At least 51 Egyptians were killed when their bus plunged into a canal south of Cairo on Sunday in one of the deadliest road accidents in Egypt in years, officials said.
At least 60 people were in the public bus when it swerved into the canal to avoid an oncoming truck as it travelled on the main highway between the Nile city of Minya to Cairo, a security official said. "Fifty-one bodies have been recovered and 10 people have been taken to hospital with light injuries," the official told AFP. Many university students were among the dead, and rescue workers were searching the waters of the Ibrahimiya canal for survivors and victims, the official said.
Police have detained both the truck driver and the bus driver for questioning, a police official told AFP. At least 20 ambulances rushed to the crash site along with local residents offering their help after the accident near the village of Dahrut, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Cairo, an AFP correspondent reported.
Poor road conditions and lax traffic regulations in Egypt cause thousands of accidents every year and a new highway code came into force in August with the aim of improving road safety. Road accidents kill about 6,000 people and cause 30,000 injuries each year, also because of poor upkeep of vehicles, according to the transport ministry.
Last week, 15 Coptic students were killed when their bus overturned while travelling from Minya to the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. Eight people, including six schoolgirls, were killed in September when a truck plunged into a river in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya.
Barely a day after Balaka district reported the first death of a man suffering from cholera, government has admitted the disease is fast spreading and four people have so far died in Lilongwe alone. However, government says it has put in place all procedures to control the cholera outbreak which is slowly sweeping across Malawi.
In Zimbabwe, the outbreak has claimed 746 lives with over 14,000 new cases being reported. The disease has also been traced in Zambia and South Africa.
Though Minister of Health, Khumbo Kachali said yesterday there were no confirmed cases of cholera in government hospitals, his Director of Preventive Health Services in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Stone Kabuluzi confirmed of 36 cholera at Likuni Mission Hospital in Lilongwe out of which four people have lost their lives. "Reports from the hospital indicate that two patients died right at the hospital because they came a bit late while two others are also suspected to have died at their homes from cholera," he said.
Dr Kabuluzi however said his ministry has instituted necessary measures to contain the disease not to further spread to other parts of the country. "All District Health Officers have been alerted. We procured all the required medical supplies such as Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) and Chlorine and distributed to every health facility.
"We are ready to ensure that it does not spread further. We will identify all those diagnosed and treat and isolate them from others to avoid further spread," said Kabuluzi. He said cholera quarantine shelters were also present in all district health centers.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2008 00:00 ||
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The liberation of Africa from last vestiges of colonialism is proceeding apace.
Zimbabwe on Saturday accused the West of waging biological warfare to deliberately start a cholera epidemic that has killed hundreds of people and sickened thousands. The spread of the disease has focused the world's attention on the spectacular collapse of the southern African nation, which often blames its troubles on the West.
The claims in state media came the same day the government issued an official announcement detailing the constitutional amendment creating the post of prime minister. The announcement also set out other changes necessary to go forward with a power-sharing agreement that has been stalled since September.
Saturday's unilateral step by President Robert Mugabe's government could raise political tensions in the battered southern African country.
The state-run Herald newspaper said comments by the U.S. ambassador that the U.S. had been preparing for the cholera outbreak raised suspicions that it was responsible.
The state-run Herald newspaper said comments by the U.S. ambassador that the U.S. had been preparing for the cholera outbreak raised suspicions that it was responsible. The Zimbabwean government's stranglehold on most sources of news makes such rhetoric an important tool for a regime struggling to hold onto power.
After the first cholera cases, U.S. and other aid workers braced for the waterborne disease to spread quickly in an economically ravaged country where the sewage system and medical care have fallen apart. Zimbabwe also faces a hunger crisis, the world's highest inflation and shortages of both the most basic necessities and the cash to buy them.
The Herald quoted the information minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, as blaming cholera on "serious biological chemical war ... a genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe by the British."
