dw.com - Germany is celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation on Tuesday with a national holiday and ceremonies in the eastern city of Wittenberg, where Martin Luther began a split in the Catholic Church that transformed Christianity and Europe.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Saxony-Anhalt state Premier Reiner Haseloff will attend several ceremonies in Wittenberg — starting with an afternoon church service in the city's Castle Church and ending with a ceremony in the city hall in the evening.
They will be joined by other German politicians and numerous international guests.
Ahead of the anniversary, Merkel said in a podcast that Tuesday's ceremonies provide "the opportunity to reflect on what changes resulted from the Reformation."
Luther, a theology professor and priest, questioned the Catholic Church's teachings and challenged the Vatican's authority through his "95 Theses." He is believed to have nailed the theses to the door of Wittenberg's Castle Church on October 31, 1517.
Performances by musicians and comedians will also take place in Wittenberg's historic city center, which has been styled to recreate the medieval era in which Luther lived.
Visitors can also attend a modern art exhibition in the city as well as a light show.
Read more: How Martin Luther became the first Christian pop star
Several other events, exhibits and church services are also taking place across Germany to mark the anniversary.
Last night, members of Berlin's protestant youth organization nailed their own theses to the doors of around 300 churches in the German capital. Berlin state youth pastor Sarah Oltmanns told protestant news angency EPD that the youths prepared their church reform suggestions for two years in workshops and other events. (ontinueReading
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Monday, October 30, 2017
Kazakhstan's leader changes country's name to 'Qazaqstan' in rebuff to Putin interference
The former Soviet state announced on Friday (October 27) it will appoint a national committee to oversee the country's transition to the Latin alphabet by 2025. As a result the spelling of the country will change in line with a more accurate Latin spelling.
"[Latin] is used by approximately 70% of all countries, making it an essential part of communicating across the globe, especially in terms of technology, business, science and education," its foreign ministry said.
Currently the country uses a Cyrillic alphabet, which was introduced in 1940 by the then ruling Soviet Union. The adapted Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet contains 42 letters, including 9 reserved for Kazakh language sounds.
Although Kazakh is the government's official language, Russian is still widely spoken and around one-fifth of the nation's 18 million citizens use Russian on a day-to-day basis.
Kazakh is from the family of Turkic languages and was originally written in Arabic up until the 1920s, when Russian authorities introduced the Latin alphabet. They subsequently changed it to Cyrillic two decades later.
Observers believe the move is likely to anger the Kremlin, which still exerts control over the oil-rich nation. Since independence in 1991, Kazakhstan's large ethnic Russian population has resulted in close political ties with Moscow. During the Crimean crisis in 2014, Vladimir Putin pledged to protect ethically Russian populations around the region, which has deeply worried officials in Astana, Kazakhstan's capital.
Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country's 77-year-old president, has long touted a move away from Russian influence and has recently accelerated plans for a Latin alphabet. In a newspaper column in April, he stated that teaching of Roman alphabet would begin in 2018, alongside the introduction of new school textbooks.
Nazarbayev has been in charge of Kazakhstan since the fall of communism in 1991 and is officially styled as 'Leader of the Nation.' The long-serving politician has been subject to criticism by human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, who have accused him of presiding over an authoritarian regime. He successfully fought a presidential election in 2015 and won 98% of the vote.
Related: Kazakhstan to change from Cyrillic to Latin alphabet
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Kurdish leader says he will step down in wake of failed bid for independence from Iraq
washingtonpost.com BAGHDAD — The longtime president of the Iraqi region of Kurdistan said Sunday that he intends to resign, a month after he led a widely criticized referendum on independence that triggered a military response by the Iraqi government.
Masoud Barzani, whose father had been the face of the Kurdish minority’s struggle in Iraq, had promised that the vote would be a vital step in a century-long fight for self-rule. Instead, it unraveled many of the gains the Kurds had made in carving out a semiautonomous region in northern Iraq after decades of war.
Barzani’s intention to step down was announced in a letter addressed to the Kurdistan region’s parliament on Sunday. It was not clear whether Barzani intends to leave public life or whether his resignation would simply curtail his powers and redistribute authority to the legislature and the prime minister of the Kurdish Regional Government.
A senior aide to Barzani said in a Twitter post that the president would not seek an extension of his mandate past Wednesday. Nov. 1 was the date of a planned election for president and parliament that has now been postponed indefinitely.
Barzani has been president of KRG since 2005 and has continued to serve in the role despite his term expiring in 2013. He engineered several extensions through parliament, roiling his opposition amid a security and financial crisis sparked by the rise of the Islamic State militant group in 2014 and the collapse of global oil prices.
Several of his Kurdish political opponents and Iraq’s central government accused Barzani of staging the referendum to shore up his shaky legal hold on the presidency.
His supporters, on the other hand, consider him the only credible candidate to lead the Kurds in a long-deferred quest for self-rule.
The aide, Hemin Hawrami, said Barzani wrote in his letter to parliament on Sunday that he will continue to serve Kurds as a member of the peshmerga, the armed forces of the Kurdish region.
Mustafa Barzani, Masoud’s father, led the forces in multiple uprisings against Iraqi rule dating to the 1940s and held the largely ceremonial position of commander until his death in 1979.
Barzani and his powerful family had been the primary architects of a referendum held last month on independence from Iraq. His son is the head of the KRG security council, and his nephew is prime minister.
Voters overwhelmingly approved of the move, but Barzani has been repeatedly warned by Iraq’s central government, the United States and regional powerslike Iran and Turkey that its results would not be recognized.
Barzani pressed on, even as Kurdish opposition groups expressed misgivings about the timing and scope of the vote. (ontinueReading
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Election Day In Iceland: Polls Open Under Cloud Of Scandals
- Polls are now open in Iceland, and citizens will be casting their ballots for parliament in the midst of scandals that have drawn international attention.
Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson was amongst the Icelanders who voted today, and the reason why Icelanders are voting a year to the day from previous elections is largely because of him.
The revelations that Bjarni’s father had signed a letter of recommendations for a convicted paedophile to have his civil standing restored, and that Bjarni had deliberately kept this information from the press and the public, ultimately led to the dissolution of the government. Rather than attempt to form a new coalition government, parliament opted to hold snap elections.
This condensed election season has been decidedly fierce. Local newspaper Stundin was slapped with an injunction last week, and thereby prevented from reporting on Bjarni’s financial activities shortly before the 2008 crash. The right wing press has been diligent in paying for boosted attack articles on social media.
Final polling has shown great uncertainty regarding who will lead Iceland’s next government. While there has been considerable speculation that the Left-Greens will win the mandate to form the next coalition, current polling shows that no two-party coalitions are possible, and any left wing coalition could require at least three parties, with the support of a possible fourth centrist party. Meanwhile, a right wing coalition of three parties could prove more feasible, but there is considerable doubt regarding whether the Independence Party, from which Bjarni hails, will be given the mandate by the President, considering the scandals which have dogged them. (ontinueReading
Friday, October 27, 2017
Failed Spain to impose direct rule over Catalonia after region declares independence
washingtonpost.com - BARCELONA — The Spanish Senate gave the central government in Madrid unprecedented powers over Catalonia on Friday, just minutes after the breakaway region declared independence, sharply escalating a constitutional crisis in the center of western Europe.
The two votes — one for independence, one to restore constitutional rule — came in dueling sessions of parliaments in Barcelona and Madrid.
The central government easily won permission to take over control of Catalonia. Meanwhile, secessionists in Catalonia faced bitter recriminations from Catalan foes who called the move for nationhood a coup and a historical blunder, a month after a referendum that backed a split from Spain.
The widening impasse has left little middle ground in Spain for possible compromises and has spilled over to the European Union, whose leaders fearanother internal crisis after major upheavals such as Britain’s exit from the bloc and the financial meltdown in Greece.
Immediately after the vote for independence, European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted: “For EU nothing changes. Spain remains our only interlocutor. I hope the Spanish government favours force of argument, not argument of force.”
Tusk’s remark mirrors fears in Catalonia that the Spanish government will employ police and harsh tactics to take back control of the region.
After the day’s votes, the State Department made clear where Washington stands: “Catalonia is an integral part of Spain, and the United States supports the Spanish government’s constitutional measures to keep Spain strong and united.”
What happens now is unclear, though the newly declared republic will struggle to assert itself. Spain’s Constitutional Court will almost certainly declare it illegal, the central government will try to take over the Catalan regional ministries, and few countries in Europe have shown any willingness so far to recognize an independent Catalonia.
The final ballot was 70 to 10 in favor of the declaration of independence in the Catalan Parliament, where 55 deputies declined to vote, showing the deep divisions.
“We have won the freedom to build a new country,” Catalonia’s regional vice president, Oriol Junqueras, tweeted.
Encarna Buitrago was with her friends in a flag-waving crowd in front of the parliament in Barcelona when independence was declared. Many began to weep at the news. (ontinueReading
The two votes — one for independence, one to restore constitutional rule — came in dueling sessions of parliaments in Barcelona and Madrid.
The central government easily won permission to take over control of Catalonia. Meanwhile, secessionists in Catalonia faced bitter recriminations from Catalan foes who called the move for nationhood a coup and a historical blunder, a month after a referendum that backed a split from Spain.
The widening impasse has left little middle ground in Spain for possible compromises and has spilled over to the European Union, whose leaders fearanother internal crisis after major upheavals such as Britain’s exit from the bloc and the financial meltdown in Greece.
Immediately after the vote for independence, European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted: “For EU nothing changes. Spain remains our only interlocutor. I hope the Spanish government favours force of argument, not argument of force.”
Tusk’s remark mirrors fears in Catalonia that the Spanish government will employ police and harsh tactics to take back control of the region.
