agreements not to meet for 90 days

An organization founded by a man who escaped from China after being persecuted for his Christian faith says it has uncovered a secret Chinese government document demanding that churches shut their doors for 90 days around the Beijing Olympics.

"Should church members violate these rules they will be subject to the disciplinary actions of the Chinese government," said the report from China Aid Association, an organization dedicated to helping persecuted Christians.

"Pastors were forced to sign a written agreement that they would not participate in religious services while the Olympic Games are taking place in China," the organization said.

China Aid said the document, drafted by Chinese government officials, specifies that the house churches in China "refrain from organizing and joining illegal gatherings and refrain from receiving donations, sermons and preaching from overseas religious organizations and groups that have a purpose."

More from WorldNetDaily

Could Obama strike down all state pro-life laws?

The editor of a pro-life news service says a draft copy of the proposed Democratic Party platform that will be approved later this month in Denver continues the party's historic pro-abortion stance and mirrors Barack Obama's extreme support for abortion.

The proposed Democratic Party platform announces unequivocal support for Roe v. Wade and direct taxpayer funding of abortions. Steven Ertelt, editor of LifeNews.com, obtained the draft platform from a pro-life group that is urging the Democratic Party to moderate its stance on abortion.

Ertelt says the platform draft also expresses support for the so-called "Freedom of Choice Act" -- a bill Senator Obama promised Planned Parenthood last summer would be the first piece of legislation he signs as president. According to Ertelt, the measure would overturn all of the pro-life laws nationwide. "In other words, that piece of legislation would overturn any laws that any state legislature has passed -- for example, prohibiting taxpayer funding of abortion, allowing parents a right to know when their teenage daughters are considering having an abortion, a right to know or informed consent, or any other common-sense limits like partial-abortion bans that we've put on the books. That would overturn all of those laws," he states bluntly.

More from OneNewsNow

Houses For $1: "My 14-Year-Old Son Could Buy a Block of Detroit Property"

Things are looking pretty bleak in parts of Detroit these days. In fact, you can get a house for $1. Yes, that's right. A house.

Even at the low, low price of a double cheeseburger at McDonald's, it took 19 days to find a buyer for a gutted house on Detroit's east side, says the Detroit News. The house in question used to be the nicest house around. After foreclosure, however, vandals stripped the property of everything valuable from the wiring to the kitchen sink.

The home, at 8111 Traverse Street, a few blocks from Detroit City Airport, was the nicest house on the block when it sold for $65,000 in November 2006, said neighbor Carl Upshaw. But the home was foreclosed last summer, and it wasn't long until "the vultures closed in," Upshaw said. "The siding was the first to go. Then they took the fence. Then they broke in and took everything else."
"It about doesn't make sense to put the family out," Upshaw said. "Once people are gone, you're gonna lose the house in this neighborhood."

Empty houses are becoming more and more of a problem in Detroit and other cities hard hit by the foreclosure crisis. Banks are so desperate to rid themselves of these properties that they're willing to pay $10,000 to sell a house for $1.

More from The Consumerist

Muslim father burns Christian daughter alive - Man slices out girl's tongue, ignites her after 'heated debate on religion'

A Saudi Arabian Muslim father cut out his daughter's tongue and lit her on fire upon learning that she had become a Christian.

The child became curious about Jesus Christ after she read Christian material online, the Gulf News reported.

Her father read of her Internet conversation, detached her tongue and burned her to death "following a heated debate on religion," according to an International Christian Concern report.

The father is employed by the muwateen, or Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The muwateen are police tasked by the government with enforcing religious purity. The man has been taken into custody, and his identity has not been released.

More at WorldNetDaily

Don't take your vitamins? Don't say I didn't tell you that you should.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins are reporting what is believed to be the most conclusive evidence to date that inadequate levels of vitamin D, obtained from milk, fortified cereals and exposure to sunlight, lead to substantially increased risk of death. In a study set to appear in the Archives of Internal Medicine online Aug. 11, the Johns Hopkins team analyzed a diverse sample of 13,000 initially healthy men and women participating in an ongoing national health survey and compared the risk of death between those with the lowest blood levels of vitamin D to those with higher amounts. An unhealthy deficiency, experts say, is considered blood levels of 17.8 nanograms per milliliter or lower.

