[Pak Daily Times] An outbreak of a parasitic tropical disease has killed more than 300 people in Southern Sudan - and the worst of the health crisis is yet to come, officials say.
The World Health Organisation says the outbreak of kala azar, which began in September 2009 and has intensified in recent months, is the biggest health problem facing Southern Sudan.
More than 7,000 cases - many of them in the region's most remote and insecure areas - have been reported this year by WHO and Southern Sudanese health authorities. The outbreak of cases is the region's worst since 1991. More than 300 people have died since September 2009, WHO says, but officials fear the disease could spread for several more months.
'We don't know when it will end,' said Dr Abdinasir Abubakar, a WHO medical officer in Southern Sudan, said in an interview this week. Health officials, he said, are 'struggling to respond to the outbreak because it is beyond what we had planned.' Transmitted through sand flies, the parasite that causes the contagious disease mainly affects children whose immune systems are compromised by malnutrition. In the recent outbreak, 90 percent of patients were children under the age of 17. Symptoms include fever or acute malnutrition, and patients are often described as 'wasting away.' Nine out of 10 patients with kala azar will die if they do not receive treatment, according to Doctors Without Borders. Patients can die within weeks if not treated.
The peak of the outbreak is predicted to come between December and January, coinciding with Southern Sudan's plans for a Jan. 9 independence referendum. That referendum is widely predicted to result in the creation of the world's newest country. Kala Azar - a Hindi word meaning 'Black Death' - erupted during Sudan's two-decade civil war that ended in 2005, killing hundreds of thousands of people in Southern Sudan. Also called visceral leishmaniasis, the disease causes high fever, swelling of the spleen and massive weight loss. Survivors can be badly scarred.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2010 00:00 ||
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Building on his friendship with Silvio Berlusconi, Libya's leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has begun flying groups of Italian women to Libya for "cultural" tours of the country, with the aim of marrying them off to local men starting with his nephew.
"The leader wants young people from other countries to visit Libyan hospitals and universities as well as understand its history," said Alessandro Londero, the manager of the Italian hostess recruiting agency which supplies the women.
"But he is also interested in romances developing between youths from Libya and Italy." Gaddafi reportedly has high hopes that romance will spark between Clio Evans, 24, a half-English actor from Rome who has visited Libya four times, and his nephew, Ghazali.
"The colonel said: 'There is someone who would like your hand in marriage'," said Clio, whose father is from Beverley, east Yorkshire. "I was like, uh-oh, but Ghazali is cute, tall, and funny."
Gaddafi first got to know the women from Londero's agency when they were hired to hear him speak about Islamic culture during visits to Rome in 2009 and in August this year when he was criticised by the Vatican for advising his audience to convert to Islam.
Londero said he has now organised six trips to Libya for his hostesses, with Gaddafi on hand to greet them each time. "I used all my cards to impress Gaddafi, who is a real gentleman," said Evans. "He gave me one of the necklaces with his image on it which he usually gives to his female bodyguards. Then he introduced me to Ghazali."
At a dinner during the latest trip, Evans and Ghazali were placed alone at a candlelit table, with an interpreter. "We have tried to speak on the phone since my return but this is hardgoing since I don't speak Arabic. Plus he is Muslim and I am staying Christian," she said.
Evans also dismissed rumours that Berlusconi had picked up tips on hosting sex parties from Gaddafi.
That's been going on for thirty years already. Iran PressTV is late to the story ...
[Iran Press TV]NHS budget cuts have increased job cuts and consequently raised hospital waiting times, nurse leaders and The Royal College of Nursing have warned.
Peter Carter, the general secretary of the RCN said that the consequence of the local government budgets' cuts is that hospitals would no longer be able to discharge patients, according to the BBC.
The union said that almost 27,000 posts would be diminished in the UK and it warned that services suffer more in the future.
The equivalent of 0.1% annual rise will be given to NHS for the next four years despite the fact that the RCN said because of issues like the ageing population and rising price of drugs the costs for the NHS would reach much more than what expected.
In an answer to the union's question on evidence of job cuts, NHS replied that 10,000 posts could go, but this figure has increased to 26,841 by now.
Carter said: "Right now, staff are not only concerned about losing their jobs, they are concerned about keeping services open and how they will cope if they stay. The public should be really concerned about the potential impact to the NHS. I predict waiting will rise. It won't be too long before people start asking what is going on."
While the NHS in England is under its reorganisations, the government is trying to make savings. This is criticised by some RCN members including Carter.
Shadow health secretary John Healey said: "This RCN report is an early warning of the strains that the NHS is under and looming problems for staff and patients."
NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson said: "We have made it clear that efficiency savings must not impact adversely on patient care, and that every penny saved must be reinvested in support of front line services and improving quality."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"the local government budgets' cuts is that hospitals would no longer be able to discharge patients" What is this? Hotel California?
