Friday, April 24, 2009

According to Mexican health officials, an epidemic of swine flu has killed at least 68 people and infected a further one thousand inside the country.

Mexican health minister José Ángel Córdova said that the casualty rate appeared to be slowing down, and that there would be no plans to block off Mexican borders. “We’re dealing with a new flu virus that constitutes a respiratory epidemic that so far is controllable,” Córdova stated. He said that the disease had mutated from pigs and was transferred to humans at some point.

Museums and schools for seven million students near Mexico’s capital were closed down in an effort to curb the epidemic, and the government has encouraged people with symptoms of the disease to take leave from work.

The outbreak has spread north to the United States, and US health authorities have reported that eight people were diagnosed with swine flu in Texas and California. However, these people have recovered.

“We are worried. We don’t know if this will lead to the next pandemic, but we will be monitoring it and taking it seriously,” said Dr. Richard Besser, the acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Besser suggested “containment is not very likely” in a telephone briefing on Friday.

Tests conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) found that the virus from a dozen patients was genetically similar to a new outbreak of swine flu, designated as H1N1.

Friday, August 25, 2006

A fire broke out at the Trinity Cathedral in St. Petersburg, causing the main dome and another dome to collapse, early in the evening of August 25.

Firefighters fought the blaze, and a helicopter was pressed into service. Staff, emergency service workers and passers by rescued treasured items from the cathedral.

Four hours later, St. Petersburg emergency department spokeswoman Lyudmila Rubasova said the fires were contained but the remaining domes were damaged. Later a departmental spokesmen said that the fire was extinguished.

“The main dome has been destroyed but we could not stop the fire because it was so high and now other domes are in flames,” said a spokesman for Russia’s emergencies ministry.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but acting St. Petersburg emergency department chief Leonid Belyayev said the blaze seems to have started on scaffolding on the outside of the church, which was undergoing restoration.

He also said that the most valuable icons and other items had been saved, and that structural damage beneath the roof area was minor.

There are no reported injuries.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

No survivors were found today when searchers reached the crash site of PMTair Flight U4 241 in Cambodia, a government minister said.

“All have died. It is confirmed,” Information Minister Khieu Kanharith told reporters.

The wreckage of the PMTair Antonov An-24 was spotted by a helicopter crew early this morning, two days after the plane went missing from radar screens while on a flight from Angkor International Airport in Siem Reap to the beach-resort town of Sihanoukville.

The crash site is located in the Dâmrei Mountains, or Elephant Mountains, northeast of Bokor Hill Station in Kampot Province, about 150 kilometers south of Phnom Penh, the capital.

Rescue helicopter pilot Tep Sitha, speaking to Reuters by mobile telephone, described the crash site as “high on the mountain.”

A search operation involving around 1,000 people had scoured the mountainous jungle territory since the plane crashed on Monday. Monsoon rains, thick jungle and rugged terrain had hampered the search.

The 44-seat plane had 22 people aboard – 16 passengers, plus a flight crew of six – a Russian pilot, two Cambodian co-pilots, a Cambodian flight engineer and two Cambodian flight attendants. Among the passengers, 13 were from South Korea and three were from the Czech Republic.

Around a dozen Korean family members arrived in Phnom Penh yesterday from Seoul, and the Cambodian government said it would pay for their accommodations.

The cause of the crash is yet to be determined by an examination of the flight data recorder, but officials had earlier speculated that weather may have played a part.

The airline, PMTair, is a small Cambodian carrier that listed its fleet at five planes, including two Antonov An-24s, which it used for domestic flights. The type of Soviet-built plane, introduced in 1963, is common in Cambodia’s civil and military aviation fleet.

Sar Sareth, director of PMTair, told the Associated Press yesterday that he did not know what year the crashed plane was built. He said it was in “good condition” before taking off, and “was always in compliance with flight technical and safety procedures.”

The airline had begun regularly scheduled Siem Reap-Sihanoukville flights in January, providing a direct link between the two popular tourist towns.