"Cholera is a calculated racist terrorist attack on Zimbabwe by the unrepentant former colonial power which has enlisted support from its American and Western allies so that they invade the country," Ndlovu was quoted as saying.
Experts blame the epidemic on Zimbabwe's economic collapse. The World Health Organization said Friday the death toll was 792 and that the number of cholera cases that have been reported since the outbreak began in August was 16,700. The epidemic has reached a fatality rate of 4.7 percent. To be under control it would have to be less than 1 percent, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said Friday.
Aid agencies have warned that the outbreak could worsen with the onset of the rainy season and that the disease has already spread to Zimbabwe's neighbors.
Mugabe claimed Thursday that his government, with the help of international agencies, had contained the epidemic. That sparked accusations he was out of touch with his people's suffering.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2008 00:00 ||
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It's back to square one so soon? President Bush stems the AIDS and malaria epidemics on the continent, then they forget not to shit in the water then drink it?
#4
Read the article again. This is for domestic consumption. People there don't have access to the news so they get whatever they're told. Most folks in Zim-land are pro'ly smart enough to know the causes of cholera, but this is all about control.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/14/2008 10:54 Comments ||
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#5
I think we could have found something much more "fun" than cholera
Awami League (AL) will not formulate any anti-Islamic law if voted to power since the party is committed to restoring the image of Islam as a religion of peace and equality, said AL presidium member Matia Chowdhury yesterday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2008 00:00 ||
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BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday announced her party's election manifesto on the slogan 'Save country, save people', and said they will reform the caretaker government system and scrap the special powers act if voted back to power.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2008 00:00 ||
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MANAGUA (Reuters) - Russian officials donated generators and computers to Nicaragua on Saturday during a visit by three Russian warships to the Central American nation that opposition leaders condemned as illegal. Russia donated about $200,000 worth of equipment to hospitals, police and the army during the stop at the southern port of Bluefields, Gen. Julio Aviles, the Nicaraguan army's chief of staff, told state radio.
The visit by the anti-submarine destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and two support vessels was the first since the 1990 fall of Daniel Ortega's Marxist Sandinista government, which allied itself with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Ortega, who returned to power in 2007, has courted Russia and has aligned Nicaragua with regional leftists, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The United States, which funded rebel groups opposed to the Sandinistas in the 1980s, suspended a $175 million aid program to Nicaragua earlier this month, citing concerns over November's municipal elections, which Ortega's opponents say were rigged.
The Russian naval tour, which includes another old Cold War ally, Cuba, as well as Venezuela, is part of Moscow's bid to rebuild its global influence.
Opposition politicians protested the visit, arguing foreign military forces were forbidden from entering Nicaragua without the approval of the National Assembly. Ortega requested authorization for the visit earlier in the week, but opposition lawmakers refused to allow the National Assembly to sit.
The Russian ships arrived in Nicaragua late on Friday and were scheduled to depart early on Sunday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/14/2008 13:53 ||
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great...Russian computers with Cyrillic characters - bet that comes in handy, comrade
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/14/2008 15:27 Comments ||
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The Russian ships arrived in Nicaragua late on Friday and were scheduled to depart early on Sunday
Will the Admiral Chabanenko be visiting "rigged election" sites in Minnesota after the spring ice thaw?
Russia and Switzerland agreed on Saturday that Moscow's interests in Georgia would be represented through an interests section in the Swiss embassy in Tbilisi, the country's foreign ministers said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised the deal as a step towards improving ties with Tbilisi, three months after diplomatic relations between the two ex-Soviet states were severed in the wake of the Russia-Georgia war. "We are grateful for our Swiss colleagues for this agreement. Undoubtedly it will serve the goal of normalising the situation," Lavrov said at a press conference alongside his Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey.
