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Tuesday, December 18, 2018

On Saturday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the national government’s decision to recognise West Jerusalem as Israeli capital, while reaffirming the nation’s goal for two-state solution for Israel-Palestine conflict regarding authority of Jerusalem.

“The Australian government has decided that Australia now recognises West Jerusalem, as the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government, is the capital of Israel”, Morrison said in a speech. Currently, the Australian embassy in Israel is situated in Tel Aviv.

Israel claims the entire city of Jerusalem to be its capital; while Palestine claims part, East Jerusalem, as its own territory and the capital of the proposed future state. Israel came to control East Jerusalem as part of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Jerusalem is considered a holy city by three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Spokesperson of the Israeli Embassy in Australia Eman Amasha issued a statement on Sunday saying “Israel views the decision of Australian Government to open its Trade and Defence Office in Jerusalem as a step in the right direction.”

Despite recognising West Jerusalem as Israeli capital, Morrison said the Australian Embassy would not be relocated to West Jerusalem until the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was resolved by a two-state solution. “We look forward to moving our embassy to West Jerusalem, when practical, in support of and after a final status determination […] We’ve decided to start the work there now, to identify a suitable site for an Australian embassy in West Jerusalem”, Morrison added. Morrison also said, “A two-state solution remains the only viable way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute”. Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, said, “The policies of this Australian administration have done nothing to advance the two-state solution”.

Senator Penny Wong of the opposition Labor Party in Australia said “Recognising West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, while continuing to locate Australia’s embassy in Tel Aviv, is nothing more than a face-saving exercise that shows Mr Morrison continues to put self-interest ahead of the national interest. This is a decision which is all risk and no gain. It is a reckless move by a desperate and divided government that satisfies no one.” Another opposition leader Bill Shorten said he was worried the Prime Minister “put his political interest ahead of our national interest”.

Malaysia and Indonesia, two Muslim-majority neighbouring nations of Australia, responded to the decision.

The Foreign Ministry of Malaysia released a statement which read: “Malaysia strongly opposes the decision by the government of Australia to recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel”. It went on to say: “Malaysia firmly believes that this announcement, made before the settlement of a two-state solution, is premature and a humiliation to the Palestinians and their struggle for the right to self-determination.”

Malaysia, which has been Australia’s free trade partner for almost six years now, emphasised on a two-state solution and concluded by saying “Malaysia will continue to work closely with all partners to find a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the conflict.”

Speaking about Australian government’s announcement, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said, “Jerusalem has always been under Palestine, so why are they [Australia] taking the initiative to divide Jerusalem [as it is] not belonging to them, but to divide the Arabs and the Jews? They have no rights”.

The Indonesian Foreign Ministry’s statement said: “Indonesia calls on Australia and all member states of the UN [?United Nations?] to promptly recognise the State of Palestine and to co-operate towards the attainment of sustainable peace, and agreement between the state of Palestine and Israel based on the principle of two-state solution.”

Saeed Abu Ali, the Arab League’s Assistant Secretary General for Palestine and the Occupied Arab Territories, called Morrison’s decision “blatantly biased toward the positions and policies of the Israeli occupation.” Previously, in September, Saeed Abu Ali praised Paraguay’s decision to move its embassy back from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv as on the “right track”.

Last year, the United States, and Guatemala declared recognition of Jerusalem in its entirety as Israel’s capital. Paraguay followed the decision of the US and Guatemala, moving its embassy to Jerusalem, but, then-new President Mario Abdo Benítez reversed the decision. Paraguayan Foreign Minister Luis Luis Castiglioni said, “Paraguay wants to contribute to an intensification of regional diplomatic efforts to achieve a broad, fair and lasting peace in the Middle East”. Following Benítez’s decision, Israel announced closing its embassy in Paraguay and recalling its ambassador from Paraguay.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

The economy of Ireland shrank by 7.5% in the last quarter of 2008 compared to the same period a year previously, according to official statistics. The decline is the worst in decades. For the entire period of 2008, the economy contracted by 2.3%, the first loss since 1983.

The construction industry has suffered badly as a result of the recession, with a 24% fall in output, the largest decline ever recorded. Industrial output plunged at an annualised rate of 12.5%.

Unemployment has also shot up. It currently stands at around 10%, twice as high as the levels reported last year. The economy has also experienced deflation.

Alan McQuaid, the senior economist at Bloxhams Stockbrokers, said that the statistics “highlight the extent of the Irish economic out-turn and the huge task facing the Government in attempting to get the country’s public finances back in order.”