Of the 1,800 study participants known to have died by Dec. 31, 2000, nearly 700 died from some form of heart disease, with 400 of these being deficient in vitamin D. This translates overall to an estimated 26 percent increased risk of any death, though the number of deaths from heart disease alone was not large enough to meet scientific criteria to resolve that it was due to low vitamin D levels.

More from Science Daily

Georgia Under Online Assault

The websites of Georgia's government have been under denial-of-service attacks for weeks, with Russian hackers fingered as the culprits. Those online assaults have only intensified in recent days, as a shooting war between the two countries has broken out.

Galrahn at Information Dissemination says that "Russia appears to have targeted the .ge domain for specific government websites, and are pounding the Georgian military networks, but other websites in Georgia in org, net, and other domains are still up, sporadically." The Washington Postflooding the sites with so much junk Web traffic that they can no longer accommodate legitimate visitors." adds that "the Caucasus Network Tbilisi -- key Georgian commercial Internet servers -- remain under sustained attack from thousands of compromised PCs aimed at

IntelFusion calls it a "full scale cyberwar being conducted by Russia against Georgia." As always, however, its extremely difficult to sort out which hacks are being done with Russian government involvement, which are being done with government wink-and-a-nod, and which have nothing to do with the government whatsoever.

From Wired

Georgia claims Russians have cut country in half

Russian forces seized several towns and a military base deep in western Georgia on Monday, opening a second front in the fighting. Georgia's president said his country had been effectively cut in half with the capture of the main east-west highway near Gori. Fighting also raged Monday around Tskhinvali, the capital of the separatist province of South Ossetia. Russian warplanes launched new air raids across Georgia, with at least one sending screaming civilians running for cover.

The reported capture of the key Georgian city of Gori and the towns of Senaki, Zugdidi and Kurga came despite a top Russian general's claim earlier Monday that Russia had no plans to enter Georgian territory. By taking Gori, which sits on Georgia's only east-west highway, Russia can cut off eastern Georgia from the country's western Black Sea coast.

"I've expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn the bombing outside of South Ossetia," Bush told NBC.

More from Yahoo News

Mexican cartels running pot farms in U.S. national forest

Beyond the towering trees that have stood here for thousands of years, an intense drug war is being waged.

Authorities uncovered more than $1 billion worth of pot plants in Sequoia National Forest this week.

Illegal immigrants connected to Mexico's drug cartels are growing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of marijuana in the heart of one of America's national treasures, authorities say. It's a booming business that, federal officials say, feeds Mexico's most violent drug traffickers.

"These aren't Cheech and Chong plants," said John Walters, director of the National Drug Control Policy. "People who farm now are not doing this for laughs, despite the fact Hollywood still thinks that. They're doing it to make a lot of money."

Walters spoke from a "marijuana garden" tucked deep into the Sequoia National Forest, a two- to four-hour hike from the nearest road, far removed from the giant sequoias the region is best known for.

More from CNN

San Francisco fest features public sex with no arrests

Nude men engaged in multiple instances of public sex on a municipal street while police officers, on foot and bicycle, congregated nearby making no attempt to enforce public indecency regulations, according to a report on the latest homosexual-fest in San Francisco.

The behavior was documented in photographs of an event called "Up Your Alley," which is sponsored by the same group that organizes the city's fall "gay"-fest, the Folsom Street Fair, on which WND has reported.

"Consider how liberal government authorities like Mayor [Gavin] Newsom have corrupted the men in blue by stipulating that police not prosecute public nudity and indecency at homosexual festivals," said a report from Americans for Truth on the graphic activities documented at the event.

More from WorldNetDaily

Random House pulls novel on Islam, fears violence

Publisher Random House has pulled a novel about the Prophet Mohammed's child bride, fearing it could "incite acts of violence."

"The Jewel of Medina," a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones, 46, was due to be published on August 12 by Random House, a unit of Bertelsmann AG, and an eight-city publicity tour had been scheduled, Jones told Reuters on Thursday.

The novel traces the life of A'isha from her engagement to Mohammed, when she was six, until the prophet's death. Jones said that she was shocked to learn in May, that publication would be postponed indefinitely.

"I have deliberately and consciously written respectfully about Islam and Mohammed ... I envisioned that my book would be a bridge-builder," said Jones.

