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Three Palestinians dead from swine flu

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 20 Desember 2012 | 23.08

THREE Palestinians in the West Bank have died in the past week from the H1N1 influenza strain known as swine flu, the Palestinian health ministry said.

"There were three deaths in the past week, and more than 50 people sickened by the virus," said Assad Ramlawi, the ministry's director general of health care for the West Bank.

He said the deaths occurred in the northern cities of Jenin, Qalqilya and Tulkarem, but played down the significance of the fatalities.

"The situation is not out of the ordinary. This virus spreads at the beginning of winter season," he said, adding that those who had died "had weak immune systems, which is what caused their deaths."

The health ministry said medical staff had been trained to detect and treat the virus.

The virus has affected Israel and the Palestinian territories in the past, killing dozens of people.


23.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

The Queen goes 3D for Christmas

SHE made her acting debut at the London Olympics. Now the Queen is hitting the screen again - in 3D.

Buckingham Palace says the monarch was "ready to embrace something new" for her annual Christmas broadcast in honour of her Diamond Jubilee year - 60 years on the throne.

The 86-year-old monarch has made a prerecorded Christmas broadcast on radio since 1952 and on television since 1957.

She writes the speeches herself, and the broadcasts mark the rare occasions in which the Queen voices her own opinion without government consultation.

The palace said the Queen has watched the broadcast and found it "absolutely lovely."

It airs at 3pm on Christmas Day.


23.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

US weekly unemployment claims rise

THE number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week by 17,000, reversing four weeks of declines.

The Labor Department reports that a seasonally adjusted 361,000 people sought unemployment aid during the week ended December 15, from a revised 344,000 the week before.

But the less volatile four-week moving average fell 13,750 to 367,750, the lowest since late October, suggesting the job market continues to grow modestly. Applications had surged after superstorm Sandy, then fallen back.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. The drop of the four-week average suggests companies are cutting fewer jobs, even if they aren't hiring enough to lower the unemployment rate significantly.

The economy has generated an average of 151,000 jobs a month in 2012, not enough to pull the high unemployment down sharply.


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Huge blizzard threatens holiday travel

THE US Midwest's first major snowstorm of the winter caused "life-threatening conditions" and flight delays that could ripple into problems across the country as travelers gear up for the Christmas holiday.

A regional energy company said the storm had cut power to more than 40,000 households and businesses in Iowa, where nearly 30 centimetres of snow had fallen in the capital, Des Moines.

The Weather Channel said around 27 centimetres of snow covered parts of Wisconsin, with around 20 centimetres in Omaha, Nebraska.

The storm dumped more than 0.6 metres snow in parts of the western US, including Washington state and Wyoming.

Chicago's bustling O'Hare International Airport, one of the world's busiest, rated delays at five on a five-point index, hours before the snow was even expected to hit, in mid-afternoon, according to FlightStats.com.

The website reported that flights were being held up an average of just under two hours, and some flights slowed by up to four hours.

Flights through smaller airports in South Dakota and Iowa were cancelled.

The delays and cancellations could affect travel across the country, especially since many passengers need to change planes in Chicago - and even if they do not, their aircraft may have to pass through there.

The national weather service forecast "intense snowfall rates," along with high winds and reduced visibility to start in Chicago by 3pm local time (2100 GMT).

Two major airlines, Delta and United, issued travel alerts allowing passengers to change their tickets without fees for travel through affected areas.

Further south, the weather service warned of a "life-threatening blizzard" that was located over central Missouri Thursday morning and heading into western Illinois by morning.

"This will result in life threatening conditions and nearly impossible travel overnight through today," the bulletin warned.

"Falling trees may also occur to due heavy snow accumulation on trees and high winds."

Many schools across Nebraska and Iowa were closed Thursday or opening late.


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France recognises brutal rule in Algeria

FRENCH President Francois Hollande acknowledged the "unjust" and "brutal" nature of France's occupation of Algeria for 132 years, but stopped short of apologising for the past as many Algerians have demanded.

On the second day of his state visit to this North African nation, he told the two houses of parliament that "I recognise the suffering the colonial system has inflicted" on the Algerian people.

He specifically recognised the "massacres" by the French during the seven-year war that led to Algerian independence in 1962. The admission was a profound departure from Mr Hollande's predecessors who, if not defending France's tormented past with Algeria, remained silent.

The Socialist president's visit came as Algeria celebrates 50 years of independence from France, during which the two countries' ties have been fraught with tension.

Mr Hollande was traveling to the western city of Tlemcen, the birthplace of Algerian wartime nationalist Messali Hadj.

Mr Hollande said at the start of his visit that he and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika are opening a "new era" with a strategic partnership among equals.

Large numbers of Algerians, and some political parties, have been seeking an apology from France for inequalities suffered by the population under colonial rule and for brutality during the war. However, Mr Hollande said at a news conference that he would make no apologies.

"History, even when it is tragic, even when it is painful for our two countries, must be told," Mr Hollande told lawmakers on Thursday.