“Quite simply, there is no hope of sorting out our budgetary position by 2013 without economic growth, and we are a long way off that at the moment,” McQuaid said, noting that “(…) one has to go back to the 1956-1958 period for the last time we had a decrease of this magnitude.”

“(…) As things currently stand, it is not hard to see double digit declines in real GDP over the coming quarters,” he said. “The extreme weakness of the economy at this point in time must also raise serious questions marks about the wisdom of the Government’s intention of imposing further income levies on already hard-pressed consumers and PAYE workers. All that can be said is that the outlook for economic output and employment in 2009 are fairly bleak indeed.”

The Irish government is creating an emergency budget, due to be unveiled in April.

Tuesday, March 1, 2005

The government of the United Kingdom has unveiled their strategy to deal with any future influenza pandemic in their Pandemic Influenza Contingency Plan.

The document, based on the World Health Organization’s framework for responses, explains how the UK would respond to a major outbreak of flu.

Any flu pandemic would differ from the seasonal outbreaks of flu observed worldwide every year. While seasonal flu kills 12,000 Britons annually, a pandemic would affect far more people and could result in the deaths of up to 50,000 people in the UK if there were no medical intervention.

The government will have the power to cancel events where large numbers of people gather, such as football (soccer) matches. It could also advise travel restrictions to and from areas of high infection, but would not be able to enforce any such measures.

Schools might be closed in the event of a flu pandemic, and infected people would be asked to remain at home, although again no quarantine measures could be imposed by the government.

Further plans include education of the public to recognize symptoms of the flu and how to avoid infection.

Measures will be made to maintain basic services in the event of a pandemic despite staff absences through illness.

A major cornerstone of the plan is the prescription of oseltamivir, an oral neuraminidase inhibitor drug that combats influenza. The drug is currently marketed by Hoffman La Roche under the trade name Tamiflu®.

The UK Department of Health intends to stockpile 14.6m courses of the drug over the next two financial years, giving enough to treat one in four of the population – the ratio recommended by the WHO.

Canada and Australia have also bought the equivalent amounts of anti-viral drugs. The U.S. has also bought large amounts of similar drugs.

The total cost of the acquisition was not published by the government, but the BBC estimated the cost to be £180 million.

Unlike a vaccine, oseltamivir can be used to treat any strain of the influenza virus. Many new variants of the influenza virus are seen every year, and combined with the long lead times associated with the development of vaccinces, mass vaccination is frequently impractical.

Some parts of the newly-revealed plan already exist. The UK government recently gave £500,000 to the WHO for survellience of so-called ‘bird flu’ in South East Asia, a possible source for any future pandemic. The Department of Health will also continue to monitor flu-like cases seen by doctors and hospitals.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Health officials in both the United States and Norway have confirmed the presence of a mutated strain of the H1N1, swine flu virus in several patients in the countries. The mutation is resistant to current treatments for H1N1 such as tamiflu, oseltamivir and zanamivir.

At least three patients in Norway were confirmed to have the mutated strain of H1N1, with two of the cases being fatal. Health officials say the three cases are not related and isolated from one another.

At least four new cases of the mutation were detected in patients at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. Three of the four cases were fatal, but the same patients also had severe underlying illnesses before they caught influenza. Two prior cases of the mutation in the same state, were reported in the Summer of 2008. Health officials say none of the cases are related.

Director of the Center for Disease Control‘s Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Anne Schuchat says the cases are appearing in the U.S. “sporadically.”

“It’s just too soon for us to say what this is going to mean long term. It’s an important finding for the influenza virologists, and they’re looking into it. [The mutation] has no implications for how good the match of the vaccine is and no implications for treatment with antiviral medicine,” said Schuchat during a press conference.

Health officials in other countries such as Mexico, China, Japan, Ukraine and Brazil, also report cases of the mutation.

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

In February 2017, the Iranian Chess Federation announced two teenage chess players, Dorsa Derakhshani and her younger brother Borna Derakhshani, were banned from representing the national team. The federation announced their decision although Dorsa Derakhshani had previously decided and informed the chess federation she did not wish to play for Iran.

Dorsa Derakhshani is currently 21 years old and holds the International Master (IM) as well as Woman Grand Master (WGM) titles. Her brother, Borna, plays for the English Federation and holds the FIDE Master title.

Dorsa Derakhshani was banned since she did not wear a hijab, an Islamic headscarf, while competing at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival in January 2017. Under the laws of Islamic Republic of Iran, hijab is a mandatory dress code. Her brother Borna Deraskhsani was banned for playing against Israeli Grand Master (GM) Alexander Huzman at the same tournament. Iran does not recognise the existence of Israel, and previously, Irani athletes have avoided playing against Israeli athletes.