After the day’s votes, the State Department made clear where Washington stands: “Catalonia is an integral part of Spain, and the United States supports the Spanish government’s constitutional measures to keep Spain strong and united.”
What happens now is unclear, though the newly declared republic will struggle to assert itself. Spain’s Constitutional Court will almost certainly declare it illegal, the central government will try to take over the Catalan regional ministries, and few countries in Europe have shown any willingness so far to recognize an independent Catalonia.
The final ballot was 70 to 10 in favor of the declaration of independence in the Catalan Parliament, where 55 deputies declined to vote, showing the deep divisions.
“We have won the freedom to build a new country,” Catalonia’s regional vice president, Oriol Junqueras, tweeted.
Encarna Buitrago was with her friends in a flag-waving crowd in front of the parliament in Barcelona when independence was declared. Many began to weep at the news. (ontinueReading
Thursday, October 26, 2017
TRIGGERED: Food company Kellogg to remove "racist" Corn Pops cereal packaging
*contains strong language
Writer and graphic novelist Saladin Ahmed noticed the offending cartoon on a Corn Pops box and tweeted a complaint to Kellogg's. The cartoon game asked kids to find corn pops engaged in various activities in a crowded mall, with characters taking a selfie, jumping rope or sunbathing.
But Ahmed discovered the only brown-skinned Corn Pop in the image—and he was the mall’s janitor.
Kellogg's responded quickly to Ahmed’s complaints through the company’s Twitter account. “Kellogg is committed to diversity & inclusion. We did not intend to offend—we apologize. The artwork is updated & will be in stores soon,” the response on social media read.
Ahmed then thanked Kellogg's for its swift message and action. “Genuinely appreciate the rapid response,” he tweeted and then marveled at the irony of using modern technology to address historical racial problems. “Today I used the computer in my pocket to get a cereal company to make their boxes less racist,” he wrote. “What even is the 21 century?” he added.
Unfortunately, the tale did not have an entirely happy ending, as clearly Ahmed then had to deal with some trolls on the social media site. “Avoiding my mentions which are particularly full of upset racist dipshits right now,” he wrote. “Sorry if that means I have missed your non-dipshit words.”
Kellogg's has in the past attracted controversy from the right-wing of the political spectrum. In November 2016, the U.S.-based multinational pulled its advertisements from the far-right news outlet Breitbart, saying the company was not “aligned with our values.” In response, the website declared war on the company, calling for a boycott of its products online and on social media. (ontinueReading
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
China Focus: Confident Xi begins second term with ambitious promises for "new era"
BEIJING, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- A dark suit, red tie and familiar air of confidence. Xi Jinping's first public appearance in his second term as helmsman of the world's largest political party brought back memories from five years ago when he first took over the leadership of the Party.
His ambitious roadmap and grand vision for the future, however, suggests a "new era" has dawned.
Addressing journalists shortly after the first plenary session of the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee elected the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee Wednesday morning, Xi described the next five years as a period of "important junctures and signposts."
"In this new context, we must get a new look and, more importantly, make new accomplishments," said Xi who was elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee for his second term.
He said the world's second-largest economy would continue to deepen reform and open itself wider to the world in the next five years.
It will strive for sustainable economic growth, prosperity for all, while working with other nations to "build a global community with a shared future" to make "new and greater contributions to the noble cause of peace and development for all humanity."
"The CPC, meanwhile, will become a mighty and nationwide force driving China's development and progress, and rid itself of any virus that erodes the Party's fabric," he said.
"We should never entertain the idea of taking a breather or halting our steps," Xi told 1.3 billion Chinese in the televised address.
That sense of mission and resolve echoed Xi's words in November 2012.
Five years ago when Xi strode into the Great Hall of the People as the Party's top leader, he had inherited a slowing economy, widening wealth gap and widespread corruption.
To counter these problems, Xi promised a long list of "supply-side structural reform," including defusing the debt bomb and phasing out obsolete industry.
He has also launched the most thorough anti-corruption campaign in Chinese history, giving sharper teeth to the Party's discipline agency, and worked to upgrade the Party's governance of the country.
Xi's unparalleled determination and resolve paid off. Between 2013 and 2016, China's GDP expanded by an average annual rate of 7.2 percent, compared to 4 percent growth in developing economies, and just 2.5 percent for the world.
The number of people living in poverty dropped to 43.35 million at the end of 2016, from nearly 100 million at the end of 2012.
Overwhelming momentum has been gained in the fight against corruption, sweeping reform launched across the military, and China-led projects -- such as Belt and Road Initiative -- reflected in UN documents.
These "historical changes" have led many to ask the same question. What might China achieve next with Xi at the helm?
The next five years will be a critical time for the CPC, which boasts more than 89 million members, to realize the vision of China's development that Xi has set out.
China has set 2020 as the target year to finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects -- or Xiaokang -- just one year before the CPC celebrates its 100th anniversary.
But Xi's impact on China's future may run much further than this.
Last week, Xi declared that Chinese socialism had entered a "new era" and spelled out a two-stage development plan for the country to become a "great modern socialist country" by the middle of the century.
China will build on the foundation created by the "moderately prosperous society" with another 15 years of hard work, to ensure that socialist modernization is "basically realized by 2035."
By the mid-21st century, China will become "a global leader in terms of composite national strength and international influence," Xi told more than 2,300 applauding delegates.
This means China has set a higher goal for about 30 years from now, and its modernization drive is picking up speed.
It also means for the first time in human history, over 1 billion people will be lifted into modernity at one time.
"With decades of hard work, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era," Xi told reporters Wednesday.
"The Chinese people should certainly take pride in the unprecedented progress the nation has made over the past several decades, which has raised living standards in China and in other countries as well," said Robert Daly, director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
"China's rise fully justifies the announcement of a 'new era,' both for China and for the world," he said. (ontinueReading
Is Xi Jinping About to Push China Into Another Maoist Era?
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
PM elect Jacinda Ardern: ‘Capitalism has failed New Zealanders’
theaustralian.com.au - New Zealand prime-minister-elect Jacinda Ardern has said she is prepared to pull out of the Trans Pacific Partnership while outlining her goals for her first 100 days in office.
Ms Ardern, who has been on a weekend media blitz, also warned the Turnbull government she would retaliate if Australia moved to restrict tertiary entry for New Zealanders.
Ms Ardern has cited New Zealand’s poverty and homelessness among her top priorities, yesterday calling capitalism a “blatant failure” in her country. Today, she doubled down.
“There is no point gloating about the economic growth of a nation if you have some of the highest rates of homelessness in the developed world,” local media quoted Ms Ardern as saying.
“My view is there a role for us to play where we are being much more proactive and intervening where there are signs the market is failing our people.”
Said she was not concerned her comments might trigger a “winter of discontent” with the New Zealand business community.
“Not at all ... I intend to work in partnership [with business] Ours will be a government of partnership.”
However, the 37-year-old Labour leader said she was prepared to pull out of the TPP trade agreement if it precluded her government from restricting foreign ownership for housing.
“Our view has been that there has to be a balance between delivering for our exporters but also making sure we can protect the ability of New Zealanders to buy homes, our view is we can do both.”
Raising the minimum wage to $NZ16.50 is also on her 100-day agenda, the New Zealand Herald reports.
She said she planned to visit Australia “as soon as I am able” and urged the Turnbull government not to follow through with a shelved plan to increase tertiary fees for Kiwi students and other permanent residents. She warned her government would reciprocate if it did.
“I hope we have the mutual access that we had in the past so I certainly hope that it doesn’t come to that,” Ms Ardern told Sky News on Sunday.
“But if we do find that New Zealanders aren’t able to access tertiary education in the same way as Australian students currently do then there will be flow-on effects here.”
In her first major TV interview since her elevation on Thursday, Ms Ardern said New Zealanders were not feeling the benefits of prosperity. Asked if capitalism had failed New Zealanders on low incomes, the prime minister-elect was blunt: “If you have hundreds of thousands of children living in homes without enough to survive, that’s a blatant failure. What else could you describe it as?”
“When you have a market economy, it all comes down to whether or not you acknowledge where the market has failed and where intervention is required. Has it failed our people in recent times? Yes.
“Wages are not keeping up with inflation (and) and how can you claim you’ve been successful when you have growth at roughly 3 per cent, but you have the worst homelessness in the developed world?”
Real measures that the public can rate the government on are important, Miss Ardern said, citing improved waterways, child poverty, homelessness and building 10,000 new homes every year to judge them on.
Ms Ardern said the biggest difference between National and the incoming coalition government would be change, vowing the Labour-NZ First-Greens coalition would be active and “won’t leave anything to chance”.
She also said there would be compromise on Labour’s desire for the minimum wage to be raised to NZ$16.50 and New Zealand’s First to have it at NZ$20.
“We have common ground and you will see change in this area.” Ms Ardern said despite there being three parties in a coalition, things have come a long way since MMP began in 1996, and there was confidence this would be an “effective and efficient” government. (ontinueReading
Ms Ardern, who has been on a weekend media blitz, also warned the Turnbull government she would retaliate if Australia moved to restrict tertiary entry for New Zealanders.
Ms Ardern has cited New Zealand’s poverty and homelessness among her top priorities, yesterday calling capitalism a “blatant failure” in her country. Today, she doubled down.
“There is no point gloating about the economic growth of a nation if you have some of the highest rates of homelessness in the developed world,” local media quoted Ms Ardern as saying.
“My view is there a role for us to play where we are being much more proactive and intervening where there are signs the market is failing our people.”
Said she was not concerned her comments might trigger a “winter of discontent” with the New Zealand business community.
“Not at all ... I intend to work in partnership [with business] Ours will be a government of partnership.”
