Thursday, June 02, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: E.coli at the centre of a German outbreak is believed to be a new strain of bacteria never seen before.
Seven people in the UK have been affected by the virulent strain, including three Britons and four German nationals.
Early investigations suggest the strain is a mutant form of two different E.coli bacteria.
Hilde Kruse, a food safety expert at the WHO, told the Associated Press: "This is a unique strain that has never been isolated from patients before."
She added that the new strain has "various characteristics that make it more virulent and toxin-producing".
It is not uncommon for bacteria to continually evolve and swap genes but the new strain appears to be more virulent than other strains of E.coli.
Severe E.coli cases are usually seen in children and the elderly, but all age groups are currently affected.
According to the Health Protection Agency (HPA), all the UK cases caught the infection in Germany. » | Thursday, June 02, 2011
Verbunden / Liens en relation avec l’article »
Alors qu'une quarantaine de prostituées s'est réunie mercredi à Toulouse pour manifester contre la proposition de certains députés de pénaliser les clients, les prostitués indépendantes parisiennes se retrouvent ce jeudi après-midi, place Pigalle, à Paris. 17 associations de préventions et de santé communautaires (Act-up, Aides, Syndicat du travail sexuel-Strass, etc) ont répondu à l'appel du Collectif Droits et Prostitution et protestent contre le rapport parlementaire Bousquet qui souhaite incriminer les personnes ayant recours aux services des prostituées. » | Par Juliette Dominati | Jeudi 02 Juin 2011
FRANCE SOIR: Bactérie tueuse : La souche identifiée – Le Centre européen de prévention et de contrôle des maladies a confirmé avoir identifié, ce jeudi, la souche de la bactérie E.coli qui a entraîné la mort de 18 personnes en Europe. » | Par Actu France Soir | Jeudi 02 Juin 2011
FRANCE SOIR: Bactérie tueuse : L'Europe demande des explications à la Russie – Même si le concombre espagnol a été mis hors de cause, la crise de confiance est toujours bien réelle. Alors que la Russie annonce qu'elle interdit toute importation de légumes, l'Europe parle d'une mesure "disproportionnée". En France, la mort suspecte d'un homme de 47 ans pourrait être le prémisse d'une arrivée imminente de l'épidémie. » | Par Actu France-Soir | Jeudi 02 Juin 2011
Der Prozess gegen den früheren ägyptischen Staatspräsidenten Husni Mubarak und seine beiden Söhne beginnt am 3. August. Die amtliche Nachrichtenagentur Mena berichtete am Mittwoch unter Berufung auf Justizkreise, Mubarak werde sich wegen Korruption und des Mordes an Demonstranten während des 18 Tage dauernden Aufstands verantworten müssen, der schließlich zu seinem Sturz am 11. Februar führte. » | FAZ.NET mit dapd/dpa | Mittwoch, 01. Juni 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Col Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan regime suffered another blow on Wednesday when Shokri Ghanem, its oil minister and former prime minister, ended weeks of speculation and announced he had turned on the dictator.
Mr Ghanem appeared alongside the Libyan ambassador to Rome, who has also defected, to condemn the "daily spilling of blood" and "unbearable" spiral of violence in the country.
However, he said it was too early to say whether he would work with the opposition National Transitional Council in Benghazi.
He also denied suggestions, repeated by Libyan government officials, that he had timed his move so that he could represent the opposition at a key summit of the international oil cartel, OPEC, in Vienna next week.
Mr Ghanem disappeared from public view after first leaving Libya two weeks ago.
A former prime minister who had overseen the reopening of relations with the West, he did not have the historic personal relationship with Col Muammar Gaddafi of Moussa Koussa, the foreign minister who defected in March.
But his knowledge of the workings of the regime and in particular the state oil company, which he ran, could provide important information.
At a news conference in Rome, he said oil production in Libya was coming to a halt because of the international embargo. "Very little is being produced, because of the UN embargo and the fact that foreigners have fled for reasons of security," he said. (+ video) » | Nick Squires, Rome and Richard Spencer in Tripoli | Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Bahrain's security forces are increasingly targeting women in their campaign against pro-democracy protesters despite yesterday lifting martial law in the island kingdom.