[Iran Press TV] The United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society has made an emergency appeal for USD 164 million to fight the cholera outbreak which has killed at least 800 people in Haiti so far.
Speaking at a news conference in Geneva on Friday, Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN humanitarian office, said it was in urgent need of funds "otherwise all our efforts can be outrun by the epidemic."
She said the UN and non-governmental organizations were badly in need of money to avail the service of additional doctors, and to provide medicine and water-purification equipment to treat an estimated 200,000 people who are at risk of contracting the deadly disease.
Health officials in the quake-hit impoverished country are fighting to contain the epidemic that has infected more than 10,000 people, leaving them in need of urgent medical attention in five of Haiti's ten districts.
Reports quoting Haiti's Health Ministry said more than 80 people had died since Thursday across the country.
The contagious disease that sickened hundreds of people in the Lower Artibonite region last month with the intestinal infection caused due to the consumption of contaminated water and food spread to the north, northeast and northwestern parts of the country later.
Artibonite was the worst-affected with 450 people dead and more than 7,300 others infected since cholera was first diagnosed on October 19.
Overall, 200,000 people need treatment for symptoms ranging from mild diarrhea to severe dehydration, the global body said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
The only way for that hellhole to advance at all is for the US to take it over again for 30 years and have the Marines and Seabees run it. Take 3 spots on the main island or include one of the smaller islands that is part of Haiti, lease them to the US for 99 years each at $100 million a year each, put Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard major installations there. Have the Marines provide security and civil action teams, while the Seabees do the infrastructure building. The Seabees can add in local construction teams as they are trained. The $300 million a year for leases is put into a fund administered by the US for infrastructure improvement, and the US decides what needs improving first. Encourage private donors to buy surplus CONEX containers to be shipped to Haiti and converted into local housing there -- CONEX housing is fireproof, termite proof, and with cable tie-downs, hurricane rated.
#3
It was made in a factory and _erected_ on site. We could assemble houses and buildings from prefabricated components such as they did shown in the video, but a while back the various construction industries had the code written against it.
[Iran Press TV] Home prices in half of the US have plunged in third quarter the current year as banks stepped up property repossessions.
There was a fall in the mean price of a single-family home in 76 of 155 US metropolitan areas, the National Association of Realtors said in a report on Thursday, Bloomberg reported.
House prices in Florida, slumped 20 percent from last year, showing the largest decline overall. There was a 15 percent drop in prices in the cities of Palm Bay, Florida, and Tucson, Arizona. The mean price of US homes fell 0.2 percent to $177,900.
The US housing market is struggling as lenders continue to seize a record number of properties. This under pressure financial sector is also being hindered by a 26-year high in unemployment figures.
Banks repossessed more than 288,345 homes in the period covered by the Realtors report, up 22 percent from a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac Inc., a data firm in Irvine, Caliphornia.
The foreclosures caused by homes being seized boost the supply of available homes and, therefore, reduce prices as properties are then sold at a discounted price to force quick sales.
"The bottom has proven to be quite elusive," said Stan Humphries, chief economist of data firm Zillow.com in Seattle. "There could be another five percent coming off the national market" as prices decline further, he said.
There was some positive news for the US housing market though as the mean price of a single-family home in the New York metropolitan area climbed 2.8 percent in the third quarter.
Edison and New Jersey showed 3.5 percent gains and prices in Boston rose 5.3 percent, according to the report.
The largest increases in house prices were seen in Burlington and Vermont, where an 18-percent overall rise in home value was recorded.
In a separate report today, the Realtors group also announced that US home sales have plummeted 25 percent to a 4.16 million seasonally adjusted annual pace in the third quarter, compared to the previous three months.
The number of people owning homes in the US remains at a 10-year low of 66.9 percent in the third quarter this year, according to the US Census Bureau.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2010 00:00 ||
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Virtually no positive news in US home prices. In most of the USA they are grossly excessive with respect to what potential homeowners are capable of paying, and the gap is increasing, not decreasing. This is a direct consequence of political pressure to keep housing prices artificially high by postponing recognition of bad debts in order to save the big banks.
#3
Sounds like Congress is about to legistlate legitimacy into the MERS mess (fraud), which should add another layer of protection from consequences of their mistakes/crimes to the big banks. Should also help keep house prices propped up to levels where they are unaffordable to most potential buyers (banks can't afford to have their collateral valued downward or they are legally insolvent.)
#6
Sounds like Congress is about to legistlate legitimacy into the MERS mess (fraud) .... Should also help keep house prices propped up ....
MERS is more a case of paleolithic local governments being unwilling / unable to keep pace with technology in the private sector. If anything Congressional action to letitimize it will help banks rightly push defaulted squatters out, will un-employ legions of lawyers presently litigating what are essentially dead-end delaying actions which do nothing other than allow squatters to continue to squat, and increase liquidity of inventory (via streamlined foreclosures / not a term of art) in the housing sector thereby putting downward pressure on prices.