However, the 37-year-old Labour leader said she was prepared to pull out of the TPP trade agreement if it precluded her government from restricting foreign ownership for housing.
“Our view has been that there has to be a balance between delivering for our exporters but also making sure we can protect the ability of New Zealanders to buy homes, our view is we can do both.”
Raising the minimum wage to $NZ16.50 is also on her 100-day agenda, the New Zealand Herald reports.
She said she planned to visit Australia “as soon as I am able” and urged the Turnbull government not to follow through with a shelved plan to increase tertiary fees for Kiwi students and other permanent residents. She warned her government would reciprocate if it did.
“I hope we have the mutual access that we had in the past so I certainly hope that it doesn’t come to that,” Ms Ardern told Sky News on Sunday.
“But if we do find that New Zealanders aren’t able to access tertiary education in the same way as Australian students currently do then there will be flow-on effects here.”
In her first major TV interview since her elevation on Thursday, Ms Ardern said New Zealanders were not feeling the benefits of prosperity. Asked if capitalism had failed New Zealanders on low incomes, the prime minister-elect was blunt: “If you have hundreds of thousands of children living in homes without enough to survive, that’s a blatant failure. What else could you describe it as?”
“When you have a market economy, it all comes down to whether or not you acknowledge where the market has failed and where intervention is required. Has it failed our people in recent times? Yes.
“Wages are not keeping up with inflation (and) and how can you claim you’ve been successful when you have growth at roughly 3 per cent, but you have the worst homelessness in the developed world?”
Ms Ardern said the biggest difference between National and the incoming coalition government would be change, vowing the Labour-NZ First-Greens coalition would be active and “won’t leave anything to chance”.
She also said there would be compromise on Labour’s desire for the minimum wage to be raised to NZ$16.50 and New Zealand’s First to have it at NZ$20.
“We have common ground and you will see change in this area.” Ms Ardern said despite there being three parties in a coalition, things have come a long way since MMP began in 1996, and there was confidence this would be an “effective and efficient” government. (ontinueReading
Further Reading:
Monday, October 23, 2017
Massachusetts boy, 7, mauled by pit bulls, cops say
Foxnews.com - A 7-year-old boy was attacked and killed by two pit bulls in Massachusetts after apparently entering an enclosed area Saturday Oct. 21 officials said.
The Middlesex district attorney's office said a preliminary investigation suggests the boy was attacked in Lowell around 6 p.m. after entering a fenced area where the dogs were located.
Officers responding to a report of an injured child at the home arrived at the scene to find the child already dead.
"I heard someone yelling, 'It's my baby! It's my baby!' and I come to find out that it was my daughter's friend's son," neighbor Annmarie Dizazzo told Boston 25 News.
Authorities said one of the pit bulls escaped after the attack before it was captured and euthanized. The other pit bull is in the custody of the city's animal control.
The district attorney's office has not yet identified the child, and charges have yet to be filed as of early Sunday.
Lowell is located about 30 miles north of Boston.
The Middlesex district attorney's office said a preliminary investigation suggests the boy was attacked in Lowell around 6 p.m. after entering a fenced area where the dogs were located.
Officers responding to a report of an injured child at the home arrived at the scene to find the child already dead.
"I heard someone yelling, 'It's my baby! It's my baby!' and I come to find out that it was my daughter's friend's son," neighbor Annmarie Dizazzo told Boston 25 News.
Authorities said one of the pit bulls escaped after the attack before it was captured and euthanized. The other pit bull is in the custody of the city's animal control.
The district attorney's office has not yet identified the child, and charges have yet to be filed as of early Sunday.
Lowell is located about 30 miles north of Boston.
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Racially insensitive video ends VA school’s football season
SHORT PUMP, Va. — A middle school football team in Virginia has forfeited the remainder of its season after players made a racially insensitive video.
The video posted on Snapchat shows football players simulating sex acts on their black peers, WWBT-TV reported. The images are overlaid with racially charged language. Police have been investigating the incident.
The team at Short Pump Middle School outside Richmond had three games left in the season and will continue to meet for practice and participate in mandatory discussions over racial intolerance, ethics and accountability.
Frank J. Thornton, president of Henrico County’s NAACP, said school officials took a step in the right direction, but he questioned whether the district is equipped to get to the root of the problem.
“You can’t just sugar-coat,” Thornton told the Richmond Times-Dispatch . “You need a group who really knows what they’re doing.”
April Sullivan, a parent of a student at the school, agreed. She told the newspaper the school should do more “to address the systemic class and race issues that exist in society in general and Henrico County in particular.”
In a letter to the community released Friday, the Henrico County School Board said it is developing steps to prevent future incidents and will include parents in that discussion.
Not all of the team’s players were involved in the video, but school board members said the lessons to be learned should be reinforced with the entire team.
“Our hope is to use this very unfortunate event as a meaningful learning opportunity for students moving forward,” the letter said. (ontinueReading
Saturday, October 21, 2017
WHO names Mugabe 'goodwill ambassador', universe outraged
- Doctors, medical personnel and donors -who fund much of Zimbabwe’s health services - are outraged that President Robert Mugabe has been named a “goodwill” ambassador by the World Health Organisation.
Mugabe was declared a “goodwill ambassador” by the organisation earlier on in the week in Uruguay, a move that sent shock waves throughout the medical community.
A donor based in the city of Bulawayo reacted in shock to the news.
“We have stunting in about 30% of kids under five at present in our part of the world.
“How can WHO do this? Let’s go to Mpilo Hospital? (The main state hospital in Bulawayo) Let’s look at the clinics? Why are ARV’s short? Why are there so many very hungry kids in this province, every day. Hundreds of thousands of them. It’s disgraceful.”
He asked not to be named to protect his contacts in the provincial health system.
A provincial health official from northern Zimbabwe also expressed shock at the news, saying he could not understand how the WHO had given an award to Mugabe when kids continued to go hungry.
“We know what is going on, and there isn’t even safe water at some schools around here. We have no drugs. The clinics have nothing as well. There is malaria here," he said.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) meanwhile, has described the WHO award to Mugabe as “laughable.”
Zimbabwe has had a long history of poor health service, being plagued by cholera, a shortage of drugs and a failing health system.
The country experienced the world’s lowest life expectancy after 26 years of Mugabe’s rule. In 2006, WHO recorded that women were only expected to live until they were 36, and men to 37.
By that time it was almost impossible, politically, for donors to operate in Zimbabwe but the World Food Programme (WFP) was feeding millions of people as Mugabe and his colleagues had destroyed agricultural production.
The collapsed economy also meant that most state hospitals were closed by mid 2008.
Mortuaries had unreliable electricity, and the stench at state hospitals was often bad, particularly in eastern city of Mutare where the city council had to hire a bulldozer to dig a mass grave in order to bury rotting, uncollected corpses of poor people whose families could not afford to bury them.
After extreme political violence aimed at the (MDC) following its victory in the 2008 elections, the second worst cholera epidemic in the world broke out, affecting Harare mainly.
Water supplies in the bankrupt city had broken down after years of lack of maintenance, and a shortage of cash for purification chemicals resulted in many people digging wells at their homes to find water.
The very same water however, was often polluted by sewage from the unstable, collapsing sewage system.
More then 100 000 people then caught cholera, of which about 6 000 died.
Organisations like Oxfam said the high death rate had some of its roots in the population’s poor nutritional status at that time.
People died - literally in front of reporters' eyes - day after day, in the crumbling old ‘locations’, particularly in the west of the city where people were drinking water infected with faeces.
Donors, including churches, put in boreholes while NGOs and MDC MPs went house-to-house, trying to educate people on ways to find clean water, as well as offering families free graves when they were overwhelmed by so many deaths.
Zanu-PF was nowhere to be seen, but army doctors, Doctors without Borders (MSF) as well as some state and municipal nurses, appalled at what they saw, worked long hours at the emergency cholera clinics set up by donors around the city.
All this while the State tried to prevent reporters from interviewing victims at emergency cholera treatment centres.
Staff from the UN’s Office of the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, from Pretoria also descended upon Harare when the cholera epidemic started and told journalists they were appalled at Zimbabwe’s failed health service.
Some of them were critical of some of their mute, comfortable UN colleagues assigned to Harare, who seldom spoke up about gross human rights abuses which gripped the country for several previous years.
In 2009, an inclusive government came to power, which included the MDC. At that time most hospitals were closed.
There were no drugs and women could not give birth in public hospitals.
The inclusive government attracted many donors who brought in experts to get hospital doors open again and provide drugs for many HIV sufferers, particularly in rural area; as a result, hospitals doors opened again.
Despite all these efforts, the country's health service remained a cause for concern.
While life expectancy, maternal deaths and infant mortality rates saw an improvement from 2009 figures, the health system continued falling apart.
The Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare, the only teaching hospital, closed down its toilets on the ground floor.
Three months ago, several nurses at the hospital told Independent Newspapers they had nowhere to live within the hospital any more as toilets were broken down.
The mortuary was not working properly at that time either. The hospital looks and is, largely derelict.
Four major hospitals - Harare Central, Parirenyatwa, United Bulawayo Hospitals, and Mpilo Central - all have critical shortages of drugs.
Mpilo Central "has below 50% of its requirements,” the hospital revealed in a recent statement.
Most patients, even the poorest, meanwhile, often have to find money to pay for drugs at state hospitals.
So dire is the state of the country's hospitals, Mugabe himself refuses to use them when seeking treatment, opting to consults doctors in Singapore.
The president spends hundreds of millions of rands several times a year on medical treatment, using one of only three Air Zimbabwe planes to fly to Asia to get treatment for his eyes; this despite Zimbabwe having good eye specialists.
Senior Zanu-PF officials also choose to seek medical treatment in other countries, with the likes of vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa opting to seek treatment in South Africa.
