Hopefully this is the truth and they will pull out and leave, but i have a feeling it is not over by a long shot.
Russia says it will pull out of Georgia on Monday
GORI, Georgia (AP) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced that Russian troops will begin pulling back from Georgia on Monday as Western leaders pushed for a swift end to the stranglehold that the Russian military has exerted for days on its small southern neighbor.
Medvedev suggested that Russian forces could remain in separatist South Ossetia, the focus of the conflict. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said his country will not give up that breakaway region or another separatist province, Abkhazia.
"Georgia will never give up a square kilometer of its territory," Saakashvili told a news conference alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the the latest Western leader to visit Tbilisi and offer support for a country at the center of deepening tensions between Russia and the West.
"I expect a very fast, very prompt withdrawal of Russian troops out of Georgia," Merkel said in a courtyard at Saakashvili's official residence. "This is an urgent matter."
As she spoke, Russian tanks and troops continued to roam freely across a wide swath of Georgia and desperate Georgian refugees in Gori were seen shoving and shouting in an attempt to get bread.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Washington Moscow Turkey Soviet Union Russians Kremlin President Nicolas Sarkozy Angela Merkel Black Sea South Ossetia Tbilisi Abkhazia Georgians Gori Medvedev Saakashvili Poti Senaki Inguri River
Saakashvili alleged that Russian forces, far from withdrawing, had moved closer to the capital Saturday and — some of his trademark bluster still intact — vowed to defend Tbilisi if necessary. He also accused Russia of ethnic cleansing and said Georgia would not accept a future presence of Russian peacekeepers.
Medvedev told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Russian forces would begin their withdrawal Monday, moving toward South Ossetia and a security zone that roughly coincides with its borders, according to the Kremlin.
But he stopped short of promising they would return to Russia, suggesting that Russia could maintain a sizable force in South Ossetia. That would likely fuel fears that Russia could seek to annex the region, which — like Abkhazia — broke from government control in the 1990s and has declared independence.
Sarkozy warned Medvedev on the phone Sunday that Russia would face "serious consequences" if it did not begin the pullout — a sentiment echoed in Washington.
"I hope this time he'll keep his word," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after Medvedev's statement.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Russia was showing signs of returning to its authoritarian past — a development that will require the U.S. to re-evaluate the strategic relationship between the superpowers.
RUSSIA'S FUTURE:Officials worry Russia returning to authoritarian past
Georgia, bordering the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Under Saakashvili, Georgia has sought NATO membership and has emerged as a proxy for conflict between an emboldened Russia and the West.
The EU-backed cease-fire agreement calls for Georgian and Russian troops to withdraw to the positions they held before fighting broke out Aug. 7.
Russian troops still have a stranglehold on Georgia because they control the main highway running through the country and surround the central strategic city of Gori, the western city of Senaki and the Senaki air base.
Russian troops were entrenched on a hill after building ramparts around tanks and posting sentries near Igoeti, a central Georgia town only 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tbilisi.
There were several Russian checkpoints Sunday on the road between Igoeti and Gori, a central city not far from South Ossetia. Some armored vehicles stood off the side of the road, camouflaged with cut branches.
There were a few military vehicles but no longer any tanks at the checkpoint at the entrance to Gori, less fortified than in previous days.
In Gori itself, there was a light presence of Russian troops and a few tanks. Virtually all shops were closed and the streets almost empty, save for clusters of people, many from outlying villages, who gathered around aid vehicles and a basement bakery.
People shouted and shoved as they tried to grab loaves of bread and boxes. A few women appeared hysterical at the shifting nature of the food distribution from handouts to a registration system.
The Russians also controlled the Black Sea port city of Poti and the road north to Abkhazia.
Georgia's Foreign Ministry accused Russian army units and separatist fighters in Abkhazia of taking over 13 villages and the Inguri hydropower plant, shifting the border of the Black Sea province toward the Inguri River. Russia confirmed Sunday that its peacekeepers were in control of the western power plant.
The villages and plant are in a U.N.-established buffer zone on Abkhazia's edge, and it appeared the separatists were bolstering their control over the zone after forcing Georgians out of their last stronghold in Abkhazia last week.
