John Bolton's Resignation (VIDEO)

President Bush Accepts Ambassador John Bolton's Resignation as U.S. Representative to the United Nations, Biography, John R. Bolton Ambassador Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations

It is with deep regret that I accept John Bolton's decision to end his service in the Administration as Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations when his commission expires.

Over a year ago, I appointed Ambassador Bolton because I knew he would represent America's values and effectively confront difficult problems at the United Nations. He served his country with extraordinary dedication and skill, assembling coalitions that addressed some of the most consequential issues facing the international community. During his tenure, he articulately advocated the positions and values of the United States and advanced the expansion of democracy and liberty.

Ambassador Bolton led the successful negotiations that resulted in unanimous Security Council resolutions regarding North Korea's military and nuclear activities. He built consensus among our allies on the need for Iran to suspend the enrichment and reprocessing of uranium. His efforts to promote the cause of peace in Darfur resulted in a peacekeeping commitment by the United Nations. He made the case for United Nations reform because he cares about the institution, and wants it to become more credible and effective.

I am deeply disappointed that a handful of United States Senators prevented Ambassador Bolton from receiving the up or down vote he deserved in the Senate. They chose to obstruct his confirmation, even though he enjoys majority support in the Senate, and even though their tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work at a sensitive and important time. This stubborn obstructionism ill serves our country, and discourages men and women of talent from serving their Nation.

I thank John Bolton for the dedication and skill with which he performed his duties, and his wife Gretchen and daughter Jennifer Sarah for their support as Ambassador Bolton served his country. All Americans owe John Bolton their gratitude for a job well done.

# # # For Immediate Release, Office of the Press Secretary, December 4, 2006

President Bush accepted John Bolton's resignation earlier today. ... for refusing to grant John Bolton – the current ... An Associated Press release on this issue ... AP B-Roll of Resignation Story

04 December 06, Media Stakeout: Statement to the Press by the President of the Security Council, the Permanent Representative of Qatar, Ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, on Protection of civilians in armed conflict and Informal comments to the Media on the resignation of the Permanent Representative of the United States of America, Ambassador John Bolton. [Webcast: FULL STREAMING VIDEO - 4 minutes]

04 December 06, Media Stakeout: Informal comments to the Media by the Permanent Representative of France, Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, on the resignation of the Permanent Representative of the United States of America, Ambassador John Bolton.[Webcast: FULL STREAMING VIDEO - 33 seconds]

04 December 06, Media Stakeout: Informal comments to the Media by the Permanent Representative of Japan, Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, on resignation of the Permanent Representative of the United States of America, Ambassador John Bolton. [Webcast: FULL STREAMING VIDEO - 3 minutes]

04 December 06, Media Stakeout: Informal comments to the Media by the Permanent Representative of China, Ambassador Wang Guangya, on resignation of the Permanent Representative of the United States of America, Ambassador John Bolton. [Webcast: FULL STREAMING VIDEO - 2 minutes]

04 December 06, Media Stakeout: Informal comments to the Media by the Permanent Representative of Argentina, Ambassador César Mayoral, on resignation of the Permanent Representative of the United States of America, Ambassador John Bolton. [Webcast: FULL STREAMING VIDEO - 3 minutes ]

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News on eating disorders

New info on eating disorders in two Stanford/Packard children's studies

STANFORD, Calif. - Parenting a child with an eating disorder - monitoring meals, friends and activities - can be a full-time job. But two new studies from researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital indicate a need for increased vigilance in two key areas: Internet use among adolescents with the condition, and pre-teen weight loss in seemingly healthy children.

One study, to be published in the December issue of Pediatrics, is the first to confirm that pro-eating disorder Web sites may promote dangerous behaviors in adolescents with eating disorders. The second, which appears in the December issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, indicates that pre-teens with eating disorders tend to lose weight more quickly than adolescents with the condition and weigh comparatively less at diagnosis. Packard Children's adolescent medicine and eating disorder specialist Rebecka Peebles, MD, and Jenny Wilson, a Stanford medical student, collaborated on both studies.