The same can be said for cancer treatment, with patients having no access to chemotherapy.
Update: WHO revokes Mugabe goodwill ambassador role
Mugabe was declared a “goodwill ambassador” by the organisation earlier on in the week in Uruguay, a move that sent shock waves throughout the medical community.
A donor based in the city of Bulawayo reacted in shock to the news.
“We have stunting in about 30% of kids under five at present in our part of the world.
“How can WHO do this? Let’s go to Mpilo Hospital? (The main state hospital in Bulawayo) Let’s look at the clinics? Why are ARV’s short? Why are there so many very hungry kids in this province, every day. Hundreds of thousands of them. It’s disgraceful.”
He asked not to be named to protect his contacts in the provincial health system.
A provincial health official from northern Zimbabwe also expressed shock at the news, saying he could not understand how the WHO had given an award to Mugabe when kids continued to go hungry.
“We know what is going on, and there isn’t even safe water at some schools around here. We have no drugs. The clinics have nothing as well. There is malaria here," he said.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) meanwhile, has described the WHO award to Mugabe as “laughable.”
Zimbabwe has had a long history of poor health service, being plagued by cholera, a shortage of drugs and a failing health system.
The country experienced the world’s lowest life expectancy after 26 years of Mugabe’s rule. In 2006, WHO recorded that women were only expected to live until they were 36, and men to 37.
By that time it was almost impossible, politically, for donors to operate in Zimbabwe but the World Food Programme (WFP) was feeding millions of people as Mugabe and his colleagues had destroyed agricultural production.
The collapsed economy also meant that most state hospitals were closed by mid 2008.
Mortuaries had unreliable electricity, and the stench at state hospitals was often bad, particularly in eastern city of Mutare where the city council had to hire a bulldozer to dig a mass grave in order to bury rotting, uncollected corpses of poor people whose families could not afford to bury them.
After extreme political violence aimed at the (MDC) following its victory in the 2008 elections, the second worst cholera epidemic in the world broke out, affecting Harare mainly.
Water supplies in the bankrupt city had broken down after years of lack of maintenance, and a shortage of cash for purification chemicals resulted in many people digging wells at their homes to find water.
The very same water however, was often polluted by sewage from the unstable, collapsing sewage system.
More then 100 000 people then caught cholera, of which about 6 000 died.
Organisations like Oxfam said the high death rate had some of its roots in the population’s poor nutritional status at that time.
People died - literally in front of reporters' eyes - day after day, in the crumbling old ‘locations’, particularly in the west of the city where people were drinking water infected with faeces.
Donors, including churches, put in boreholes while NGOs and MDC MPs went house-to-house, trying to educate people on ways to find clean water, as well as offering families free graves when they were overwhelmed by so many deaths.
Zanu-PF was nowhere to be seen, but army doctors, Doctors without Borders (MSF) as well as some state and municipal nurses, appalled at what they saw, worked long hours at the emergency cholera clinics set up by donors around the city.
All this while the State tried to prevent reporters from interviewing victims at emergency cholera treatment centres.
Staff from the UN’s Office of the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, from Pretoria also descended upon Harare when the cholera epidemic started and told journalists they were appalled at Zimbabwe’s failed health service.
Some of them were critical of some of their mute, comfortable UN colleagues assigned to Harare, who seldom spoke up about gross human rights abuses which gripped the country for several previous years.
In 2009, an inclusive government came to power, which included the MDC. At that time most hospitals were closed.
There were no drugs and women could not give birth in public hospitals.
The inclusive government attracted many donors who brought in experts to get hospital doors open again and provide drugs for many HIV sufferers, particularly in rural area; as a result, hospitals doors opened again.
Despite all these efforts, the country's health service remained a cause for concern.
While life expectancy, maternal deaths and infant mortality rates saw an improvement from 2009 figures, the health system continued falling apart.
The Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare, the only teaching hospital, closed down its toilets on the ground floor.
Three months ago, several nurses at the hospital told Independent Newspapers they had nowhere to live within the hospital any more as toilets were broken down.
The mortuary was not working properly at that time either. The hospital looks and is, largely derelict.
Four major hospitals - Harare Central, Parirenyatwa, United Bulawayo Hospitals, and Mpilo Central - all have critical shortages of drugs.
Mpilo Central "has below 50% of its requirements,” the hospital revealed in a recent statement.
Most patients, even the poorest, meanwhile, often have to find money to pay for drugs at state hospitals.
So dire is the state of the country's hospitals, Mugabe himself refuses to use them when seeking treatment, opting to consults doctors in Singapore.
The president spends hundreds of millions of rands several times a year on medical treatment, using one of only three Air Zimbabwe planes to fly to Asia to get treatment for his eyes; this despite Zimbabwe having good eye specialists.
Senior Zanu-PF officials also choose to seek medical treatment in other countries, with the likes of vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa opting to seek treatment in South Africa.
The same can be said for cancer treatment, with patients having no access to chemotherapy.
Update: WHO revokes Mugabe goodwill ambassador role
Friday, October 20, 2017
Spain plans new elections in Catalonia to end independence bid: opposition
MADRID (Reuters) - The Spanish government has secured opposition support for dissolving Catalonia’s parliament and holding new elections there in January in its bid to check the regional government’s push for independence.
The Socialists, the main opposition, said on Friday they would back special measures to impose central rule on the region to thwart the secessionist-minded Catalan government and end a crisis that has unsettled the euro and hurt confidence in the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who wants opposition support to be able to present a united front in the crisis, has called an emergency cabinet meeting on Saturday to pave the way for Madrid establishing central control in the region.
The government would not confirm whether January elections formed a part of the package, with Rajoy saying only that the measures would be announced on Saturday.
However a government spokesman saw regional elections as likely. “The logical end to this process would be new elections established within the law,” said government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo at a weekly government press conference.
It will be the first time in Spain’s four decades of democracy that Madrid has invoked the constitution to effectively sack a regional government and call new elections.
Head of state King Felipe used a prizegiving ceremony in the northwestern region of Asturias to indicate support for the government and affirm the unity of Spain, of which he said “Catalonia is and will remain an essential part.”
“Spain needs to face up to an unacceptable secession attempt on its national territory, which it will resolve through its legitimate democratic institutions,” said the monarch, a ceremonial figure who sharply criticized Catalan leaders earlier this month.
Rajoy wants as broad a consensus as possible before taking the step, which has raised the prospect of more large-scale protests in Catalonia, where pro-independence groups have been able to bring more than one million people out onto the streets.
Regional authorities said around 90 percent voted for independence though only 43 percent of voters participated. Opponents of secession mostly stayed home. (ontinueReading
Further Reading: Spain, Bolivia, Iraq, and the Fallacy of Nation-Sate
Thursday, October 19, 2017
New study suggests insect populations have declined by 75% over 3 decades
(CNN) A new scientific study has found "dramatic" and "alarming" declines in insect populations in areas in Germany, which researchers say could have far-reaching consequences for the world's crop production and natural ecosystems.
The study, published on Wednesday in peer-reviewed journal PLOS One has found that, in German nature reserves, flying insect populations have declined by more than 75% over the duration of the 27-year study.
"The flying insect community as a whole... has been decimated over the last few decades," said the study, which was conducted by Researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands and the Entomological Society Krefeld in Germany.
"Loss of insect diversity and abundance is expected to provoke cascading effects on food webs and to jeopardize ecosystem services."
Co-author Caspar Hallman said he and his colleagues were "very, very surprised" by the results.
"These are not agricultural areas, these are locations meant to preserve biodiversity, but still we see the insects slipping out of our hands," he told CNN.
The study, published on Wednesday in peer-reviewed journal PLOS One has found that, in German nature reserves, flying insect populations have declined by more than 75% over the duration of the 27-year study.
"The flying insect community as a whole... has been decimated over the last few decades," said the study, which was conducted by Researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands and the Entomological Society Krefeld in Germany.
"Loss of insect diversity and abundance is expected to provoke cascading effects on food webs and to jeopardize ecosystem services."
Co-author Caspar Hallman said he and his colleagues were "very, very surprised" by the results.
"These are not agricultural areas, these are locations meant to preserve biodiversity, but still we see the insects slipping out of our hands," he told CNN.
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Daughter of Putin's mentor, Russian It-girl Ksenia Sobchak, announces her presidential bid
RT.com - Russian jet setter, TV personality, glossy magazine editor and all-around It-girl-turned opposition figure Ksenia Sobchak, 35, has officially announced her decision to run for the presidency in the 2018 election.
Running as an independent, Sobchak generally has a love-hate relationship with the Russian audience. Having been on the country's pop culture scene for many years, she has hosted one of the most popular reality TV shows, is a frequent guest at international VIP celebrity parties, has modeled for Playboy and is now editor-in-chief of L'Officiel Russia.
In a recent interview with Glamour Russia, Sobchak called being president "a top level art project," adding that she thinks her career in showbiz would help in her political bid.
Sobchak also hosts an interview show on the Dozhd (Rain) TV channel, and in 2012 joined the opposition movement, having taken part in the Bolotnaya Square protests in central Moscow.
Ksenia's late father, Anatoly Sobchak, was a famous Russian politician, the first democratically elected mayor of St. Petersburg in the 1990s. Vladimir Putin joined Sobchak's team in 1990, and worked closely with the politician, who is widely considered to be his mentor.
"I have always had respect for [Ksenia's] father and regard him as an outstanding figure in the modern Russian history... He was an honorable man, and played a great role in my life," Putin told Vedomosti newspaper in September, when rumors of Ksenia Sobchak's possible run for the presidency started circulating.
However, Putin pointed out that "personal matters can play no significant role when running for presidency is this case," saying that Sobchak's potential political career "depends on the political programme she offers."