Random House deputy publisher Thomas Perry said in a statement the company received "cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."

More from Reuters

Start of Olympics on 8.8.08 Hardly 'Lucky' for Suffering Christians

8.8.08 will signal the start of the long-awaited 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on Friday with the elaborate opening ceremonies.

The Chinese consider eight a lucky number because in Cantonese it sounds like the word for "get rich" or "prosper."

Many Chinese will celebrate Aug. 8, 2008 as one of the most important dates in Chinese history – the launching of a prestigious event for the entire world to see the "new, open China."

But many Christians are hardly "lucky" this year. The fact is that many Christians have suffered even harsher persecution by the Chinese government due to the glare of the Olympic spotlight. As a result, many have been thrown into prison or transported to areas far away from Beijing and the Games venues. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reported last week that nearly 700 Protestant leaders who are not registered with the government have been placed in custody in the past year.

An estimated 100 million Christians worldwide suffer interrogation, arrest and even death for their faith in Christ, with more millions facing discrimination and alienation.

More from ChristianNewsWire

Saudis to Christians: Get out! - Those accused of worshipping in homes ordered deported

More than a dozen Christians in Saudi Arabia who were accused by government officials of worshipping in their homes have been ordered deported.

According to a report from International Christian Concern, the Christians will be expelled tomorrow for their part in a home worship service in Taif in April.

The deportation conflicts with the message stated just weeks earlier by Saudi King Abdullah, who called for interfaith dialogue and held a summit in Spain with a representatives from several major religions.

"Deporting Christians for worshipping in their private homes shows that King Abdullah's speech is mere rhetoric and his country is deceiving the international community about their desire for change and reconciliation," said Jeff King, the president of ICC.

More from WorldNetDaily

More Obama News

Here are some Obama stories that are not your typical headlines, but you might want to check them out, as they offer things you may not hear on CNN, CBS, ect...

Obama site: Jews must be 'burned' -
Anti-Semites congregate on candidate's official presidential campaign blog

Arabs deny Obama camp returned illegal donations
Candidate's staffers insist Gaza brothers refunded, but men say, 'We did not receive any money back'

Almost half polled say 'enough already' from Obama

Anti-Obama Bloggers Say They Were Silenced

Has Obama prepped world for the Antichrist?

Interesting Commentary by Hal Lindsey. Worth some consideration.

From WorldNetDaily

Things are going to be a much DARKER and much SLOWER in Spain

Spain has seen the future and it is slow, dim and uncomfortable. A swingeing series of energy-saving measures announced by the Spanish government may be a foretaste of the kind of policies which will be forced upon an energy-hungry industrial world in the coming decades.

To protests from motorists and mockery in parts of the press, the Socialist government plans to cut motorway speed limits to 50mph and town speeds to 25mph. New austerity rules will be imposed on the air conditioning and heating of all public buildings. Street-lighting will be cut by half.

The energy shock caused by the boom in oil prices in the past year has hit Spain especially hard. Spain has scant energy resources of its own and is more dependent on fossil fuels for its energy needs – 84 per cent – than any other European Union country.

More at The Independent

Oregon Health Plan - we wont pay for your chemotherapy, but we will cover the costs of your assisted suicide!

Opponents of physician-assisted suicide are fired up this summer, and rightfully so, over an ethically questionable provision of the Oregon Health Plan. The conflict came to light in a recent report in The Register-Guard of Eugene. The newspaper described the sad plight of Barbara Wagner, a 64-year-old Springfield woman with lung cancer. After her oncologist prescribed a cancer drug that would cost $4,000 a month, the newspaper reported, “Wagner was notified that the Oregon Health Plan wouldn’t cover the treatment, but that it would cover palliative, or comfort, care, including, if she chose, doctor-assisted suicide.”

That presents an unacceptable conflict. The state health program should not be in the position of denying chemotherapy to terminally ill patients while offering to pay the cost of helping them die.

More from Dvorak.org

Study: Trade deficit with China cost 2.3M US jobs

China's soaring trade deficit with the U.S. cost Americans 2.3 million jobs and $19.4 billion in lost wages between 2001 and 2007, according to an Economic Policy Institute study released Wednesday.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing blamed unfair trade policies for encouraging U.S. companies to ship jobs to China, where labor is cheaper and its currency undervalued.