"No matter what happens, we will never reconcile with the fact of annexation or indeed separation of parts of territory from Georgia; with the attempt to legalize ethnic cleansing; and with the attempts to bring Georgia to its knees and undermine our democratic system," Saakashvili said.
The West agrees that Georgia must not be broken up divided, Merkel said.
"Georgia is a sovereign state and the territorial integrity of the state must be provided for," she said.
She stressed German support for Georgia's NATO aspirations but said she did not know when that would happen. Merkel also suggested NATO could help rebuild the tattered Georgian military.
NATO offered Georgia assurance in April that it would eventually join NATO, but declined to offer it a blueprint for membership, in part because of fears in Germany and other European nations of angering Russia, a major EU energy supplier.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that Georgia could "forget about" getting the two regions back. On Saturday, he said that Russia will boost its peacekeeping force in South Ossetia and will not withdraw its other troops until further security measures are taken.
In Tbilisi, the faithful went to church Sunday, praying and lighting candles in the city's Holy Trinity Cathedral, a Georgian Orthodox church.
"I wish peace for my country and for our children. We do not want to live in fear," resident Ia Kvirkvelia told an AP television news crew.
A large anti-Russian banner hung Sunday in front of the Parliament building in central Tbilisi: "No war, Russia go home."
In Italy, Pope Benedict XVI called for the immediate creation of a humanitarian corridor to speed aid to refugees and for all sides to respect the rights of ethnic minorities.
The conflict erupted after Georgia launched a massive barrage Aug. 7 to try to take control of South Ossetia. The Russian army quickly overwhelmed its neighbor's forces and drove deep into Georgia, raising fears that of a long-term Russian occupation.
Russia views the growing relationship between the U.S. and Georgia as an encroachment on its traditional sphere of influence. The fighting came amid U.S. efforts to close a deal on a missile shield based in former Soviet satellites in Europe.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-08-17-russia-withdrawal_N.htm

There is a craze going on in Europe, (esp France). Electric bikes might catch on over here if the gas prices continue to go up. they are headed down but the do have a purpose, so here is a shoppers guide if you interested.

Electric bikes: A shopper's guide August 15, 2008 - 1:37pm
By The Associated Press
(AP) - Electric bikes range in price from a couple hundred dollars to several thousand. The types that are available vary depending on the country. Some models available in the U.S. and France:
_ New York-based NYCeWheels sells a variety of bikes, including the Rayos, which retails for $1,099. The eight-speed mountain bike uses a lead-acid battery system and is a bit bulkier than some models, but it's relatively inexpensive.
_ IZIP's Mountain Trailz model sells for $369 on Amazon.com and has a 450-watt motor with a lead-acid battery. It can go up to 22 miles on a charge with a top speed of 18 mph.
_ The Xootr Swift folding electric bike starts at $1,950 with a 250-watt nickel-metal hydride battery, or $2,525 with a 350-watt lithium-ion battery. Many urban commuters prefer folding bikes because they fit easily on subways and buses.
_ EZee's Chopper, a compact electric bike that rides low to the ground, features a 350-watt motor and a lithium-ion battery system for $1,800.
_ Ultra Motor's $2,500 A2B has a 500-watt motor powered by lithium-ion batteries. It can go up to 20 miles at 20 mph without pedaling.
_ The ETRACE power-assisted bicycle retails in France for 495 euros ($770). It is equipped with six gears, a lead battery and claims to have a range of 35 to 40 kilometers (22 to 25 miles).
_ Paris store To Diffusion offers its own custom-made-in-China electric bike, the Mobilec, which retails at 890 euros ($1,400) and will go 60 kilometers (37 miles) without recharging.
_ The Sparta ION series from Dutch bike maker Accell Group look like regular bikes. The battery is incorporated into the bike's frame and the motor is attached to the back wheel. A removable control screen prevents the bike from starting when the screen is not attached. It costs around 2,000 euros ($3,100).