"Every citizen in accordance with the law has the right to run as a candidate. Ksenia Sobchak is no exception," he said. (ontinueReading
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Plague outbreak leaves 57 dead, more than 680 infected in Madagascar
(CNN) The plague outbreak in Madagascar is continuing to spread at unprecedented rates, with 57 deaths and more than 680 cases.
The latest figures are from October 12. An estimated 329 of these cases, and 25 deaths, were in the capital, Antananarivo.
The cases, reported by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Bureau for Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC) in Madagascar, include probable and suspected cases as well those that have been confirmed by laboratory tests.
While the country experiences regular outbreaks, with an estimated 400 cases of plague each year, this time things are very different, experts warn.
This year, health officials report the infections started much earlier than usual, and they're occurring in new areas, including urban settings. They've also seen an unexpected number of cases of pneumonic plague, which transmits more easily from person to person.
Of the 684 cases reported as of October 12, 474 were pneumonic plague, 156 bubonic and 1 septicemic plague. A further 54 were unspecified, according to WHO.
Of Madagascar's 114 districts, 35 have reported cases of plague, including at least 10 cities.
Council workers clear garbage during the clean-up of the market of Anosibe in Antananarivo. Rats are porters of fleas which spread the bubonic plague and are attracted by garbages and unsalubrity.
Plague is caused by infection with the bacterium Yersinia pestis and is typically spread through the bite of infected fleas, frequently carried by rats, causing bubonic plague. Symptoms include painful, swollen lymph nodes, called bubos, as well as fever, chills and coughing.
Pneumonic plague is more virulent or damaging and is an advanced form characterized by a severe lung infection. The infection can be transmitted from person to person via airborne droplets -- coughing or sneezing. The incubation period is short, and an infected person may die within 12 to 24 hours.
Both forms can be treated with antibiotics, making early detection a priority.
Occasionally there can be cases of septicemic plague, where the infection has spread to a person's bloodstream and can cause bleeding and necrosis of tissue, turning it black.
The government has mobilized resources to spray schools and other public places to fight fleas and rodents and curb the spread of infection. People have also been lining up at pharmacies in the capital -- some wearing face masks -- to get medications or protection.
To further reduce the spread of the disease, public schools are closed and the government has forbidden public gatherings, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC). (ontinueReading
The latest figures are from October 12. An estimated 329 of these cases, and 25 deaths, were in the capital, Antananarivo.
The cases, reported by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Bureau for Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC) in Madagascar, include probable and suspected cases as well those that have been confirmed by laboratory tests.
While the country experiences regular outbreaks, with an estimated 400 cases of plague each year, this time things are very different, experts warn.
This year, health officials report the infections started much earlier than usual, and they're occurring in new areas, including urban settings. They've also seen an unexpected number of cases of pneumonic plague, which transmits more easily from person to person.
Of the 684 cases reported as of October 12, 474 were pneumonic plague, 156 bubonic and 1 septicemic plague. A further 54 were unspecified, according to WHO.
Of Madagascar's 114 districts, 35 have reported cases of plague, including at least 10 cities.
Council workers clear garbage during the clean-up of the market of Anosibe in Antananarivo. Rats are porters of fleas which spread the bubonic plague and are attracted by garbages and unsalubrity.
Plague is caused by infection with the bacterium Yersinia pestis and is typically spread through the bite of infected fleas, frequently carried by rats, causing bubonic plague. Symptoms include painful, swollen lymph nodes, called bubos, as well as fever, chills and coughing.
Pneumonic plague is more virulent or damaging and is an advanced form characterized by a severe lung infection. The infection can be transmitted from person to person via airborne droplets -- coughing or sneezing. The incubation period is short, and an infected person may die within 12 to 24 hours.
Both forms can be treated with antibiotics, making early detection a priority.
Occasionally there can be cases of septicemic plague, where the infection has spread to a person's bloodstream and can cause bleeding and necrosis of tissue, turning it black.
The government has mobilized resources to spray schools and other public places to fight fleas and rodents and curb the spread of infection. People have also been lining up at pharmacies in the capital -- some wearing face masks -- to get medications or protection.
To further reduce the spread of the disease, public schools are closed and the government has forbidden public gatherings, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC). (ontinueReading
Monday, October 16, 2017
Spain gives Catalonia final ultimatum and moves closer to 'nuclear option'
DRAMA BOMB!
cnbc.com - The Spanish government has given Catalonia three days to declare whether it will try to break away from Spain or not, moving ever closer towards imposing direct rule on the northeastern region.
Madrid had given a deadline of 9:00 a.m. London time Monday for an official response from Catalonia, hoping to receive a clearer indication on whether it had declared independence or not.
However, when a letter arrived from Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont just two hours before the deadline, it failed to offer any confirmation either way.
Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de SantamarÃa told a news conference later on Monday that Puigdemont had not made his position clear and the government would give him until Thursday morning to give a formal confirmation.
"It's not a hard question we have asked, it's not a hard question to respond to," she said.
"10:00 a.m. (local time) on Thursday is the deadline," she added. "We are very disappointed he hasn't given a yes or no answer to the question we asked."
"He is prolonging the situation," she said.
Sáenz de SantamarÃa stated that Prime Minister Rajoy would also be publishing a response to Puigdemont's letter this morning.
Spain's Justice Minister Rafael Catala also added to the discussion on Monday morning, reportedly saying that the response from the Catalan leadership was not valid.
The initial letter from Catalonia early Monday reiterated an offer by Puigdemont to meet Rajoy as soon as possible to discuss the situation, and asked that dialogue take place over the next two months.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Yellowstone supervolcano may erupt sooner than thought, potentially wiping out life
globalnews.ca - A supervolcano brewing under Yellowstone National Park could erupt sooner than initially thought, and if it does, it could wipe out life on the planet, scientists are warning.
Researchers from Arizona State University analyzed minerals in fossilized ash from the volcano’s most recent mega-eruption (more than 630,000 years ago) and found some startling details, according to National Geographic.
The minerals showed that changes in temperature and composition had built up in only a few decades. Until now, scientists believed it would take centuries for the supervolcano to make this transition.
“We expected that there might be processes happening over thousands of years preceding the eruption,” study co-author Christy Till said in an interview with the Times.
If it does blow, the volcano has the ability to expel 1,000 cubic kilometres of ash and rock, which could blanket the United States and possibly send the world into a volcanic winter (volcanic ash and sulphur cutting out sunlight and cooling the Earth’s surface).
The explosion could also be 2,000 times the size of 1980’s eruption of Mount St. Helens, which killed 57 people.
“It’s shocking how little time is required to take a volcanic system from being quiet and sitting there to the edge of an eruption,” study co-author Hannah Shamloo said in the Times article.
The researchers added it’s still too early to determine an exact timeline of when the supervolcano will erupt. (ontinueReading
Researchers from Arizona State University analyzed minerals in fossilized ash from the volcano’s most recent mega-eruption (more than 630,000 years ago) and found some startling details, according to National Geographic.
The minerals showed that changes in temperature and composition had built up in only a few decades. Until now, scientists believed it would take centuries for the supervolcano to make this transition.
“We expected that there might be processes happening over thousands of years preceding the eruption,” study co-author Christy Till said in an interview with the Times.
If it does blow, the volcano has the ability to expel 1,000 cubic kilometres of ash and rock, which could blanket the United States and possibly send the world into a volcanic winter (volcanic ash and sulphur cutting out sunlight and cooling the Earth’s surface).
The explosion could also be 2,000 times the size of 1980’s eruption of Mount St. Helens, which killed 57 people.
“It’s shocking how little time is required to take a volcanic system from being quiet and sitting there to the edge of an eruption,” study co-author Hannah Shamloo said in the Times article.
The researchers added it’s still too early to determine an exact timeline of when the supervolcano will erupt. (ontinueReading
Saturday, October 14, 2017
Mississippi school district pulls "To Kill A Mockingbird" for making people "uncomfortable"
cbsnews.com BILOXI, Miss. -- "To Kill a Mockingbird" is being removed from a junior-high reading list in a Mississippi school district.
The Sun Herald reports that Biloxi administrators pulled the novel from the 8th-grade curriculum this week. School board vice president Kenny Holloway says the district received complaints that some of the book's language "makes people uncomfortable."
Published in 1960, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee deals with racial inequality in a small Alabama town.
"There were complaints about it. There is some language in the book that makes people uncomfortable, and we can teach the same lesson with other books," the district's vice president, Kenny Holloway, told The Sun Herald. "It's still in our library. But they're going to use another book in the 8th grade course."
A message on the school's website says "To Kill A Mockingbird" teaches students that compassion and empathy don't depend upon race or education. Holloway says other books can teach the same lessons.
The book remains in Biloxi school libraries. (ontinueReading
Further Reading: Top 10 Most Overrated Novels
Friday, October 13, 2017
The United States Withdraws From UNESCO
USStateDepartment - On October 12, 2017, the Department of State notified UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova of the U.S. decision to withdraw from the organization and to seek to establish a permanent observer mission to UNESCO. This decision was not taken lightly, and reflects U.S. concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO.
The United States indicated to the Director General its desire to remain engaged with UNESCO as a non-member observer state in order to contribute U.S. views, perspectives and expertise on some of the important issues undertaken by the organization, including the protection of world heritage, advocating for press freedoms, and promoting scientific collaboration and education.
Pursuant to Article II(6) of the UNESCO Constitution, U.S. withdrawal will take effect on December 31, 2018. The United States will remain a full member of UNESCO until that time. (ontinueReading
The United States indicated to the Director General its desire to remain engaged with UNESCO as a non-member observer state in order to contribute U.S. views, perspectives and expertise on some of the important issues undertaken by the organization, including the protection of world heritage, advocating for press freedoms, and promoting scientific collaboration and education.