Mehrdad Pahlavanzadeh, the president of the country’s chess federation, explained the decision to ban the players saying, “As a first step, these two will be denied entry to all tournaments taking place in Iran and in the name of Iran, they will no longer be allowed the opportunity to be present on the national team.” ^{((fa))Farsi language: ?????? ????? ?? ??? ??? ?? ??? ????? ?? ?? ???? ???????? ?? ?? ????? ? ?? ??? ????? ?????? ??????? ????? ??????? ? ???? ???? ???? ?? ??? ??? ?? ??????? ????.} He further stated, “Unfortunately, something that should not have happened has happened and our national interest is paramount and we have reported this position to the Ministry of Sports.” ^{((fa))Farsi language: ????????? ?????? ?? ????? ????????? ?????? ??? ? ????? ??? ?? ?? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ? ?? ??? ???? ?? ?? ????? ???? ?? ????? ?????.}

IM Dorsa Derakhshani, who currently studies at Saint Louis University in the United States and plays for the United States Chess Federation, discussed her chess career, time in Iran and the 2017 controversy, and her life in Saint Louis with a Wikinews correspondent.

Friday, January 26, 2018

Fire broke out on Friday morning and destroyed the bottom two floors of a six-story hospital in Miryang, South Korea, killing at least 37 people, most of them elderly. More than a hundred injuries were reported, with eighteen people in critical condition. This is the highest death toll from fire in South Korea in almost a decade.

The fire is believed to have started at about 7:30 local time, according to fire chief Choi Man-woo. It originated on the ground floor in the emergency room as per various officials. The hospital has 98 beds and a medical staff of about 35, and specializes in long-term care of elderly patients. It adjoins a nursing home, all of whose 94 residents were evacuated. Staff carried some patients out of the hospital on their backs.

One patient, Jang Yeong-jae, who told his story to JoongAng Ilbo, said he escaped by removing a screen from a window to get to a ladder placed by firefighters. He described people “running around in panic, falling over and screaming as smoke filled the rooms”. The majority of the victims died from smoke inhalation and are believed to be elderly, said the head of the city’s public hospital, Chun Jae-kyung. A doctor, a nurse, and a nursing assistant have died, according to the fire service; it took three hours to put out the fire.

In a press briefing, Seok Gyeong-sik, the director of the hospital, apologized to patients and their families. Son Kyung-chul, its chairman, stated that there were no sprinklers because the facility was small. Sprinklers are being installed in the nursing home, where a new law requires them by June 30.

Last month, 29 people died in a fire in a gym in Jecheon; the owner and the manager were arrested for safety violations. In 2014, a blaze in a nursing home in Jangseong left 21 dead. The President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, responded to the Friday fire by calling an emergency meeting of his staff, and promised that the cause would be found rapidly “to prevent the recurrence of the fire in the future”.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Internet giant Yahoo! announced on Wednesday that by January 2009 it will begin purging personal data collected when users access its search page at the 3 month mark, a far shorter time period than any of its search engine rivals such as Google, which retains personal data for 9 months, down from 18 months as of September, and Microsoft, which retains data for an 18 month period, though Microsoft has stated support for a six month industry standard. Prior to the announcement, Yahoo purged data at 13 months.

Just three years ago, the policy of all three search engines was to keep collected private data permanently, on the basis that it was necessary in order for them to run their services. However, in the wake of substantial public pressure, private advocacy and indications from regulators that if the industry did not police itself, it would be imposed upon them, all three companies instituted data protection schemes. Calls for shortening the time period before data is removed or obscured soon began and have grown in pitch.

Anne Toth, Yahoo’s vice president of policy and head of privacy stated that “we want to take the issue of data retention off the table.”

The move puts pressure on Google and Microsoft to follow suit, in a climate where European Union regulators have pushed for legislation, private advocacy groups are planning such a push in the U.S., and where Congress has raised questions about the extent Internet tracking of private data by telecommunications companies is being used to target advertising based on personal information.

Despite Yahoo’s data policy being more restrictive than that of Google’s or Microsoft’s, personal data will not be destroyed entirely but will by “anonymized”—hidden in various ways, including: deleting the final eight bits of a user’s IP address; changing the user’s Yahoo! ID to a one-way, secret, hash code and deleting one half of the identifier created; a similar hash obscuring of all cookie identifiers; and will filter certain types of unique personal identifiers such as credit card and social security numbers. Additionally, Yahoo indicates that it will purge information on page views, ad views, page clicks and ad clicks.

In a press release, Massachusetts Democrat Edward J. Markey, chairman of the House Energy Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, praised the restriction, and stated, “I urge other leading online companies to match or beat the commitments announced by Yahoo.”