#7
Housing prices nationwide need to fall at least 25% to be in line with what is the reasonable selling price. Until that happens, the main turbulence in the housing market is going to be people unloading more expensive houses to buyers and then buying a much cheaper house in comparison to drop their mortgage to what they can afford. At about $150,000 MEAN price, houses will start selling again.
#10
Once housing prices get above 5 years after taxes mean income for an area, the housing market starts to decline. At least it did until Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae pumped all the funny money into the mortgage industry. Most major metro areas are at 6-20 times mean after tax yearly income, which means their prices need to fall even more.
#1
The elite believe the Nation State is dead and will be replaced by One World Government. I say if the Nation State is dead it will be replaced by anarchy and tribalism.
#2
I think the credentialled (cos the one thing they're not is elite) are over-stepping again (like AGW-scam) their heads are all booked for a long free stay at the top of a pike.
#8
A big problem that socialists have is their disdain for history, which they openly regard as an enemy. They always assume that people will lead better lives if they are stripped of institutions that have existed for hundreds, even thousands of years.
It never, ever crosses their mind that there are very good reasons for such institutions to exist.
For example, marriage is "just a social convention", of no real value. But the fact that marriage is a superior biological mechanism utterly escapes them. So time and time again, they try to have things like "free love", that lasts all of five minutes before everybody is sick of it.
The same with the idea of nations. They just cannot wrap their heads around the idea that there are reasons for nations to exist, that borders were not just selected at random.
Unfortunately, this leads to the really bad idea that the reason people are different is because they have unique cultures, religions, traditions, etc. So by getting rid of these, "generic" people will result. The equality of the gray, which is just as bad as you might imagine.
Fortunately, the vast majority of people are, and remain, nationalistic. They love their country, its culture, its uniqueness, and see no real purpose or joy in becoming generic, faceless people.
#9
'moose, I think the vast majority of people are, in their core, tribal, and nationalism is a veneer that helps control tribal conflicts to the benefit of most of the tribes. I also think there are limits to the size of a functional nation: the European Union and the former USSR seem to have exceeded it. The US would have too, except for the extreme mobility of our population throughout our relatively brief history.
#13
He's Belgian. From that country that can't even get its own shit together but pretends to rule Europe.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/13/2010 19:07 Comments ||
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#14
Pretty funny to think that a country that can't overcome the cultural barriers between the Dutch speakers and the French speakers in its own country thinks that it will somehow overcome the cultural barriers of the entire world and rule over it instead.
Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 ||
11/13/2010 23:06 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV] Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has expressed his faith in green economic polices to ease the unemployment crisis in Spain.
Speaking at the G20 meeting in the South Korean capital of Seoul, Zapatero said that ecologically sustainable industries can produce roughly one million jobs for his country in the upcoming decade, China's Xinhua news agency reported Thursday.
Spain, at the present time, has more than four million unemployed workers. The country nevertheless has been a European leader in green technology with only Germany producing more electricity by means of wind power than Spain.
If the green option is taken, Zapatero believes it will enable his country to climb out of the current economic crisis it faces.
"We estimate that if we group them all together then sustainable industries, sustainable transport, sustainable education and eco-industries have the potential to create around a million jobs in the economy of the sustainable environment in the next decade," the Spanish premier further explained.
Zapatero recently held a conference with industrialists, including representatives of the most important companies from Spain, such as Iberdrola, Telefonica and Repsol.
"The green economy represents a great potential to generate employment in the future and also to help with technological advances and to make economies more competitive," the Spanish prime minister said during the meeting.
Spain aims to double the amount of freight that travels to the country by rail in the next 10 years and in addition it plans to have 250,000 electrically powered cars on its roads by 2015.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2010 00:00 ||
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Creating a million jobs over 10 years when you are starting with 4 million unemployed now, isn't much to crow about.
#5
I really don't have any objection to wind turbines as long as they are in areas that make sense from an ability to produce power at reasonable cost and do so at relatively constant rates of output. But to do it solely for the reason of it "feels good" is as asinine as most other things politicians come up with. One thing in this field that is needed is machines that cost less to build, install and maintain. Plus any wind turbine in sight of the Kennedy Compound is a win-win in my book
[Iran Press TV] The leaders of G-20 countries have wrapped up their summit in South Korea's capital, Seoul, despite making very little progress on major differences.
But it kept the participants from actually accomplishing anything unhelpful, so in a way that's a positive outcome, like George Soros spending so much in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Republican candidates and pass Califorornia's marijuana legalization bill.
World leaders at the G-20 summit in South Korea agreed to avoid competitive devaluation of currencies and take the necessary steps to address trade imbalances affecting the world economy.
