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Monday, February 28, 2022

On Sunday, a suspected Russian missile strike was carried out on a civilian oil terminal located in Vasilkiv, near Kyiv, Ukraine. The incident was reported by Ukrainian Member of Parliament Anna Purtova. She described this deadly incident as an “environmental catastrophe”. The oil facility was located just 39 kilometers (24 mi) from Kyiv.

Apart from this, Russian troops were spotted in different locations in and around the city of Kharkiv. A gas pipeline was also blown up by Russian troops in Kharkiv yesterday before daybreak. The Governor of Kharkiv Oblast Oleh Synyehubov advised citizens not to go outside and stated “the Russian enemy’s light vehicles have broken into Kharkiv, including the city centre”.

On Saturday, Russian troops conducted a missile strike on a high-rise residential building in Kyiv which injured at least 6 people.

The Kremlin had sent a diplomatic delegation to Belarus, offering talks with Ukraine. The proposal was initially rejected by Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Belarus was complicit in the invasion and Ukraine would like to hold talks elsewhere.

Today, Ukraine has accepted the proposal for talks with the Russian Federation on the Belarusian border. The Ukrainian Presidential Office has confirmed the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had called Zelensky earlier Sunday.

The United States and its allies have initiated the transfer of arms and weapons to support Ukraine and imposed numerous sanctions to affect Russia financially. On Saturday, it was announced several Russian banks would be removed from the SWIFT international payment system, resulting in its disconnection from the international financial system. It was also decided to impose ‘restrictive measures’ on the Central Bank of Russia to prevent it from undermining the impact of the sanctions from the West.

The leaders of the European Commission and the United States said in a joint statement they “will hold Russia to account and collectively ensure that this war is a strategic failure for Putin”.

Google and Facebook have barred the Russian state-controlled media outlet RT News from receiving money from advertisements.

The Kremlin said Russian troops were advancing “in all directions” and Putin thanked the Russian Special Forces who were carrying out the operation in Ukraine. Sources also reveal Putin directed his nuclear deterrence forces to stay on high alert, citing “aggressive statements” by NATO and tough financial sanctions from the West and its allies. The Ukrainian presidential advisor, Mykhaylo Podolyak, said over 3,500 Russian troops were killed in action or wounded. Russia has not yet released any casualty figures.

Saturday, June 25, 2005

In an interview on NBC’s Today show with Matt Lauer, Tom Cruise aggressively defended his opposition to psychiatry and anti-depressive drugs. This occurred after being asked questions about his criticism of Brooke Shields, who has been taking drugs, including Paxil, for postpartum depression. Cruise is usually known for keeping his cool in interviews, but recently he has been slightly more unbound.

Cruise’s statements, including “Psychiatry is a pseudoscience“, and “There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance in a body”, reflect the beliefs of the Church of Scientology, of which he is a member. The interview became particularly tense when Lauer mentioned that he knew people who had been helped by taking Ritalin, an attention-deficit disorder drug.

“Matt, Matt, you don’t even — you’re glib,” Cruise responded. “You don’t even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, OK. That’s what I’ve done.”

Cruise went on to say: “You don’t know the history of psychiatry, I do.”

Cruise has not formally studied medicine beyond a high school education, having dropped out in his senior year (1980) to pursue an acting career. In light of this, some members of the psychiatric community have refuted Cruise’s controversial statements. Dr. John Scully, medical director of the American Psychiatric Association, has said “The illnesses we treat – anxiety, depression – are very real illnesses…The treatments work. We have demonstrated that through robust scientific study.”

Lauer insisted that Ritalin helped people: “You’re telling me what’s worked for people I know or hasn’t worked for people I know. I’m telling you, I’ve lived with these people and they’re better,” Lauer said.

Cruise hinted that Lauer was promoting Ritalin and Lauer scoffed: “I am not. I’m telling you in their cases, in their individual case, it worked.”

The exchange ended when the two basically agreed to disagree. Cruise, who is 42, did admit that one of his goals is to speak more about Scientology in an effort to get people to understand it better.

Scientology has historically been at odds with the established medical and mental health community. The rift dates back to the 1950s and Scientology’s founding father L. Ron Hubbard. In his book, “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health”, published in 1950, Hubbard claims that Dianetics (later called Scientology) could cure the majority of human ailments. These claims were sharply disputed by a variety of mainstream science and medical professionals including psychiatrists.

On Monday, June 27, 2005, the American Psychiatric Association released a statement that stated the following:”It is irresponsible for Mr. Cruise to use his movie publicity tour to promote his own ideological views and deter people with mental illness from getting the care they need…Rigorous, published, peer-reviewed research clearly demonstrates that treatment (of mental illness) works…It is unfortunate that in the face of this remarkable scientific and clinical progress that a small number of individuals and groups persist in questioning its legitimacy.”