Neutral Switzerland has experience in allowing its embassies to serve as points of contact between countries with frosty ties. There are interests sections for the United States in the Swiss embassies in Cuba and Iran. Georgia and Russia shut their embassies in each other's capitals in September following their five-day war in August. Georgia formally broke diplomatic ties with Russia to protest Moscow's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist region, as independent states.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2008 00:00 ||
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Rioting youths in the Greek capital attacked a police station, stores and banks and fought running battles with police late Saturday, authorities said, as violent protests against a police killing continued for the seventh straight day.
The clashes broke out as candlelit vigils were being held to mark a week since the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy, which triggered the riots that are threatening the stability of the government.
Youths _ some on foot, others riding motorcycles _ attacked a police station with petrol bombs in central Athens as well as at least three banks, several stores and a government building, police said.
Several hundred protesters set up burning barricades and attacked police with rocks and flares. Riot police fired tear gas and chased the youths through parts of the city. The protesters chanted "murderers out" and used laser pointers to target police for attack.
Violence has wracked Greece every day since the death of teenager Alexandros Grigoropoulos. The riots in cities throughout the country has left at least 70 people injured. Hundreds of stores have been smashed and looted, and more than 200 people have been arrested.
While most of the protesters have been peaceful, the tone of the demonstrations has been set by a violent fringe. And more young people have been willing to join those fringe elements than in the past.
Hundreds of school children holding candles gathered peacefully Saturday outside parliament and at the site where teenager was shot.
Outside parliament, they left candles spelling out the name "Alex" in front of a line of riot policemen.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2008 00:00 ||
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Are there no shotguns or rubber bullets in Greece?
I guess I shouldn't complain. Obviously, the abrogation of the terms of the loan mean nothing; I should have known that this was the first of the no strings attached money drops bailouts by the federal government,and not an actual loan.
American International Group Inc., the insurer under fire for paying 168 executives not to quit after a government takeover, is giving retention awards to at least 2,000 more employees, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The "retention bonus" equals as much as a year's salary and recipients were ordered to keep the payment secret, said the person, who declined to be named because the plan was labeled confidential. Awards were offered to as much as 10 percent of staff at businesses that are for sale, including plane-leasing and insurance units in the U.S. and overseas, the person said.
"If it has the money to give these disguised bonuses to thousands of its employees, then I think it is time for Mr. Liddy to write a check to the federal government repaying the money it took," said Representative Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, in a statement yesterday. Maybe you shouldn't have written the check funding this insanity to begin with.
#1
I'm sympathetic to a degree. Good people who know the system and can make a company work are hard to find and harder to keep. If these are the mid-level folks, then a years salary isn't so big (even in Neu Yalk).
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/14/2008 11:00 Comments ||
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I believe there's an excess of middle and upper executive talent available today after numerous collapses. That means the real 'bonus' is keeping the job you have by your good performance, not expect 'extras' when actually there are people who are becoming more and more hungry enough to ask for your job at a lower pay rate.
#4
But Steve, that's the whole point. Public funds shouldn't be used for private purposes, and private actors should be making their decisions based on their own market calculations. The article says the targeted employees are at the business divisions being sold to pay back the "loan". That's about AIG's business future, not about survival and playing their supposedly vital role in the financial house of cards just partly collapsed.
One wonders how much potential wealth and innovation have been and are about to be squandered with these dumb interventions. I don't buy Krauthammer's exaggerated stuff about the door to true disaster being opened up by the last disastrous moves of the current administration, but there's little doubt the new folks will manage to inflict major damage on wealth-creation, freedom, and prosperity. And with half the public seemingly unable to get enough of this, due to envy and ignorance, it's incredibly bleak for anyone with a clue and principles.
#5
AIG shouldn't have ANY bonuses. What are they gonna do, quit? They've managed to run their bizniss into the ground and performance counts.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/14/2008 14:38 Comments ||
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I believe there's an excess of middle and upper executive talent available today after numerous collapses
Seems to me they are efectively unhirable after running their previous busines agrond, no-one will hire Known Failed Execuitives. (Ask any pevious ENRON exec.)