_ Another option is to add a motor and battery to a regular bike. EZee offers a do-it-yourself conversion kit for $1,299 that includes a motor, charger, battery, controller, throttle, dash panel and other components necessary to equip your own bike or tricycle.
http://wtop.com/?nid=773&sid=1460658

This is a follow up on an story out of San Fransisco, about the illegal immigrant doing one of those jobs that Americans just won't do or don't like to do, killing other Americans.
Records obtained on illegal alien suspect in triple-murder caseChad Groening - OneNewsNow - 8/14/2008 7:40:00 AM
A public-interest group has obtained some of the arrest and booking records it requested on an illegal immigrant who is charged with a triple murder in San Francisco.
Edwin Ramos has been charged with gunning down Tony Bologna and his two sons with an AK-47 assault rifle following a minor traffic incident on June 22. Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch says his group obtained records on the case from the San Francisco Police Department pursuant to the provisions of the California Public Records Act. Those records, says Fitton, were quite revealing.
"[Ramos] is documented as being an active member of MS-13, which is an El Salvadorian street gang," explains Fitton. "[The gang is] largely illegal alien-based -- and these records also show that he is not a U.S. citizen."
Fitton says that fact alone should have been enough to have Ramos deported from the country had local authorities been allowed to notify immigration officials. But due to San Francisco's sanctuary policy, said the Judicial Watch spokesman, Ramos was allowed to remain at-large and in a position to allegedly commit a triple murder. Fitton believes the crime may compel the city to abandon its sanctuary policy.
Judicial Watch also has an ongoing taxpayer lawsuit against the city of San Francisco in relation to its sanctuary city status. The government watchdog group has launced a new website dedicated to fighting sanctuary policies across the U.S. that favor illegal immigrants.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=210816

Give me a break, we are in the age of the thought police and it is their thought they want to police. The break into a mans home and keep him out of his house three days and can not come up with enough evidence to charge him? Give me a break. Did i mention no warrant?

Saturday, August 9, 2008 Chemist allowed to go home, sans his labNo extreme hazards found in basement workshop that alarmed authorities
By Priyanka Dayal TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
MARLBORO— Victor Deeb, the retired chemist who stored hundreds of chemicals in his house, was allowed to return home yesterday after authorities spent three days dismantling his basement laboratory. None of the materials found at 81 Fremont St. posed a radiological or biological risk, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. No mercury or poison was found. Some of the compounds are potentially explosive, but no more dangerous than typical household cleaning products. All potentially hazardous materials were removed from the house, which the Deebs have owned since 1988. A cleanup company, contracted by DEP, is continuing to test the chemicals in a lab.
“Ultimately, they will be disposed of,” said DEP spokesman Joseph M. Ferson, who said the city’s Department of Public Works is making sure nothing seeped into the sewer lines. Mr. Deeb declined to comment yesterday. Authorities say he has patents pending and had been using his basement as a science lab to conduct experiments, possibly for many years. Firefighters found more than 1,500 vials, jars, cans, bottles and boxes in the basement Tuesday afternoon, after they responded to an unrelated fire in an air conditioner on the second floor of the home. Vessels of chemicals were all over the furniture and the floor, authorities said. The ensuing investigation involved a state hazardous materials team, fire and police officials, health officials, environmental officials and code enforcement officials. The Deebs were told to stay in a hotel while the slew of officials investigated and emptied the basement. Pamela A. Wilderman, Marlboro’s code enforcement officer, said Mr. Deeb was doing scientific research and development in a residential area, which is a violation of zoning laws. “It is a residential home in a residential neighborhood,” she said. “This is Mr. Deeb’s hobby. He’s still got bunches of ideas. I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a customary home occupation. … There are regulations about how much you’re supposed to have, how it’s detained, how it’s disposed of.” Mr. Deeb’s home lab likely violated the regulations of many state and local departments, although officials have not yet announced any penalties. “He’s been very cooperative,” Ms. Wilderman said. “I won’t be citing him for anything right at this moment.”