Pursuant to Article II(6) of the UNESCO Constitution, U.S. withdrawal will take effect on December 31, 2018. The United States will remain a full member of UNESCO until that time. (ontinueReading
Thursday, October 12, 2017
China Crowns New Richest Man
The Hurun Report, which is China’s best-known list of wealthy individuals, estimates the 59-year-old’s wealth has quadrupled to $43 billion in 2017. Xu, who is also known as Hui Ka Yan, moved up nine places from last year.
His company Evergrande is China’s largest property group by sales, which has no doubt been pushed on by China’s booming property market—which Beijing has been attempting to tame. But Evergrande’s business is built on a large amount of debt. According to CNN, there are concerns on whether it can sustain its growth and ratings agency Fitch warned that it won’t be able to significantly reduce that debt due to its high interest expenses and payouts to shareholders.
Other winners include Ma Huateng, the founder and chief of internet conglomerate Tencent(TCTZF, -0.88%) , who took the No. 2 spot from Alibaba (BABA, -0.88%) executive chairman Jack Ma—now in third. Jianlin dropped to fifth after declines in the share price of Dalian Wanda. (ontinueReading
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Scientists find $1.8m worth of gold in Swiss wastewater
- Switzerland’s gold refineries may want to consider starting a recycling programme.
Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology estimate that about 43 kilograms of gold — worth about $1.8 million — passes through the country’s wastewater every year.
In some sites in the southern Ticino region, “concentrations of gold in sewage sludge are sufficiently high for recovery to be potentially worthwhile,” the researchers said in a report published Tuesday. “This can be attributed to the presence of several gold refineries in the region.”
The study involving 64 water treatment plants also found about 3,000 kilograms of silver — equivalent to about $1.7 million — going to waste every year, much of it residue from the chemical and medical industries.
Switzerland is major gold-refining hub. About 70% of the world’s gold passes through the country’s refineries on average every year. (ontinueReading
Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology estimate that about 43 kilograms of gold — worth about $1.8 million — passes through the country’s wastewater every year.
In some sites in the southern Ticino region, “concentrations of gold in sewage sludge are sufficiently high for recovery to be potentially worthwhile,” the researchers said in a report published Tuesday. “This can be attributed to the presence of several gold refineries in the region.”
The study involving 64 water treatment plants also found about 3,000 kilograms of silver — equivalent to about $1.7 million — going to waste every year, much of it residue from the chemical and medical industries.
Switzerland is major gold-refining hub. About 70% of the world’s gold passes through the country’s refineries on average every year. (ontinueReading
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Researchers say ocean winds could power all of human civilization
Another big catch for wind power over large swaths of the ocean is that we would need to learn how to maintain and install the turbines in extreme ocean environments. The scientists who conducted the research say that wind energy gathered from floating wind farms over very deep ocean waters could be the next big step for wind energy technology.
The study notes that wind energy gathered on land has an upper limit due to how structures on the land, both natural and manmade, can slow wind speeds. Land-based turbines themselves slow the air reducing the amount of energy subsequent rows of turbines can generate. The ocean, on the other hand, has a much higher limit.
Wind speeds on the ocean can be as much as 70% higher than on land. The scientists also note that storms over the mid-latitude oceans regularly transfer wind energy down to the surface from high altitudes making a much higher upper limit on how much energy wind turbines can capture than on land.
The study compares two theoretical wind farms with one centered on Kansas in the US measuring 2 million square kilometers. On land, that wind farm would be unable to power the U.S. and China. A wind farm of the same size over the North Atlantic could power those two countries and then some. The crux is the scientists found that the potential energy over the ocean is three times higher than land given the same area. We talked about the Sea Horse project last month that aimed to use the motion f the ocean, rather than wind, to generate electricity. (ontinueReading
Monday, October 9, 2017
Strength is our diversity: Dove apologizes for racially insensitive ad
NEW YORK -- Dove has apologized for a controversial advertisement that critics have called racist.
The ad in question showed a black woman removing her brown shirt to reveal a "white" woman wearing a lighter coloured shirt. It was eventually removed from the company's Facebook page.
The soap company posted the apology to Facebook and Twitter on Saturday, saying the ad "missed the mark in representing women of colour thoughtfully." It added, "We deeply regret the offense it caused." (ontinueReading
The ad in question showed a black woman removing her brown shirt to reveal a "white" woman wearing a lighter coloured shirt. It was eventually removed from the company's Facebook page.
The soap company posted the apology to Facebook and Twitter on Saturday, saying the ad "missed the mark in representing women of colour thoughtfully." It added, "We deeply regret the offense it caused." (ontinueReading
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Medical marijuana patients report reduction in use of prescription drugs
Via ChicagoTribune.com - Some medical marijuana patients in Illinois say the drug has allowed them to reduce or eliminate their use of other prescription medication, a new study reports.
The study by DePaul and Rush universities was small, with 30 participants, and involved only those who volunteered to respond to the topic, so researchers conceded the results might be biased in favor of marijuana. But it's believed to be the first peer-reviewed, published research of medical marijuana patients in Illinois.
And it provides direct anecdotal evidence of what has been suggested by previous studies, that marijuana may contribute to reduced use of opioid drugs, lead author Douglas Bruce said.
"One of the most compelling things to come out of this is that people are taking control of their own health, and most providers would agree that's a good thing," said Bruce, assistant professor of health sciences at DePaul. "But the lack of provider knowledge around what cannabis does and doesn't do, the difference in products and ingestion methods and dosing, is all kind of a Wild West."
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared opioid abuse an epidemic. Overdoses from prescription opioids like methadone, oxycodone and hydrocodone killed more than 15,000 people in 2015, and President Donald Trump called it a "national emergency."
And the study results come as the Medical Cannabis Alliance of Illinois, a trade group of growers and sellers, is starting a push for legislation allowing marijuana for any condition for which a doctor would give opioid drugs.
"This study confirms exactly what we know from patients," said alliance Chairman Ross Morreale. He also founded Ataraxia, which runs a cultivation center and a dispensary. "A patient could use both (marijuana and prescription drugs) and see what works — that's between the doctor and the patient."
"One of the worst I've seen in a while," he said via email. "It was an uncontrolled observation of 30 people who were mixing pot with other drugs."
Since marijuana contains numerous compounds, some of which have medicinal properties, Sabet said they should be isolated, tested and approved individually through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, like any other legal drug.
Bruce, the study's lead author, responded that Sabet has his own bias against marijuana.
"There's power in people telling their stories in a way you can't get in a survey," Bruce said. "It's important to do qualitative research to understand how people are using cannabis, then figure out how to measure it."
Illinois is one of 29 states that have legalized medical marijuana, despite a federal prohibition on the drug.
About 25,000 people have been certified as having at least one of about 40 serious medical conditions that qualify them to receive medical cannabis in Illinois. Patients bought about $8 million worth of marijuana in August, the most recent month reported by the state.
The most common conditions for which cannabis was certified were fibromyalgia and cancer, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported. Those were followed by post traumatic stress disorder, which was just added to the list of qualifying conditions last year.
In the DePaul-Rush study, the average age of participants was 45 and typically used marijuana to treat pain, seizures or inflammation.
The patients, who were anonymous, reported concerns about side effects, addiction and tolerance with prescription drugs, and said they believed marijuana managed certain symptoms better and was faster-acting and longer-lasting.
The researchers concluded that more patient study is needed to determine what doses relieve symptoms and to assess patients' medical conditions. (ontinueReading
Saturday, October 7, 2017
California: Hepatitis A Spreads Through San Diego: Why It's So Hard to Stop
livescience.com - SAN DIEGO — More than 480 people in San Diego have become infected with hepatitis A over the last 10 months, in the largest outbreak of the illness in California in decades. But why is it so hard to stop?
About 20 new cases of hepatitis A per week have been reported during this outbreak, Dr. Eric McDonald, director of San Diego County's Epidemiology and Immunization Services Branch, said at a news conference here yesterday (Oct. 5), part of an infectious diseases conference called IDWeek 2017. Most of the hepatitis A cases have been among people who are homeless or use illegal drugs, or who have close contact with those populations. Of the 481 people who have been infected, 337 (70 percent) have been hospitalized and 17 (4 percent) have died, officials said.
Dr. Monique Foster, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of Viral Hepatitis, said it's not uncommon for large hepatitis A outbreaks like this to last a long time — around one to two years — before they are completely halted.
Though the hepatitis A virus isn't typically deadly, it can infect the liver and cause inflammation and damage to that organ, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Symptoms can include dark-yellow urine, fever, joint pain, nausea and vomiting. People with the infection usually get better on their own without treatment, the NIH says. But in some cases, the infection can lead to liver failure, particularly in older adults or people who have other liver diseases. [27 Devastating Infectious Diseases]
Hepatitis A spreads when small amounts of stool from an ill person contaminate objects, food or drinks that another person then touches and ingests. This can happen when people with the illness don't properly wash their hands after going to the bathroom, according to the CDC. In San Diego, officials have installed 66 portable handwashing stations in the streets to address the hygiene issue, with 100 more stations on the way. The virus can also spread among drug users, also through poor hygiene when sharing equipment related to illicit drug use.
One reason specialists and doctors have a hard time stopping the spread of hepatitis A is its long "incubation period" — the time it takes a person to show symptoms after he or she is infected — which lasts on average 28 days. But it can be up to 50 days, Foster said.
"People infected today probably won't show symptoms for four weeks," Foster said. This makes it hard for people to recall what they were doing, or who they had contact with, at the time they were exposed to hepatitis, Foster said, and both of those factors help officials track and control outbreaks. It also means people who don't yet appear sick can infect others, causing more cases.
