Bodies of four children found in India

Police in India have recovered the half-burnt bodies of four children from an abandoned mill owned by a ruling party politician. Police said the four corpses, found in Muktsar, about 210 kilometres southwest of Chandigarh, the twin capital of Punjab and Haryana states, could be those of three girls and a boy who were reported missing from a nearby village last November. The unused rice mill belongs to senior Congress party leader Jagmeet Singh Brar, but he said there was no evidence so far to link the politician with the case. Mr Brar said he had no knowledge about the bodies lying in his mill. The discovery follows last month's find of bones of at least 17 people, mostly children, at a house near New Delhi. That discovery sparked criticism of a police force many Indians see as corrupt and ineffectual.

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Let's answer challenge to do better by children

Based on the lusty cheers and whistles in the House chamber Wednesday morning, five interruptions for applause and even a standing ovation, you might have gotten the idea that Iowa Chief Justice Marsha Ternus is running for something. This clearly was not your standard State of the Judiciary speech. The warm greeting no doubt was recognition of a new chief justice, the first woman to hold the job and the first time she delivered an address to the General Assembly. It was more than just a matter of firsts, however: Ternus was interrupted five times by applause because of the content of her speech. She delivered a passionate plea for better treatment of foster children under the jurisdiction of the state and the courts. She was blunt: "Iowans like to say that we put our children first; it's now time to show that we mean it." The court system will do its part.

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Nutrition Studies' Conclusions Tied To Funding Source

Recent analyses have documented bias in pharmaceutical studies funded by industry. Now, an analysis from Children's Hospital Boston finds a similar phenomenon in scientific articles about nutrition, particularly in studies of beverages. The analysis - the first systematic one performed on nutrition studies - found that beverage studies funded solely by industry were four to eight times more likely to have conclusions favorable to sponsors' financial interest than were studies with no industry funding. Findings are published online in the January 9 issue of the journal PLoS Medicine. David Ludwig, MD, PhD, the study's senior author and director of the Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) program at Children's Hospital Boston, believes that bias in nutrition studies may have far greater effects than bias in pharmaceutical studies.

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