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1054543635443227197&postID=158131229315775220

Guess what? Military funds mind-reading science August 15, 2008 - 9:09pm By ALICIA CHANG AP Science Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) - Here's a mind-bending idea: The U.S. military is paying scientists to study ways to read people's thoughts. The hope is that the research could someday lead to a gadget capable of translating the thoughts of soldiers who suffered brain injuries in combat or even stroke patients in hospitals. But the research also raises concerns that such mind-reading technology could be used to interrogate the enemy. Armed with a $4 million grant from the Army, scientists are studying brain signals to try to decipher what a person is thinking and to whom the person wants to direct the message. The project is a collaboration among researchers at the University of California, Irvine; Carnegie Mellon University; and the University of Maryland. The scientists use brain wave-reading technology known as electroencephalography, or EEG, which measures the brain's electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp. It works like this: Volunteers wear an electrode cap and are asked to think of a word chosen by the researchers, who then analyze the brain activity. In the future, scientists hope to develop thought-recognition software that would allow a computer to speak or type out a person's thought. "To have a person think in a free manner and then figure out what that is, we're years away from that," said lead researcher Michael D'Zmura, who heads UC Irvine's cognitive sciences department. D'Zmura said such a system would require extensive training by people trying to send a message and dismisses the notion that thoughts can be forced out. "This will never be used in a way without somebody's real, active cooperation," he said. John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Virginia-based defense research firm, said the technology is still too nascent to be of practical use for the military. "They're still in the proof of principle stage," Pike said. A message left with the Army was not immediately returned Friday. ___ On the Net: UC Irvine: http://www.uci.edu/ http://www.wtop.com/?nid=220&sid=1460904

FBI used aggressive tactics in anthrax probe August 5, 2008 - 7:41pm
WASHINGTON (AP) - Before killing himself last week, Army scientist Bruce Ivins told friends that government agents had stalked him and his family for months, offered his son $2.5 million to rat him out and tried to turn his hospitalized daughter against him with photographs of dead anthrax victims.
The pressure on Ivins was extreme, a high-risk strategy that has failed the FBI before. The government was determined to find the villain in the 2001 anthrax attacks; it was too many years without a solution to the case that shocked and terrified a post-9/11 nation.
The last thing the FBI needed was another embarrassment. Overreaching damaged the FBI's reputation in the high-profile investigations: the Centennial Olympic Park bombing probe that falsely accused Richard Jewell; the theft of nuclear secrets and botched prosecution of scientist Wen Ho Lee; and, in this same anthrax probe, the smearing of an innocent man - Ivins' colleague Steven Hatfill.
In the current case, Ivins complained privately that FBI agents had offered his son, Andy, $2.5 million, plus "the sports car of his choice" late last year if he would turn over evidence implicating his father in the anthrax attacks, according to a former U.S. scientist who described himself as a friend of Ivins.
Ivins also said the FBI confronted Ivins' daughter, Amanda, with photographs of victims of the anthrax attacks and told her, "This is what your father did," according to the scientist, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because their conversation was confidential.
The scientist said Ivins was angered by the FBI's alleged actions, which he said included following Ivins' family on shopping trips.
Washington attorney Barry Coburn, who represents Amanda Ivins, declined to comment on the investigation. An attorney for Andy Ivins also declined to comment.
The FBI declined to describe its investigative techniques of Ivins.
FBI official John Miller said that "what we have seen over the past few days has been a mix of improper disclosures of partial information mixed with inaccurate information and then drawn into unfounded conclusions. None of that serves the victims, their families or the public."
The FBI "always moves aggressively to get to the bottom of the facts, but that does not include mistreatment of anybody and I don't know of any case where that's happened," said former FBI deputy director Weldon Kennedy, who was with the bureau for 34 years. "That doesn't mean that from time to time people don't make mistakes," he added.
Dr. W. Russell Byrne, a friend and former supervisor of Ivins at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., said he had heard from other Ivins associates that investigators were going after Ivins' daughter. But Byrne said those conversations were always short because people were afraid to talk.
"The FBI had asked everybody to sign these nondisclosure things," Byrne said. "They didn't want to run afoul of the FBI."
Byrne, who retired from the lab four years ago, said FBI agents interviewed him seven to 12 times since the investigation began - and he got off easy.