"If parents wouldn't let their kids go out to dinner or talk on the phone with someone they don't know, they should ask themselves what their child might be up to on the computer," Peebles, a medical school pediatrics instructor, said of the findings in the first study. She pointed out that, unlike adults, teens make few distinctions between "real" friends and people they know only online.

In this study, Peebles and Wilson surveyed families of patients who were diagnosed at Packard Children's with an eating disorder between 1997 and 2004. Seventy-six patients, who were between the ages of 10 and 22 at diagnosis, and 106 parents returned an anonymous survey asking about Internet use - including parental restrictions on it - and health outcomes.

About half of the patients surveyed said they had visited Web sites about eating disorders. Ninety-six percent of teens who visited pro-eating disorder Web sites reported learning new dieting and purging techniques. The researchers also found that pro-eating disorder site visitors tended to have a longer duration of disease, spent less time on schoolwork and spent significantly more time online each week than did those who never visited the sites.

Even those sites ostensibly dedicated to helping people recover from eating disorders (pro-recovery sites) aren't harmless. Nearly 50 percent of patients visiting such sites reported learning about new methods to lose weight or to purge.

"Parents and physicians need to realize that the Internet is essentially an unmonitored media forum," said Peebles. "It's just not possible to completely control the content of an interactive site."

While about 50 percent of parents were aware of the existence of pro-eating disorder sites, only 28 percent had discussed these sites with their child. Fewer still, only about 20 percent, reported placing limits on either the time their child spent online or on the sites they visited.

Parents aren't the only ones who may not recognize trouble brewing. Peebles and Wilson found in their second study that younger eating disorder patients may be at risk for more rapid weight loss than adolescents and frequently have atypical presentations that may make diagnosis more difficult.

"We were very surprised and concerned to find that younger patients lost weight significantly faster than adolescent patients," said Peebles, who pointed out that growth before puberty is critical to future development. "Children should be growing rapidly during pre-adolescence. But these kids had not only stopped gaining, they'd even lost weight."

Adult-specific diagnostic criteria for such eating disorders as anorexia and bulimia muddy the issue, said Peebles, by referring to missed menses and ideal body weight percentages, neither of which are applicable to prepubescent girls who may have already stunted their height by denying themselves needed calories.

"They may not be less than 85 percent of their ideal body weight according to a standard growth chart," she said, "but it's very possible that, without their eating disorder, they would have been significantly taller and heavier." It's also sometimes difficult to tell whether young children display the same kind of disordered body image disturbance as older children with eating disorders, who often proclaim themselves "fat" or "disgusting."

"Young kids may truly not know why they don't want to eat," said Peebles. "They just don't want to be bigger." As a result, more than 60 percent of patients younger than 13 are diagnosed with an "Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified," or EDNOS.

Other surprises of the research include the facts that younger patients were more likely to be male than those older than 13, and that one in five patients younger than 13 had experimented with vomiting as a weight-loss technique.

"Pediatricians and parents shouldn't think of weight loss, or even lack of weight gain in a pre-teen, as a phase," cautioned Peebles. "If a child expresses wanting to lose weight, take it seriously." ###

Stanford University Medical Center integrates research, medical education and patient care at its three institutions - Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. For more information, please visit the Web site of the medical center's Office of Communication & Public Affairs at mednews.stanford.edu. and Web Sites Promoting Eating Disorders

Ranked as one of the nation's top pediatric hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford is a 264-bed hospital devoted to the care of children and expectant mothers. Providing pediatric and obstetric medical and surgical services and associated with Stanford University School of Medicine, Packard Children's offers patients locally, regionally and nationally the full range of health-care programs and services - from preventive and routine care to the diagnosis and treatment of serious illness and injury. For more information, visit lpch.org/.

Contact: Krista Conger kristac@stanford.edu 650-725-5371 Stanford University Medical Center

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