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
12/14/2008 14:54 Comments ||
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#7
Retention bonuses indeed. Other companies must be clamoring to get a hold of these blue chip execs. Ok I'm kidding, AIG was the Enron of the insurance industry. The orderly dissolving of AIG by others "poaching their talent" would be a good thing -- by getting a lemon off the public books to make room for the other basket cases we have to bailout..
Posted by: regular joe ||
12/14/2008 14:55 Comments ||
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I'm sure all those who aren't eligible for AIG bonuses are now shopping their resumes. No doubt rominently featuring AIG 2008 in the employment history section.
Posted by: ed ||
12/14/2008 15:01 Comments ||
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I'm actually sympathetic to the retention bonuses. AIG, like Bear Stearns, is not so much being bailed out, as it is being wound down and liquidated. This means that everyone on board today faces termination in the future. It is always easier to find a job when you have one than it is to do so after you're terminated. With or without retention bonuses, every one of the people still at AIG is probably sweating his or her decision to stick around. Not having that bonus makes the decision easier - jump ship today, and have a better chance of being able to make your mortgage payments tomorrow, given that working at AIG is not only a dead end, it's a brick wall.
Why pay bonuses to retain AIG personnel? Because they have specialized company-specific knowledge. The financial world isn't like auto assembly. A lot of esoteric knowledge is passed on from one colleague to another - it changes so much from month to month that writing it all down would require double the work force. And a lot of this knowledge is specific to given clients and situations. If the existing people leave, it might take 5 or 6 people to untangle all the complications now being covered by one person. And all the complications might not even come out - things that could result in millions of dollars worth each of uncollected funds or unchallenged claims from counter-parties. This is all very penny-wise and pound-foolish. If they don't pay the bonuses, existing workers will leave to get head-starts in other companies or industries, and the final bailout tab will be much higher.
I was heavily against the bailout from the beginning. But now that the bailout money has been committed, let's do it properly instead of being penny-wise and pound-foolish. Staff salaries are minuscule compared to the amounts that will be fought over both in and out of court. The existing staff are key to preventing the new owners (i.e. the taxpayer) from being royally screwed by company's counter-parties.
#11
Ok I'm kidding, AIG was the Enron of the insurance industry.
I have to disagree. From a reputational standpoint, AIG is the Goldman Sachs of the insurance industry - it is the gold standard. AIG people will have no problem getting new jobs - these aren't UAW high school dropouts we're talking about here. And - for argument's sake - if they were going to have difficulty getting new jobs, don't you think they would get out today and get a head start, instead of waiting for AIG's carcass to grow cold? These are A-type personalities used to working 11 hours a day and coming in a couple of weekends a month.
Besides, think about the quality of people you're going to be able to hire to replace them - AIG is essentially the walking dead. All that remains to be done is settle the remaining claims and counter-claims before the rotting carcass is tossed in the lime pit. And those claims and counter-claims are for big money. Better to lose hundreds of millions on claims and counter-claims because the replacement workers are either too ignorant, too lazy or too stupid to figure out how to defend Uncle Sam's interests, just so we can say we stuck it to the people who worked for AIG? I don't think so.
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.
Barely a day after Balaka district reported the first death of a man suffering from cholera, government has admitted the disease is fast spreading and four people have so far died in Lilongwe alone. However, government says it has put in place all procedures to control the cholera outbreak which is slowly sweeping across Malawi.
Zimbabwe on Saturday accused the West of waging biological warfare to deliberately start a cholera epidemic that has killed hundreds of people and sickened thousands. The spread of the disease has focused the world's attention on the spectacular collapse of the southern African nation, which often blames its troubles on the West.
Rioting youths in the Greek capital attacked a police station, stores and banks and fought running battles with police late Saturday, authorities said, as violent protests against a police killing continued for the seventh straight day.