"Our flawed trade relationship with China is destroying good jobs," executive director Scott Paul said in a prepared statement.

Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau and United States International Trade Commission, the Washington-based think tank said high-tech workers were hit especially hard after China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Imports of computers and electronic parts accounted for nearly half of the $178 billion increase in the trade deficit during that time period.

It also blamed the trade imbalance for pushing down wages an average of $8,146.

Overall, California suffered the most losses, with 325,800 fewer jobs. It was followed by Texas at 202,900, New York at 127,000, Illinois at 102,800 and Ohio at 102,700.

More from Buisness Week

Restaurant Chains Close as Diners Reduce Spending

Several national restaurant chains were shuttered on Tuesday, possibly offering an early taste of what’s in store this year for businesses that depend on free-spending consumers whose budgets are now being squeezed.

The parent company of Bennigan’s, an Irish-themed bar and grill with about 200 sites across the country, filed for bankruptcy, a move that will put hundreds of employees out of work and leave many landlords with empty retail space during a painful time in the real estate market.

A sister brand, Steak & Ale, will also close. Franchise units of Bennigan’s will remain open for now, a spokeswoman, Leah Templeton, wrote in an e-mail message.

The restaurants are the latest casualties in the so-called casual dining sector, considered a cut above fast food. Soaring food costs and a surfeit of locations have hurt the companies’ bottom lines just as Americans are choosing to take more meals at home.

The closings are “something we’re going to see more of over the next 6 to 12 months,” said Amy Greene, a director at Avondale Partners who tracks the restaurant industry.

More from The New York Times

Prayer targets world's 3rd largest mission field – America

A blanket of prayer for America is being proposed for Sept. 11, 2008, the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, because it no longer is the Christian nation it once was, according to a coalition of organizations.

"America used to send out missionaries," Matti Stevenson, a spokeswoman for the effort, told WND. "Now it's the third-largest mission field itself. People from Africa are coming to help us. What does that say?

"It just takes my breath away," she said.

The project is called "Cry Out America" and intends to have a prayer vigil in every county – all 3,141 of them – on that day. It's being assembled by the Awakening America Alliance, a non-partisan, broad coalition of Christian leaders, denominations, churches, ministries and others.

"America is a nation in great spiritual decline evidenced by current statistics which show that only 17 percent of Americans attend church on any given Sunday and that America is the third largest mission field in the world," the organization said.

More from WorldNetDaily

No Bomb Sniffing Dogs Please, We Don't Want to Offend the Jihadist

Bomb sniffing dogs used by British Transit Police in the U.K. are no longer allowed to come in contact with Muslims. Why? It's against their religion of course. In the Muslim faith, dogs are deemed to be spiritually “unclean”.

Studies by Islamic Jihadist have shown that actually wearing suicide vests renders the devices more effective in lieu of checking them with the rest of their luggage. Nonetheless, a report for the Transport Department has stated that the animals should only touch passengers’ luggage because it is considered “more acceptable”.

More From On The wRite Side

Wikipedia publishes suicide instructions - From beheading to electrocution, site becomes manual to kill self

Wikipedia, the online "free encyclopedia" written and edited by its users, now includes dozens of detailed suicide methods with descriptions of ways in which people can mutilate or kill themselves.

The following are among such techniques described in vivid detail: beheading, cutting oneself, drowning, suffocation, electrocution, use of explosives, hanging, vehicular impact, jumping from bridges and towers, drug abuse, inhaling and ingesting poisons, suicide by fire, stabbing, shooting, starvation and suicide attack.

When WND contacted a representative of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, she said, "A site detailing the different methods someone could use to kill themselves could definitely be harmful to the public."

The researchers published their findings in an April 12, 2008, article titled, "Suicide and the Internet." The study found, "The top four sites provided not only information but also evaluation of methods of suicide. This included, for instance, detailed information about speed, certainty, and the likely amount of pain associated with a method."

Of the three most frequently appearing websites, one is openly satanic and all are pro-suicide, the study reported. "Wikipedia was the fourth most frequently occurring site."