Ayat al-Gormezi, 20, a poet and student arrested two months ago after reading out a poem at a pro-democracy rally, is due to go on trial today before a military tribunal, her mother said. Ayat was forced to turn herself in when masked policemen threatened to kill her brothers unless she did so.
She has not been seen since her arrest, though her mother did talk to her once by phone and Ayat said that she had been forced to sign a false confession. Her mother has since been told that her daughter has been in a military hospital after being tortured.
"We are the people who will kill humiliation and assassinate misery," a film captures Ayat telling a cheering crowd of protesters in Pearl Square in February. "We are the people who will destroy the foundation of injustice." She addresses King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa directly and says to him: "Don't you hear their cries, don't you hear their screams?" As she finishes, the crowd shouts: "Down with Hamad."
Ayat's call for change was no more radical than that heard in the streets of Tunis, Cairo and Benghazi at about the same time. But her reference to the king might explain the fury shown by the Bahraini security forces who, going by photographs of the scene, smashed up her bedroom when they raided her house and could not find her.
There are signs that Bahraini police, riot police and special security are detaining and mistreating more and more women. Many are held incommunicado, forced to sign confessions or threatened with rape, according to Bahraini human rights groups. » | Patrick Cockburn | Thursday, June 02, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Female poet brought before Bahrain military tribunal: A female poet whose "death" became the focus of an Iranian state propaganda campaign against Bahrain has been brought before a military tribunal in the island kingdom. » | Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent | Thursday, June 02, 2011
ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL: Lampedusa - Italian judges have ordered the seizure of a luxury yacht on Lampedusa island in Italy's south allegedly being used by toppled Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's family.
A Rome appeals court issued the order after Italian police established that the Atlantique yacht worth a million euros was moored in Lampedusa's port.
The court order followed a request from Tunisian judicial authorities for magistrates to identify all assets in Italy belonging to the Ben Ali family and order their impoundment by tax police.
Tunisia made the request under a 1967 bilateral accord on the grounds that the assets rightfully belong to the Tunisian people. » | AKI | Wednesday, June 01, 2011
In an open letter to the Prime Minister, they called for "a swift and transparent review of the effectiveness of current drug policies" because the current laws have failed.
The campaign is backed by actresses Dame Judi and Julie Christie, singer Sting, entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and former Home Office minister Bob Ainsworth.
Film director Mike Leigh, actress Kathy Burke, three former chief constables and leading lawyers have also put their name to the letter.
It came as a separate group of former world leaders and high profile figures called on governments around the world to “urgently” consider decriminalisation because the “war on drugs” has failed.
Sting said: "Giving young people criminal records for minor drug possession serves little purpose – it is time to think of more imaginative ways of addressing drug use in our society." » | Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor | Thursday, June 02, 2011
My comment:
At a time when smoking even tobacco has been all but criminalised, it makes little sense to decriminalise all other drugs. We appear to be living in a topsy-turvy, upside-down world, where things that were once considered normal have been de-normalised, and things that were considered abnormal and deviant are being rolled out anew as something acceptable. They are not acceptable in my eyes. We need to keep drugs out of daily life as much as is possible. And I certainly do not want to be preached to by these so-called 'stars.' They want to legalise these drugs in all probability because they partake of them. Let them find other countries to accept their deviant, unhealthy ways! Don't bring them anywhere near me!
We already have a colossal problem with people suffering from Alzheimers disease. Heaven forbid that the laws on drugs be relaxed. In years to come the institutions which care for the mentally ill will be full to overflowing! – © Mark
This comment also appears here
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Clashes between demonstrators and security forces have again broken out in Bahrain on the day martial law was lifted by a ruling monarchy battling to restore its image.
Today's demonstrations were quickly scattered by the same means used to douse protests earlier in the year. Security forces moved into Shia neighbourhoods where people had taken to the streets and dispersed them with tear gas and bird shot. Human rights activists said those wounded were too scared to go to hospital and instead treated their injuries at home.
The kingdom had cast today as a watershed after 11 weeks of heavy crackdowns on Shia demonstrators that had drawn condemnation from the US and Europe.