In addition to domestic service, PMTair has international routes, including direct flights from Seoul to Siem Reap, feeding a large influx of tourists from South Korea in the past few years. Last year, around 250,000 South Koreans visited the country.

Yesterday, a South Korean government agency said it was putting PMTair on a list of carriers it was checking for safety. “As PMT also does business at Incheon International Airport, a special safety inspection for the airline will be carried out until July 6,” Chung Sang-ho, head of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency.

One other Cambodian carrier, Royal Khmer Airlines, was also on the South Korean list, as was Garuda Indonesia, and three Russian carriers, SAT Airlines, Vladivostok Air and Dalavia.

Before Monday’s crash, the worst incident for PMTair was a hard landing in 2005, when a piece of landing gear snapped off an An-24 on landing at Banlung, Ratanakiri, overcrowded with 59 passengers aboard. There were no injuries, but the airline was temporarily grounded after the incident. In another incident, a plane had to return to the airport after takeoff because of engine failure.

The crash is Cambodia’s first major aviation accident in nearly 10 years. In September 1997, a Vietnam Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 crashed while trying to land in heavy rain at Phnom Penh International Airport, killing 65 people and one person, a toddler, surviving.

Friday, April 30, 2021

On Tuesday, the Governor of the US state of Arizona Doug Ducey signed into law a bill banning abortion if sought solely because of a foetus’ genetic abnormality.

Senate Bill 1457, which stalled twice for criticism by opponents of abortion, passed both chambers of the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature last week in a party-line vote, amended twice along the way to alleviate concerns by two hesitant Republicans.

The bill makes it a Class 6 felony, the least severe, to seek or perform an abortion “because of a genetic abnormality of the child”, defined as “the presence or presumed presence of an abnormal gene expression in an unborn child”, but not a “severe fetal abnormality” considered “incompatible with life.” Intimidating someone to get an abortion and soliciting or accepting monies to finance an abortion for this purpose has been made a Class 3 felony.

The bill also allows the unborn child’s father or, in case the mother is under 18, a maternal grandparent to sue, as well as including the applicability of state law to “an unborn child at every stage of development”, which Senator Kirsten Engel and Representative Melody Hernandez wrote in a submitted minority report “would open up the potential for prosecutors to charge persons including the pregnant individual whose conduct results in a woman having a miscarriage with murder, manslaughter or child endangerment.”

Other provisions of the bill includes a prohibition on the distribution “via courier, delivery or mail service” of abortion-inducing drugs, a ban on any public educational institution from performing or aiding non-life saving abortion, a ban on the use of public or tax monies paid by the state or students for university research involving foetal remains or somatic cell nuclear transfer, or any state money towards organisations providing abortion care, and requiring all foetal remains to be buried or cremated.

KYMA-DT reported Ducey is an anti-abortion rights governor who ran on the Republican ballot and has never vetoed anti-abortion legislation. In a statement, Duckey said, “[t]here’s immeasurable value in every single life — regardless of genetic makeup […] We will continue to prioritize protecting life in our preborn children, and this legislation goes a long way in protecting real human lives.” The news release, originally published on his website also read, “[w]ith this legislation, Arizona remains among the top pro-life states in the nation.”

Senator Nancy Barto said, according to the release “[w]e need to protect our most vulnerable, especially those with treatable genetic conditions […] They are loved, integral members of our community that make Arizona whole”. Cathi Herrod, president of Center for Arizona Policy said in her own news release, according to the Associated Press “[t]oday, Arizonans win.”

Representative Diego Espinoza wrote in a tweet, “I’m disappointed to see Arizona moving in this direction, ignoring the needs and desires of doctors, women, and families for an extreme political agenda.” Representative and House Democratic Leader Reginald Bolding wrote in a statement “it’s disturbing and wrong that the legislature is not focusing on policies to help [women], and instead is stripping away the fundamental freedom to choose if, when, and how to start or grow a family.”