"I think I'm the only person at USAMRIID who didn't get polygraphed," he said.
Byrne said he was told by people who had recently worked with Ivins that the investigation had taken an emotional toll on the researcher. "One person said he'd sit at his desk and weep," he said.
Questions about the FBI's conduct come as the government takes steps that could signal an end to its investigation. On Wednesday, FBI officials plan to begin briefing family members of victims in the 2001 attacks.
The government is expected to declare the case solved but will keep it open for now, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. Several legal and investigatory matters need to be wrapped up before the case can officially be closed, they said.
Some questions may be answered when documents related to the case are released, as soon as Wednesday. For others, the answers may be incomplete, even bizarre. Some may simply never be answered.
It is unclear how the FBI eliminated as suspects others in the lab who had access to the anthrax. It's not clear what, if any, evidence bolsters the theory that the attacks may have been a twisted effort to test a cure for the toxin. Investigators also can't place Ivins in Princeton, N.J., when the letters were mailed from a mailbox there.
Richard Schuler, attorney for anthrax victim Robert Stevens' widow, Maureen Stevens, said his client will attend Wednesday's FBI briefing with a list of questions.
"No. 1 is, 'Did Bruce Ivins mail the anthrax that killed Robert Stevens?'" Schuler said, adding, "I've got healthy skepticism."
Critics of the bureau in and out of government say that in major cases, like the anthrax investigation, it can be difficult for the bureau to stop once it embarks on a single-minded pursuit of a suspect, with any internal dissenters shut out as disloyal subordinates.
Before the FBI focused on Ivins, its sights were set on Hatfill, whose career as a bioscientist was ruined after then-Attorney General John Ashcroft named him a "person of interest" in the probe.
Hatfill sued the agency, which recently agreed to pay Hatfill nearly $6 million to settle the lawsuit.
Complaints that the FBI behaved too aggressively conflict with its straight-laced, crime-fighting image of starched agents hunting terrorists.
During its focus on Hatfill, the FBI conducted what became known as "bumper lock surveillance," in which investigators trailed Hatfill so closely that he accused agents of running over his foot with their surveillance vehicle.
FBI agents showed up once to videotape Hatfill in a hotel hallway in Tyson's Corner, Va., when Hatfill was meeting with a prospective employer, according to FBI depositions filed in Hatfill's lawsuit against the government. He didn't get the job.
One of the FBI agents who helped run the anthrax investigation, Robert Roth, said FBI Director Robert Mueller had expressed frustration with the pace of the investigation. He also acknowledged that, under FBI guidelines, targets of surveillance aren't supposed to know they're being followed.
"Generally, it's supposed to be covert," Roth told lawyers in Hatfill's lawsuit.
In the 1996 Atlanta Olympic park bombing that dragged Jewell into the limelight, the security guard became the focus of the FBI probe for three months, after initially being hailed as a hero for moving people away from the bomb before it exploded.
The bomber turned out to be anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph, who also planted three other bombs in the Atlanta area and in Birmingham, Ala. Those explosives killed a police officer, maimed a nurse and injured several other people.
In another case, the FBI used as evidence the secrets that a person tells a therapist.
In the Wen Ho Lee case, Lee became the focus of a federal probe into how China may have obtained classified nuclear warhead blueprints. Prosecutors eventually charged him only with mishandling nuclear data, and held him for nine months. In what amounted to a collapse of the government's case, prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain in which Lee pleaded guilty to one of 59 counts.
In 2004, the FBI wrongly arrested lawyer Brandon Mayfield after the Madrid terrorist bombings, due to a misidentified fingerprint. The Justice Department's internal watchdog faulted the bureau for sloppy work. Spanish authorities had doubted the validity of the fingerprint match, but the U.S. government initiated a lengthy investigation, eventually settling with Mayfield for $2 million.
___
Associated Press writer David Dishneau contributed to this report from Hagerstown, Md.
http://wtop.com/?nid=104&sid=1454380

Fingerprint Test Tells What a Person Has Touched
By KENNETH CHANG
Published: August 7, 2008
With a new analytical technique, a fingerprint can now reveal much more than the identity of a person. It can now also identify what the person has been touching: drugs, explosives or poisons, for example.