King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa this week made a fresh bid for a national dialogue aimed at bringing the Sunni establishment and the Shia majority population together. However, rights groups say 21 opposition activists arrested under emergency laws remain detained. Numerous Shiite mosques have been destroyed during security sweeps and four people have died while in custody. The violence claimed at least 24 lives, including four security officers. » | Martin Chulov | Wednesday, June 01, 2011
THE SPECTATOR: The Times (£) says that David Cameron’s decision to step down from being a patron of the Jewish National Fund shows the British government is becoming cool on Israel.
You don’t say. Any cooler and it would be frostbite territory.
Precisely why Britain’s Conservative-led government has drunk so deeply of the anti-Israel Kool-Aid isn’t clear. Sucking up to Obama? Muslim demographics in the UK? Part of Cameron’s hopey-changey-lefty-loopy repositioning of the Tory Party? Yet another bone tossed to the blood-libelling knitted organic vegan victimologists, aka his LibDem coalition partners?
Whatever. Who cares. The unpalatable fact is that Britain has now reverted well and truly to type in professing with hand on heart an unbreakable bond of brotherhood with Israel while cutting it off at the knees, sliding a stiletto between its shoulder blades and bashing its head in.
The JNF thing (despite Downing Street's unconvincing claim that Cameron has stepped down from a number of charities through lack of time) is the latest act of aggression against Israel by HMG, and is particularly offensive. For the JNF is identified closely with the foundational Zionist dream of making the desert bloom, by buying up and developing the land for decades before the State of Israel was established. And so now – of course – it stands accused of the ‘theft of Palestinian land’, ‘ethnic cleansing’ and even ‘war crimes’. Ah yes – that terrible weapon of mass destruction, the sapling.
Without getting into the imbecilic interstices of precisely what and where, one key, crucial, overarching, all-important, nothing-else-matters-as-much-as-this point needs to be made (and yes, I have made it before many times, but it needs to be taped to Cameron’s eyeballs and rammed down the throats of the malevolent mandarins of the Foreign Office and delivered by diplomatic cable to Israeli spokesman as their line–to-take in answer to any statement-disguised-as-a-question about their intrinsic belligerency routinely lobbed at them by the Guardian-of-the Airwaves, aka the BBC).
This is quite simply that the territory beyond the ceasefire lines (formed when Israel fought off the attempt by five Arab armies to destroy it at birth in 1948-9, and now falsely deemed to be Israel’s ‘border’) is not Palestinian land. It is not land that is owned by the Palestinians in general, or to which they have any general right or title. On the contrary, it is land to which the Jews in general are legally entitled. All of it. This is not some crazed, ultra-nationalist dogma. It is a matter of historical fact, international law and basic justice. » | Melanie Phillips | Monday, May 30, 2011
The price of some food staples could double in the next 20 years because of rising demand and climate change, a British-based charity has warned.
In a report released on Tuesday, Oxfam said world hunger was already increasing due to rising food price inflation and oil price hikes, as well as environmental changes such as droughts and floods.
Charlie Angela has more.
This month, in the Middle East, has seen the unmaking of the President of the United States. More than that, it has witnessed the lowest prestige of America in the region since Roosevelt met King Abdul Aziz on the USS Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake in 1945.
While Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu played out their farce in Washington – Obama grovelling as usual – the Arabs got on with the serious business of changing their world, demonstrating and fighting and dying for freedoms they have never possessed. Obama waffled on about change in the Middle East – and about America's new role in the region. It was pathetic. "What is this 'role' thing?" an Egyptian friend asked me at the weekend. "Do they still believe we care about what they think?"
And it is true. Obama's failure to support the Arab revolutions until they were all but over lost the US most of its surviving credit in the region. Obama was silent on the overthrow of Ben Ali, only joined in the chorus of contempt for Mubarak two days before his flight, condemned the Syrian regime – which has killed more of its people than any other dynasty in this Arab "spring", save for the frightful Gaddafi – but makes it clear that he would be happy to see Assad survive, waves his puny fist at puny Bahrain's cruelty and remains absolutely, stunningly silent over Saudi Arabia. And he goes on his knees before Israel. Is it any wonder, then, that Arabs are turning their backs on America, not out of fury or anger, nor with threats or violence, but with contempt? It is the Arabs and their fellow Muslims of the Middle East who are themselves now making the decisions. » | Robert Fisk | Monday, May 30, 2011
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