More from WorldNetDaily

S&P: Home prices drop by record 15.8 pct. in May

Home prices tumbled by the steepest rate ever in May, according to a closely watched housing index released Tuesday, as the housing slump deepened nationwide.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city index dropped by 15.8 percent in May compared with a year ago, a record decline since its inception in 2000. The 10-city index plunged 16.9 percent, its biggest decline in its 21-year history.

More from Yahoo News

Toxic Chemicals Found In Common Scented Laundry Products, Air Fresheners

A University of Washington study of top-selling laundry products and air fresheners found the products emitted dozens of different chemicals. All six products tested gave off at least one chemical regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal laws, but none of those chemicals was listed on the product labels.

"I was surprised by both the number and the potential toxicity of the chemicals that were found," Steinemann said. Chemicals included acetone, the active ingredient in paint thinner and nail-polish remover; limonene, a molecule with a citrus scent; and acetaldehyde, chloromethane and 1,4-dioxane.

"Nearly 100 volatile organic compounds were emitted from these six products, and none were listed on any product label. Plus, five of the six products emitted one or more carcinogenic 'hazardous air pollutants,' which are considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to have no safe exposure level," Steinemann said.

More from Science Daily

Teen & Adult Drug Use Statistics that will blow your mind

Drug use (and abuse) over the course of the twentieth century has fluctuated significantly. As new drugs have been introduced into the public, popularity has shifted between a number of legal and illegal substances. With these popularity shifts have come changes in social acceptance, legal tolerance, and use rates among the public.

Drugs Over the Decades

Dozens of illicit substances are used daily around the nation. 5 of these substances have emerged as the most popular (and therefore most abused) over the years. Looking at these drugs based on their number of users gives a clear picture of the magnitude of national popularity, as well as a clear snapshot of the past four decades of use.

More from Vista Bay

More than 1,000 fentanyl deaths tracked to Mexican drug operation

More than 1,000 deaths linked to the painkiller fentanyl were reported nationally during a two-year span, traced to a drug operation in Mexico, according to a report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The source was the same one identified in a 2007 Free Press investigation into the deadly cocktail of heroin and fentanyl that plagued metro Detroit. The CDC came to Detroit in 2006, as well as other major cities, as fentanyl-related deaths were peaking.

Fentanyl is used for pain management in severe cases, but was often mixed with heroin during the outbreak.

There likely were more fentanyl-related deaths, Schmidt noted, but not every hospital would test for fentanyl.

More from Freep.com

Pickens: Oil at $300 a barrel? Maybe

Oil prices could hit $300 a barrel if the United States does not take drastic action to reduce its heavy dependence on foreign oil, but neither of the top presidential candidates is addressing the crisis, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens said Monday.

To prevent economic bankruptcy as a result of sending $700 billion a year overseas to unstable oil producers in the Middle East and Africa, the nation needs to mobilize behind a plan to shift toward domestic energy sources such as natural gas, wind and solar power, he told reporters and editors of The Washington Times.

"We are getting in trouble fast" and the economy is "already in the tank" because the nation is importing 70 percent of the fuel it needs each day, he said.

"The price of oil will be $300 a barrel if you sit here and let it go" for another 10 years, said Mr. Pickens, chairman and chief executive officer of BP Capital. "We have no control over the price of gasoline and diesel. Whatever they're going to stick us with, we'll pay it." Oil closed Monday at $131.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

More from The Washington Post

Want to gain weight? Here's 8 great ways to do it.

First, I have a confession: I used to never care about what I ate. Not only that, I also loved take-out foods—mostly because of my crazy work schedule. And oh, I wasn’t the most athletic guy. In fact, I didn’t start exercising until I was in my thirties, when suddenly I realized that I had to do something to keep my body healthy.

Does this sound familiar? Honestly, it seems like we’ve all got some pounds we could shed—and we’re in big company (yes, pun intended). But seriously, this is no joking matter: the statistics about obesity in this country are far from funny. Can you believe that by 2010, three-quarters of the U.S. population will be overweight? And if that didn’t shock you, check this out: statistics show that 80% of our kids are suffering from weight-related afflictions, like arthritis? The consequences of extra weight are devastating. So here’s my question: how did we get here?

The Big 8 from Dr. Manny

WHY ARE THE NETWORK NEWS ANCHORS GOING TO IRAQ WITH OBAMA?

Could There be Bias in the Media? Say it Ain't So!

More from Fox News