In addition, the long incubation period means that by the time officials notice a cluster of hepatitis A cases, the outbreak has likely been going on for at least a month, Foster said. And once officials do identify an outbreak, it can take six weeks to determine whether efforts to control the outbreak are working, McDonald said.
Another challenge in the San Diego outbreak is the specific population at risk for contracting hepatitis A in this outbreak: people who are homeless or who use illicit drugs. This is a population that has limited access to clean toilets and handwashing facilities, which are important to preventing the spread of hepatitis A.
Additionally, vaccination with the hepatitis A vaccine is one of the key ways to prevent the infection, the CDC says. But in the current outbreak, it took time to get these vaccinations to the groups at risk for the disease, McDonald said. To get vaccines to this "target" group, officials used unique strategies, including administering vaccines in emergency rooms, where it is easier to track down homeless people, and jails, where illicit drug users may be vaccinated before they end up back on the streets, officials said. Officials also established teams of people to go to homeless encampments and administer vaccinations.
"It takes time to set up systems in order to deliver vaccines," McDonald said. "I think those systems are [now] strongly in place here to address the ongoing outbreak."
As of Sept. 30, more than 54,000 adults in the area had been vaccinated against hepatitis A as part of the efforts to stem the current outbreak, McDonald said.
In general, the hepatitis A vaccine is recommended for children at age 1; travelers to countries that have high rates of hepatitis A; users of illegal drugs; people with chronic liver diseases, such as hepatitis C; men who have sexual contact with other men; and people who work with animals infected with hepatitis A, according to the CDC.
Prior to the San Diego outbreak, the hepatitis A vaccine was not specifically recommended for people who are homeless, but now, the state of California is recommending that this vaccine be given to the homeless population. CDC officials will also consider whether this should become a national recommendation, Foster said. (ontinueReading
About 20 new cases of hepatitis A per week have been reported during this outbreak, Dr. Eric McDonald, director of San Diego County's Epidemiology and Immunization Services Branch, said at a news conference here yesterday (Oct. 5), part of an infectious diseases conference called IDWeek 2017. Most of the hepatitis A cases have been among people who are homeless or use illegal drugs, or who have close contact with those populations. Of the 481 people who have been infected, 337 (70 percent) have been hospitalized and 17 (4 percent) have died, officials said.
Dr. Monique Foster, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of Viral Hepatitis, said it's not uncommon for large hepatitis A outbreaks like this to last a long time — around one to two years — before they are completely halted.
Though the hepatitis A virus isn't typically deadly, it can infect the liver and cause inflammation and damage to that organ, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Symptoms can include dark-yellow urine, fever, joint pain, nausea and vomiting. People with the infection usually get better on their own without treatment, the NIH says. But in some cases, the infection can lead to liver failure, particularly in older adults or people who have other liver diseases. [27 Devastating Infectious Diseases]
Hepatitis A spreads when small amounts of stool from an ill person contaminate objects, food or drinks that another person then touches and ingests. This can happen when people with the illness don't properly wash their hands after going to the bathroom, according to the CDC. In San Diego, officials have installed 66 portable handwashing stations in the streets to address the hygiene issue, with 100 more stations on the way. The virus can also spread among drug users, also through poor hygiene when sharing equipment related to illicit drug use.
One reason specialists and doctors have a hard time stopping the spread of hepatitis A is its long "incubation period" — the time it takes a person to show symptoms after he or she is infected — which lasts on average 28 days. But it can be up to 50 days, Foster said.
"People infected today probably won't show symptoms for four weeks," Foster said. This makes it hard for people to recall what they were doing, or who they had contact with, at the time they were exposed to hepatitis, Foster said, and both of those factors help officials track and control outbreaks. It also means people who don't yet appear sick can infect others, causing more cases.
In addition, the long incubation period means that by the time officials notice a cluster of hepatitis A cases, the outbreak has likely been going on for at least a month, Foster said. And once officials do identify an outbreak, it can take six weeks to determine whether efforts to control the outbreak are working, McDonald said.
Another challenge in the San Diego outbreak is the specific population at risk for contracting hepatitis A in this outbreak: people who are homeless or who use illicit drugs. This is a population that has limited access to clean toilets and handwashing facilities, which are important to preventing the spread of hepatitis A.
Additionally, vaccination with the hepatitis A vaccine is one of the key ways to prevent the infection, the CDC says. But in the current outbreak, it took time to get these vaccinations to the groups at risk for the disease, McDonald said. To get vaccines to this "target" group, officials used unique strategies, including administering vaccines in emergency rooms, where it is easier to track down homeless people, and jails, where illicit drug users may be vaccinated before they end up back on the streets, officials said. Officials also established teams of people to go to homeless encampments and administer vaccinations.
"It takes time to set up systems in order to deliver vaccines," McDonald said. "I think those systems are [now] strongly in place here to address the ongoing outbreak."
As of Sept. 30, more than 54,000 adults in the area had been vaccinated against hepatitis A as part of the efforts to stem the current outbreak, McDonald said.
In general, the hepatitis A vaccine is recommended for children at age 1; travelers to countries that have high rates of hepatitis A; users of illegal drugs; people with chronic liver diseases, such as hepatitis C; men who have sexual contact with other men; and people who work with animals infected with hepatitis A, according to the CDC.
Prior to the San Diego outbreak, the hepatitis A vaccine was not specifically recommended for people who are homeless, but now, the state of California is recommending that this vaccine be given to the homeless population. CDC officials will also consider whether this should become a national recommendation, Foster said. (ontinueReading
Friday, October 6, 2017
Work makes you free: A 31-year-old's 'death from overwork' causes Japan to rethink work-life balance
businessinsider.com - In Japanese the word is karoshi, or "death from overwork."
The latest victim to be announced as a case of karoshi is 31-year-old Miwa Sado, who worked for the Japanese news network NHK and reportedly logged 159 overtime hours in one month before she died of heart failure in July 2013. She had taken just two days off the prior month, the Guardianreports.
Japan's government has been trying desperately over the past several years to change the cultural attitudes toward work. In early 2016, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched a "work style reform" panel seeking to make time off more alluring for Japanese workers.
Though the results have been mixed, some private companies have started to make changes.
Japanese ad agency Dentsu, for its part, now requires people to take at least five days off every six months. It also shuts the lights off every night at 10 p.m. as an incentive for people to head home.
The move came in response to the death of Matsuri Takahashi, a 24-year-old employee who committed suicide on Christmas Day 2015, after logging 105 hours of overtime in one month. At work Takahashi tried to maintain appearances, but on Twitter she spoke the truth. "It's 4 a.m. My body's trembling," she reportedly said in one post. "I'm going to die. I'm so tired."
Dentsu President and CEO, Tadashi Ishii, announced his resignation in March 2016.
Other companies have opted to shift their allowable overtime hours to the morning. The trading house Itochu Corp. opens its doors at 5 a.m. for anyone who wants to avoid staying late at the office. Employees who show up early get treated to a light breakfast and earn the same extra wages they would have gotten at the end of the day.
But as Abe's reform signals, the country has larger issues related to overtime that it must address for the sake of public health.
A 2016 report examining karoshi cases and their cause of death found that more than 20% of people in a survey of 10,000 Japanese workers said they worked at least 80 hours of overtime a month. In the US, 16.4% of people work an average of 49 hours or longer each week. In Japan, more than 20% do, according to the report. Half of all respondents said they don't take paid vacations.
As per the report, many of the overwork deaths were caused by suicide, heart failure, heart attack, or stroke — all of which can be brought on by excessive stress.
Other companies have gotten creative with how they encourage people to work less. At the Tokyo-based nursing care business Saint-Works, employees wear purple capes that display the time they should leave the office — an effort to erase all doubt when the day is over.
According to the South China Morning Post, people at the company are working half as many overtime hours since 2012, while profits continue to grow year-over-year.
The research into productivity suggests other firms would see similar gains if they required people to work less. After a certain threshold, extra time spent on tasks doesn't equate to extra output. As Sachio Ichinose told the SCMP, the extra hours make people more burned out.
"New ideas do not pop up after meetings are extended an extra two to three hours," he said. "Work becomes productive when it is balanced out with your private life."
If the new measures are successful, both employers and their workers will come to take that sentiment to heart. (ontinueReading
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Indian government advised to ‘discredit’ slavery research
via theguardian.com - The government of India has been advised to launch a campaign to “discredit” research into the country’s modern slavery problem because it has the “potential to substantially harm India’s image and exports”, according to an Indian news report.
The Walk Free Foundation, an anti-slavery organisation established by Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest, was specifically singled out in a memo reportedly prepared by the Intelligence Bureau (IB), an Indian security agency, and obtained by the Indian Express.
It was produced days after the release of a report last month by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Forrest’s Walk Free Foundation that estimated the global population of modern slaves at 40.3m in 2016.
India was not specifically mentioned but successive research has estimated the number of modern slaves in the country to be between 14m and 18m people –the most in the world.
Modern slavery refers to people involved in forced labour, people trafficking, debt bondage, child labour and a range of other exploitative practices affecting vulnerable populations.
According to the Indian Express, the Indian security agency wrote to the prime minister’s office and other high-level government departments advising them to “discredit” the September report and to pressure the ILO to disassociate itself from Walk Free.
The foundation was established by Forrest, one of Australia’s richest men, in 2012. It produces an annual estimate of the number of slaves worldwide, lobbies governments to strengthen and enforce labour laws, and invests in frontline social programs.
The intelligence memo claimed that researchers were increasingly “targeting” India as a modern slavery hub, according to the news report.
It said estimates such as those produced by the ILO and Forrest’s foundation had “potential to substantially harm India’s image and exports and impact its efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 8.7” – a target for eradicating forced and child labour, and human trafficking.