Leaders of the world's wealthiest nations agreed in Seoul to set indicative guidelines to measure trade imbalances, holding off on details until next year.
G-20 leaders hoped that the South Korean summit would recapture the unity seen after the global financial crisis two years ago, but deep divisions emerged.
A compromise plan has the IMF designing indicators that would warn when imbalances had become a threat to stability.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called the summit a success.
"Countries with reserve currencies may be able to print money, but the other countries may be hurt when funds rush out. We had experienced it several times, not only South Korea, but also other emerging countries are under such danger, so the G-20 now allows countries to introduce macro-prudential measures to mitigate the damage," President Lee Myung-bak said.
The summit was aimed at building on a recent G-20 finance pact while lifting global growth to pre-crisis levels but tussles over the monetary and fiscal policies of nations.
While India, China and Brazil have roared back since 2008, European leaders held emergency talks in Korea on Irish debt woes, saying they were ready to help.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Israel's former prime minister Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma since January 2006 , has been moved back to his home after spending nearly five years in hospital.
Sharon, 82, fell into a coma after suffering a massive stroke and is now in a vegetative state.
The former Israeli premier was taken in an ambulance on Friday morning from the Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer --near Tel Aviv-- to the family's ranch in southern Israel with no change in his condition.
Hospital officials say Sharon will spend the weekend at his home in Negev and then return to the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv to be monitored. Only after several successful trials at the ranch would he stay there permanently.
A full medical team will accompany him to his home where as prime minister he criminal masterminded some of Israel's deadliest offensives against Paleostinians, including the 2002 offensive in the West Bank which left dozens of Paleostinians dead.
"Today, in 2010, the aspiration of any patient, our aspiration in the hospital, is to ensure that any chronic patient, when possible, is with his community, at home," Dr. Shlomo Noy, director of rehabilitation at the hospital, told Israel Radio.
"Clearly what's behind this move home is the hope that his situation will get better. But the improvements that we talk about in such situations are not great improvements, not dramatic improvements," he added.
The Israeli parliament has approved 1.6m Israeli shekels (436,500 US dollars) in annual funding for Sharon's medical treatment.
The hawkish Israeli politician, also known as "The Bulldozer," is reviled by Paleostinians over his tough measures against Paleostinians, including supporting the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied Paleostinian territories and initiating the construction of the West Bank separation barrier.
He is also widely despised in the Arab world for his role in the massacres at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps outside Beirut in 1982.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2010 00:00 ||
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...I honestly thought he'd passed away a couple years ago.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/13/2010 9:41 Comments ||
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Nope. They have held on to him. They believe in the "God of Life".
Turkey's first self-made warship has been undergoing sea trials, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported Friday.
Trial operation of the corvette F-511 TCG Heybeliada, the first warship completely built in Turkey and developed under the National Ship Project (MILGEM), has been going on as of Nov. 2, the agency quoted the Turkish Naval Forces as saying.
Construction of the corvette began in 2005 and the ship is expected to enter service in early 2011, the agency reported.
The MILGEM project aims to build a modern littoral combat warship with indigenous anti-submarine warfare and high-seas patrol capabilities, extensively using the principles of stealth technology in its design, according to the report.
[Al Jazeera] Al Jazeera has confirmed that two of Myanmar's rebel armies have joined forces, in advance of a possible crackdown by the military government. The move comes after thousands of civilians fled into Thailand earlier this week, after renewed fighting near the border with Thailand.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A Richmond-based convenience-store chain says it has changed its practice of asking customers to remove hoodies and headgear after a Muslim woman complained of being denied service because of her headscarf. In a statement Thursday, Fas Mart, which operates 213 stores across seven states, called the incident "regrettable" and said it had suspended the clerk pending an investigation.
"From what I understand, she said she was just doing what she was trained to do, which was to make sure that the face of this customer was visible for purposes of our security cameras and for the safety of our workers and other customers," said company spokesperson Tom Terry. In the last 4 months I have seen numerous signs in local businesses demanding their customers remove hats & sunglasses before they will be served. Probably something to do with holdups at stores becoming more of a problem. I've lived here 30 years & never saw signs like that until just recently.
#1
Some banks in Colorado have had the "NO Hoodies" signs up for several years. Don't want to sound like Juan Williams but recently I was in a bank when two 5'10" - 6' women (?) in full burkas, including screens over the eye slot entered. I have to say that made me slightly nervous. Very easy to have a 12ga under there.
Posted by: Spearong Prince of the Bunions9034 ||
11/13/2010 11:50 Comments ||
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#2
Recently I was in a bank when two 5'10" - 6' women (?) in full burkas, including screens over the eye slot entered. I have to say that made me slightly nervous. A sight like that would have made me run for the door & consider calling 911. No need to use a 'woman (?)' descriptor, just call all such 'Burkha Beings.' Hell, they could be Daleks under such a disguise.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The 