Writing in Friday’s issue of the journal Science, R. Graham Cooks, a professor of chemistry at Purdue University, and his colleagues describe how a laboratory technique, mass spectrometry, could find a wider application in crime investigations.
The equipment to perform such tests is already commercially available, although prohibitively expensive for all but the largest crime laboratories. Smaller, cheaper, portable versions of such analyzers are probably only a couple of years away.
In Dr. Cooks’s method, a tiny spray of liquid that has been electrically charged, either water or water and alcohol, is sprayed on a tiny bit of the fingerprint. The droplets dissolve compounds in the fingerprints and splash them off the surface into the analyzer. The liquid is heated and evaporates, and the electrical charge is transferred to the fingerprint molecules, which are then identified by a device called a mass spectrometer. The process is repeated over the entire fingerprint, producing a two-dimensional image.
The researchers call the technique desorption electrospray ionization, or Desi, for short.
In the experiments described in the Science paper, solutions containing tiny amounts of various chemicals including cocaine and the explosive RDX were applied to the fingertips of volunteers. The volunteers touched surfaces like glass, paper and plastic. The researchers then analyzed the fingerprints.
Because the spatial resolution is on the order of the width of a human hair, the Desi technique did not just detect the presence of, for instance, cocaine, but literally showed a pattern of cocaine in the shape of the fingerprint, leaving no doubt who had left the cocaine behind.
“That’s an advantage that this technique would have,” said Bruce Goldberger, professor and director of toxicology at the University of Florida who runs a forensics laboratory that helps medical examiners and law enforcement. Dr. Goldberger was not involved in the research.
The chemical signature could also help crime investigators tease out one fingerprint out of the smudges of many overlapping prints if the person had been exposed to a specific chemical, said Demian R. Ifa, a postdoctoral researcher and the lead author of the Science paper.
Prosolia Inc., a small company in Indianapolis, has licensed the Desi technology from Purdue and is already selling such analyzers as add-ons to large laboratory mass spectrometers, which cost several hundred thousand dollars each.
Prosolia has so far sold about 70 analyzers, said Peter T. Kissinger, the company’s chairman and chief executive. The most sophisticated $60,000 version that would be needed for fingerprint analysis went on sale this year.
However, fingerprints are not the main focus for Prosolia or Dr. Cooks. “This is really just an offshoot of a project that is really aimed at trying to develop a methodology ultimately to be used in surgery,” Dr. Cooks said.
If a Desi analyzer can be miniaturized and automated into a surgical tool, a surgeon could, for example, quickly test body tissues for the presence of molecules associated with cancer. “That’s the long-term aim of this work,” Dr. Cooks said.
In unpublished research, the researchers have successfully tested the method on bladder tumors in dogs.
Prosolia is collaborating with Griffin Analytical Technologies, a subsidiary of ICx Technologies, on a Desi analyzer that works with a portable mass spectrometer. That product is probably a year or two away from the market, Dr. Kissinger said.
As it becomes cheaper and more widely available, the Desi technology has potential ethical implications, Dr. Cooks said. Instead of drug tests, a company could surreptitiously check for illegal drug use by its employees by analyzing computer keyboards after the workers have gone home, for instance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/science/08finger.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=fingerprint&st=cse&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

I don't know how much you know about this, but this has a chance to be devestating to this and other countries, if fruit does not get pollinated, it could cause big problems
Honeybee deaths reaching crisis point
Tuesday August 12 2008 15:59 BST
Bees gather around a honeycomb. Photograph: Reso/Rex Features
Britain's honeybees have suffered catastrophic losses this year, according to a survey of the nation's beekeepers, contributing to a shortage of honey and putting at risk the pollination of fruits and vegetables.
The survey by the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA) revealed that nearly one in three of the UK's 240,000 honeybee hives did not survive this winter and spring.
The losses are higher than the one in five colonies reported dead earlier this year by the government after 10% of hives had been inspected.