The security agency also said the scale of India’s modern slave population was based on “questionable statistics”, citing the fact the ILO-Walk Free survey interviewed 17,000 people in India but only 2,000 in countries such as Russia, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the report said. (ontinueReading
The Walk Free Foundation, an anti-slavery organisation established by Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest, was specifically singled out in a memo reportedly prepared by the Intelligence Bureau (IB), an Indian security agency, and obtained by the Indian Express.
It was produced days after the release of a report last month by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Forrest’s Walk Free Foundation that estimated the global population of modern slaves at 40.3m in 2016.
India was not specifically mentioned but successive research has estimated the number of modern slaves in the country to be between 14m and 18m people –the most in the world.
Modern slavery refers to people involved in forced labour, people trafficking, debt bondage, child labour and a range of other exploitative practices affecting vulnerable populations.
According to the Indian Express, the Indian security agency wrote to the prime minister’s office and other high-level government departments advising them to “discredit” the September report and to pressure the ILO to disassociate itself from Walk Free.
The foundation was established by Forrest, one of Australia’s richest men, in 2012. It produces an annual estimate of the number of slaves worldwide, lobbies governments to strengthen and enforce labour laws, and invests in frontline social programs.
The intelligence memo claimed that researchers were increasingly “targeting” India as a modern slavery hub, according to the news report.
It said estimates such as those produced by the ILO and Forrest’s foundation had “potential to substantially harm India’s image and exports and impact its efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 8.7” – a target for eradicating forced and child labour, and human trafficking.
The security agency also said the scale of India’s modern slave population was based on “questionable statistics”, citing the fact the ILO-Walk Free survey interviewed 17,000 people in India but only 2,000 in countries such as Russia, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the report said. (ontinueReading
Related: Slavery's last stronghold
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Catalonia to move to declare independence from Spain on Monday
MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) - Catalonia will move on Monday October 9 to declare independence from Spain, a regional government source said, as the European Union nation nears a rupture that threatens the foundations of its young democracy and has unnerved financial markets.
Pro-independence parties which control the regional parliament have asked for a debate and vote on Monday on declaring independence, the source said. A declaration should follow this vote, although it is unclear when.
Catalan President Carles Puigdemont earlier told the BBC that his government would ask the region’s parliament to declare independence after tallying votes from last weekend’s referendum, which Madrid says was illegal.
“This will probably finish once we get all the votes in from abroad at the end of the week and therefore we shall probably act over the weekend or early next week,” he said in remarks published on Wednesday.
The constitutional crisis in Spain, the euro zone’s fourth-biggest economy, has shaken the common currency and hit Spanish stocks and bonds, sharply raising Madrid’s borrowing costs.
The Catalan leader is due to make a statement at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Wednesday, after an all-party committee of the region’s parliament meets to agree a date -- likely to be Monday -- for a plenary session on independence.
Spain has been rocked by the Catalan vote and the Spanish police response to it, which saw batons and rubber bullets used to prevent people voting. Hundreds were injured, in scenes that brought international condemnation.
Catalans came out onto the streets on Tuesday to condemn the police action, shutting down road traffic, public transport and businesses, and ratcheting up fears of intensifying unrest in a region that makes up one-fifth of the Spanish economy. (ontinueReading
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Acid attacks: UK government to ban acid sales to minors
(CNN) The UKGBNI government plans to ban the sale of acid to minors and prevent people from carrying corrosive liquids in public, in response to a dramatic increase in acid attacks across the country.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced the decision Tuesday, describing the growing trend as "absolutely revolting."
"You have all seen the pictures of victims that never fully recover, endless surgeries, lives ruined. So today, I'm also announcing a new offence to prevent the sale of acids to under 18s," she said at a Conservative Party conference in Manchester.
She did not elaborate on how the government would impose the ban, but her comments were made in the wider context of a proposed strategy to reduce violent crime and the use of offensive weapons, including knives.
London in particular has seen a sharp rise in acid attacks, with 454 reported last year, up from 261 in 2015.
Many of the attacks are carried out with everyday cleaning items readily available at grocery and hardware stores.
Rudd said that she intended to also drastically limit the public sale of sulphuric acid as it could be used as a compound in homemade explosives, such as the one used in the Manchester bombing in May, which left 22 people dead.
Police say that acid attacks in London were once typically carried out by men against women close to them but are now predominantly used between young males, often in the context of urban gangs. Many cases against women, however, have been reported this year.
Several lawmakers have called for restrictions on the sale of acid-based products in recent months.
Rudd had previously called for a life sentence for perpetrators of acid attacks, arguing that many victims were in effect given a life sentence from their injuries.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced the decision Tuesday, describing the growing trend as "absolutely revolting."
"You have all seen the pictures of victims that never fully recover, endless surgeries, lives ruined. So today, I'm also announcing a new offence to prevent the sale of acids to under 18s," she said at a Conservative Party conference in Manchester.
She did not elaborate on how the government would impose the ban, but her comments were made in the wider context of a proposed strategy to reduce violent crime and the use of offensive weapons, including knives.
London in particular has seen a sharp rise in acid attacks, with 454 reported last year, up from 261 in 2015.
Many of the attacks are carried out with everyday cleaning items readily available at grocery and hardware stores.
Rudd said that she intended to also drastically limit the public sale of sulphuric acid as it could be used as a compound in homemade explosives, such as the one used in the Manchester bombing in May, which left 22 people dead.
Police say that acid attacks in London were once typically carried out by men against women close to them but are now predominantly used between young males, often in the context of urban gangs. Many cases against women, however, have been reported this year.
Several lawmakers have called for restrictions on the sale of acid-based products in recent months.
Rudd had previously called for a life sentence for perpetrators of acid attacks, arguing that many victims were in effect given a life sentence from their injuries.
Monday, October 2, 2017
Gunman mows down at least 50 people in Las Vegas concert attack
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - A 64-year-old man armed with more than 10 rifles rained down gunfire on a Las Vegas country music festival on Sunday, slaughtering at least 50 people in the largest mass shooting in U.S. history before killing himself.
The barrage from a 32nd-floor window in the Mandalay Bay hotel into a crowd of 22,000 people lasted several minutes, causing panic. Some fleeing fans trampled each other as police scrambled to find the gunman. More than 400 people were injured.
Police identified the gunman as Stephen Paddock, who lived in a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada, and said they had no sense of what prompted his attack. The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the massacre, but U.S. officials expressed skepticism of that claim.
The death toll, which police emphasized was preliminary, eclipsed last year’s massacre of 49 people at an Orlando night club by a gunman who pledged allegiance to Islamic State militants.
Shocked concert goers, some with blood on their clothing, wandered the streets afterwards.
Police said they had no information about Paddock’s motive, that he had no criminal record and was not believed to be connected to any militant group. Paddock killed himself before police entered the hotel room he was firing from, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters.
“We have no idea what his belief system was,” Lombardo said.
Two senior U.S. government officials told Reuters that Paddock’s name was not on any database of suspected terrorists and that there was no evidence linking him to any international militant group.
One of the two U.S. officials discounted a claim of responsibility that was made by Islamic State. There was reason to believe that Paddock had a history of psychological problems, the official said.
In its claim, Islamic State said that the gunman was a recent convert, according to the group’s news agency Amaq. Its claim did not include the gunman’s name and showed no proof. In the past, the group has also claimed responsibility for attacks without providing evidence. (ontinueReading
Sunday, October 1, 2017
Teacher Investigated for Allegedly Contaminating Students' Flutes With Bodily Fluids
California..
*contains strong language
nbclosangeles.com - Federal officials are investigating flutes, possibly contaminated by bodily fluids, that were given to students from school districts all across Southern California as part of an investigation of an individual accused of inappropriate sexual conduct.
Several school districts alerted parents on Friday the California Department of Justice and the U.S. Postal Service launched an investigation and to turn in the flutes to authorities.
The flutes are colourfully decorated and painted by students all over Southern California through a programme called "Flutes Across the World."
Federal investigators want to test all the flutes, which they believe may be contaminated by semen, from the programme's music teacher.
"You have to read in between the lines -- and most likely it's not sweat," said Nate, a concerned parent whose child goes to Courreges Elementary School in Fountain Valley.
Nate went to the police station Friday night to turn in his child's flute.
"It's disgusting, it's unreal, you can't even really fathom it," said another parent, who wished to not be named.
Notifications went out to parents in school districts in Fullerton, Newport-Mesa, Chatsworth and the Inland Empire.
The teacher has not been named due to the pending investigation.
An education source close to the investigation confirmed to NBC4 the teacher was arrested.
*contains strong language
nbclosangeles.com - Federal officials are investigating flutes, possibly contaminated by bodily fluids, that were given to students from school districts all across Southern California as part of an investigation of an individual accused of inappropriate sexual conduct.
Several school districts alerted parents on Friday the California Department of Justice and the U.S. Postal Service launched an investigation and to turn in the flutes to authorities.
The flutes are colourfully decorated and painted by students all over Southern California through a programme called "Flutes Across the World."
Federal investigators want to test all the flutes, which they believe may be contaminated by semen, from the programme's music teacher.
"You have to read in between the lines -- and most likely it's not sweat," said Nate, a concerned parent whose child goes to Courreges Elementary School in Fountain Valley.
Nate went to the police station Friday night to turn in his child's flute.
"It's disgusting, it's unreal, you can't even really fathom it," said another parent, who wished to not be named.
Notifications went out to parents in school districts in Fullerton, Newport-Mesa, Chatsworth and the Inland Empire.
The teacher has not been named due to the pending investigation.
An education source close to the investigation confirmed to NBC4 the teacher was arrested.
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