In a letter shared to a Facebook post, the union United Campus Workers at Arizona State University urged last Saturday to the Arizona Board of Regents, university president Michael M. Crow and University of Arizona president Robert D. Robbins to “immediately speak out against SB 1457”, calling it “a blatant attack on reproductive freedom”.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

A study by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs presented to a Congressional panel on November 17, has confirmed that Gulf War Syndrome is a legitimate illness contracted by soldiers who took pyridostigmine bromide pills in order to counter the effects of nerve gas during the First Gulf War in Iraq. Several other factors likely contributed to Gulf War Syndrome, including excessive exposure to pesticides, mainly Permethrin and DEET, and chemical weapons residue caused by the American demolition of the Iraqi munitions depot in Khamisiyah.

The report estimates that about 1 out of every 4 veterans of the Gulf War are affected by this illness; this could mean anywhere between 175,000 and 210,000 soldiers are affected by the syndrome. The report also concluded that veterans exposed to the toxins spread by the destruction of the munitions depot have died of brain cancer at double the rate of other Gulf War veterans. Other problems associated with the condition are: fatigue, headaches, joint pain, rashes, breathing difficulty, forgetfulness, circulation problems, and cardiac troubles.

Gulf War Syndrome has been the focal point of veterans rights groups since the illness first became noticed in the early 1990s. The United States and British governments claimed that the illness was merely psychological trauma from war misinterpreted as an illness, and veterans could not receive medical coverage for the illness.

“I feel vindicated, but I’m angry. This is so long overdue,” said Denise Nichols, an advocate for veterans’ rights and a nurse who served during Operation Desert Storm. The National Gulf Veterans and Families Association (NGVFA) said that many veterans committed suicide after learning that the government did not recognize their illness as real.

Friday, April 23, 2021

On Tuesday, Finance Minister of Ireland Paschal Donohoe criticised talks co-ordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for a global minimum corporate tax rate, arguing smaller countries like Ireland “need to be able to use tax policy as a legitimate lever to compensate for the real, material and persistent advantage enjoyed by larger countries”.

Speaking to virtual attendees at a virtual seminar about international tax, Donohoe said any deal must “accommodate Ireland’s 12.5% rate”. This 12.5% rate benefits large corporations including Apple, Google and Facebook which account for one in eight jobs in the country. According to CNBC, corporate tax receipts in Ireland totalled €11.8 billion in 2020, and the Department of Finance has projected, according to The Irish Times that figure increase from €11.6 billion in 2021 to €12.5 billion by 2025.

Donohoe also said Ireland’s low taxes serve as an incentive to attract jobs and investment, saying while he supported an agreement with “appropriate and acceptable tax competition”, it must be lower than the 21% proposed by the United States.

Donohoe said nations should recognise the low tax rates present in Ireland and other small countries, citing “advantages of scale, location, resources, industrial heritage” present in larger ones. Defending his own long-established rate, Donohoe said a 12.5% rate is “within the ambit of healthy tax competition” as a rate which “stimulate[s] investment, growth and innovation, which are core to Ireland’s industrial policy”. According to The Guardian, current proposals would shrink Ireland’s corporate tax base by 20%; and tax receipts to be €2 billon lower than it would otherwise be in 2025, per Irish Department of Finance.

Brian Keegan, the director of public policy at Chartered Accountants Ireland said it was “not tax change, it’s political change”. Head of tax for the OECD Pascal Saint-Amans said “there is a new dynamic that is likely to bring us to a resolution”, and the US’ willingness to address expressed concerns simplifies an admittedly-complex blueprint.

A spokesperson for the Irish Department of Finance told CNBC on Monday “political level discussions on these issues have not yet taken place”.

The Guardian reported many companies in Ireland pay less on revenues as compared to other countries; with Apple paying as little as 0.005% in 2014. A European Commission ruling in 2016 ordered Apple to pay €13 billion it owed back taxes to the Government of Ireland ; it was struck down in July on the grounds “[t]he commission did not succeed in showing to the requisite legal standard that there was an advantage.”