"For 132 years, Algeria was subjected to a profoundly unjust and brutal system" of colonization.

"I recognise here the suffering that colonisation has inflicted on the Algerian people," he added.

Mr Hollande notably listed the sites of three massacres, including one at Setif where seven years ago Bouteflika compared French methods to those used by Nazi Germany and asked France to make a "gesture ... to erase this black stain."

The violence in Setif, 300 kilometres east of Algiers, began on May 8, 1945, apparently during a celebration of the end of World War II.

Demonstrators unfurled Algerian flags, which were banned at the time by the French. As police began confiscating the flags, the crowds turned on the French, killing about two dozen of them.

The uprising spread and the response by French colonial troops grew increasingly harsh in the following weeks, including bombardments of villages by a French war ship. Algerians say some 45,000 people may have died. Figures in France put the number of Algerian dead at about 15,000 to 20,000.

Mr Hollande and Mr Bouteflika agreed to relaunch economic, strategic and cultural relations between the two countries on a new basis among equals. A new start must "be supported by a base," Hollande said, and "this base is truth."

"Nothing is built in secretiveness, forgetting, denial," Hollande said.

A Declaration of Algiers was published late on Wednesday saying that France and Algeria "are determined to open a new chapter in their relations" of "exceptional intensity" and spelling out political, human and economic goals.

France announced a deal for French automaker Renault to build a factory in Algeria with cars destined for all of Africa. The long-negotiated joint venture will be 49 per cent owned by Renault and 51 per cent by two Algerian companies, according to a statement by Renault, the first carmaker to establish production facilities in Algeria. The factory will be located outside Oran, a port city west of Algiers, and eventually expand to an automotive training center.

The accord is one of about 15 agreements being signed during the visit, on topics ranging from culture to defense.

Mr Hollande, who came to the French presidency in May, made an initial break with the French past by officially recognising the deaths of Algerians at a 1961 pro-independence demonstration in Paris at the hands of French police.

He referred to the "bloody repression" and paid homage to the victims of "this tragedy," for which an official death toll has never been issued.


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N Ireland police open Bloody Sunday probe

NORTHERN Ireland police say they have opened a criminal probe into the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre, when British soldiers shot to death 13 unarmed Irish Catholic protesters.

A police commander, Judith Gillespie, confirmed the move after meeting families of the Bloody Sunday dead on Thursday.

Nobody has ever been charged over the killings, which inflamed Catholic support for the outlawed Provisional Irish Republican Army.

Gillespie says 15 full-time detectives will collect witness testimony, and then question former soldiers who opened fire as criminal suspects.

When asked how long the investigation would take, Gillespie said she couldn't know but detectives would "go where the evidence takes us".

The Bloody Sunday victims' families and the IRA-linked Sinn Fein party, which represents most of Northern Ireland's Catholic minority, welcomed the move.


23.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Wall Street lower, looks past improved GDP

WALL Street stocks are mostly lower in early trade, as traders shrugged off an upward revision in US economic growth and focused on concerns about the "fiscal cliff".

About 10 minutes into the session on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 8.67 points, or 0.07 per cent, at 13,243.30.

The broad-market S&P 500 shed 0.38 points, or 0.03 per cent, at 1,435.43.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite lost 3.79 points, or 0.12 per cent, at 3,040.58.

Official data showed the US economy grew 3.1 per cent in the third quarter, faster than previously estimated, but analysts said underlying economic activity remained fragile.

The market action came as Washington continued to wrangle about the so-called fiscal cliff, a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts that, in the absence of a political compromise, could take the world's biggest economy into recession.

On Wednesday, the Dow finished down 0.74 per cent, the S&P 500 dropped 0.76 per cent, while the Nasdaq lost 0.33 per cent.


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Central bank boss quits over fake degree

ECUADOR'S central bank president has resigned over revelations he used a bogus university degree to get into a graduate school and study business.

Pedro Delgado acknowledged he never completed his economics studies at Ecuador's Catholic University and fabricated a diploma later to gain admission to a business school called INCAE, in Costa Rica.

"I made a mistake, a very serious mistake, 22 years ago," Mr Delgado said on television Wednesday night.

"I made the wrong decision and, in order to achieve my academic goal, I made a mistake that is now costing me dearly."

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, who is Mr Delgado's cousin, said Mr Delgado's dishonesty had dealt a serious blow to his government.

It was INCAE that first started investigating Mr Delgado and passed on its findings to the Quito government, which confirmed the central banker had no undergraduate degree and made as if he did.

Mr Delgado had run the central bank since November 2011.

He was also in charge of monitoring companies seized by the state over unpaid debt, and has been accused by opposition groups of a number of improprieties including attempts to coordinate financial activities with Iran.

"Nothing was found because all these accusations were fabricated to damage the image of the one who leads the revolution," Mr Delgado said of these other charges and alluding to Mr Correa.


23.08 | 0 komentar | Read More
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