The BBKA president, Tim Lovett, said he was very concerned about the findings: "Average winter bee losses due to poor weather and disease vary from between 5% and 10%, so a 30% loss is deeply worrying. This spells serious trouble for pollination services and honey producers."

Link to this audioAlison Benjamin reports on why honeybee deaths are reaching crisis point
The National Bee Unit has attributed high bee mortality to the wet summer in 2007 and in the early part of this spring that confined bees to their hives. This meant they were unable to forage for nectar and pollen and this stress provided the opportunity for pathogens to build up and spread.
But the BBKA says the causes are unclear. Its initial survey of 600 members revealed a marked north-south divide, with 37% bee losses in the north, compared to 26% in the south. "We don't know why there is a difference and what is behind the high mortality," said Lovett.
The government recognises that the UK's honeybee hives - run by 44,000 mostly amateur beekeepers - contribute around £165m a year to the economy by pollinating many fruits and vegetables. "30% fewer honeybee colonies could therefore cost the economy some £50m and put at risk the government's crusade for the public to eat five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day," Lovett warned.
The Honey Association warned last month that English honey will run out by Christmas and no more will be available until summer 2009. It blames the shortage on fewer honeybees and farmers devoting more fields to wheat, which has soared in price but does not produce nectar.
The UK's leading honey company is so concerned by the crisis that it has pledged to donate money to honeybee research. From next month, for each jar of Rowse English honey sold in supermarkets 10p will be donated to a fund dedicated to improving the health of the nation's honeybees.
Stuart Bailey, chairman of Rowse Honey said: "We are working with the UK Bee Farmers' Association and are sponsoring research to the minimum value of £25,000 over the next 12 months to selectively breed a hardier bee that can better withstand parasites and diseases."
Rowse's clear English honey comes mainly from the borage plant, also known as starflower, which has been grown increasingly as a source of a fatty acid rich in omega-6 for pharmaceutical products. But farmers have planted much less borage this year as ready-processed borage oil is being imported and wheat is more profitable to grow due to the increase in demand for biofuels.
Bailey added that the shortage had been exacerbated by an 11% rise in demand for English honey over the last year.
Although British honey only accounts for 10% of the 30,000 tonnes of honey consumed in the UK, other major honey producing countries have also been severely hit by poor weather and bee diseases. Argentina is the world's honey pot, producing up to 75,000 tonnes a year - three times that of its nearest rival Mexico. But Argentina has suffered a 27% drop in yield due to droughts and the planting of huge swathes of land with soya beans for biofuel. As a result, there has been a 60% rise in the price of raw honey.
In the US, honey yields have been decimated by honeybee loses of 36%, many due to colony collapse disorder (CCD), a mysterious disappearance linked to the blood-sucking varroa mite, lethal viruses, malnutrition, pesticides, and a lack of genetic diversity. CCD has spread to Canada, France, Germany and Italy but has not yet been confirmed by government in the Britain.
The BBKA is calling on the the UK government to put £8m over five years into researching honeybee losses and improving bee health.
Farming minister, Lord Rooker, has predicted the demise of the honeybee within a decade. Last November, he told parliament: "We do not deny that honeybee health is at risk. Frankly, if nothing is done about it, the honeybee population could be wiped out in 10 years."
Yet the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spends just £1.3m on bee health each year- less than one per cent of the bees' value to the economy - with an additional £200,000 for research.
The National Farmer's Union said it was essential for government to increase its funding of honeybee research. "Research is vital into varroa, bee breeding and the Nosema parasite," said Chris Hartfield, NFU horticultural adviser. "We are talking about food security and world food supplies being put at risk."
Defra said a further £90,000 had been allocated to the NBU this year to expand investigations into colony losses. It is currently consulting on a honeybee health strategy, with responses required by the end of this month.
A Defra spokesman said: "Significant public funds are already provided to support this area of work but to ensure this intervention is effective, it it vital that work is driven by a well thought out strategy agreed by all relevant parties."
About this articleClose
Honeybee deaths reaching crisis point threatening fruit and vegetable pollinationThis article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Tuesday August 12 2008. It was last updated at 09:38 on August 13 2008.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/12/conservation.wildlife1