The APA represents nearly 36,000 physicians specialising in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Cattle at a farm in Surrey, UK have tested positive for foot-and-mouth disease. After symptoms were reported late on 2 August, the farm was isolated. Following testing, officials from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) confirmed the outbreak on 3 August.

A three kilometre exclusion zone and a ten kilometre surveillance zone have been put into place around the farm, near Wanborough. All livestock on the farm have been slaughtered and incinerated. Any movement of livestock in the UK has been banned and the EU has banned exports under emergency measures, expected to be confirmed on Monday. Farmers are urged to watch their animals carefully for symptoms, and report any to Defra officials.

The government’s emergency committee Cobra met to discuss the situation before the announcement, with Prime Minister Gordon Brown participating via telephone. Brown cut short his holiday in Dorset to return to London on Saturday, when another meeting of Cobra was held. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn also returned from holiday in Italy.

The last outbreak of foot-and-mouth in the UK was in 2001. It resulted in the slaughtering of up to 7 million animals, and losses estimated at £8 billion.

In France, the government has asked for all the animals imported during the last ten days to be tested. All meetings including animals have been forbidden on the French territory.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

At UCLA, a team of researchers has developed a harmless version of HIV that is designed to seek out, and potentially destroy, cancer cells.

In a laboratory-mouse experiment, the treated cells headed directly for melonoma and lung cancer cells, clustering around them with a surprising level of intuitiveness. Gene therapy for cancer has been at an impasse for the last 20 years, said the team, but now an effective carrier has been found in the most unlikely of sources. Essentially, one of the world’s largest health threats is now being considered to fight another.

Says Dr. Irvin Chen, from UCLA’s AIDS Institute, “The disarmed AIDS virus acts like a Trojan horse, transporting therapeutic agents to a targeted part of the body, such as the lungs, where tumors often spread.”

First the virus’s coating is removed and the virus is reprogrammed so that it recognizes and attaches to the p-lipoproteins of a cancer cell, one of cancer’s primary defenses. The retro-virus was also altered with a fluorescent protein for easy tracking within the lab mice. The next step will be to graft a cancer-killing gene onto the modified AIDS virus’s genetic structure.

Currently, a case of melanoma skin cancer spreading to the lungs is a confirmed death sentence. Should this method of treatment improve into a workable treatment, both life-threatening cancers and the AIDS retro-virus could be effectively neutered. But the team cautions that the treatment is in the very early stages and will take several more years to develop.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

On behalf of the FDA, U.S. Federal marshals have begun seizing beds which have killed at least seven patients out of about 30 who had become trapped by the products. Three versions of the bed were found to be “dangerous to health” by the FDA, with the specific danger of, “placing patients at an increased risk of entrapment and asphyxiation.”

The model numbers of the faulty beds include the Vail 500, 1000, and 2000 Enclosed Bed Systems. The beds are made by Toledo, Ohio-based Vail Products, Inc.

In a government press release, the FDA pointed out that Vail had failed to heed two previous warnings issued by the agency, asking the company to comply with regulations regarding proper labeling and usage directions. The FDA also said that Vail had failed to supply required documentation to the agency to comply with the Medical Device Reporting and Reports of Corrections and Removals regulations.

At the time this story was filed, the Vail web site made no mention of today’s FDA announcement. Toledo’s WTOL News 11 reported that, “Company officials say their beds aren’t dangerous if used properly.” The Vail corporate web site claims that the beds allow, “the patient to move about freely within a safe, padded environment” and “control wandering.”

The FDA is the U.S. agency responsible for regulating food, drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics.

A compilation of brief news reports for Thursday, August 13, 2009.

The French capital Paris has seen a second night of violence by demonstrators, who have blamed police for the death of a motorcyclist on Sunday.

On Sunday night youths in the eastern suburb of Bagnolet, set 29 vehicles alight and threw stones and petrol bombs at police. Monday night was “relatively calm” according to Samira Amrouche, spokeswoman for the regional administration, the authorities having depolyed 40 vans of riot police only 8 vehicles were burnt.

The motorcyclist, a pizza deliveryman, was killed when he fled police attempting to examine his documents, dying when he was struck by a pursuing police vehicle according to the youths,however in the police version his death was a result of him crashing into barriers.

The current violence has echoes of the unrest in 2005, with again dissaffected youths of Arab and black descent venting their anger and frustration.

Sources

• “Paris suburb youths fight police” — BBC Online, August 11, 2009
• “Plea for calm after Paris violence” — Press Association, August 11, 2009

The leaders of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) met in Guadalajara, Mexico on Sunday and Monday. The leaders of the three countries (Barack Obama of the United States, Felipe Calderón of Mexico, and Stephen Harper of Canada) promised to work together on swine flu, organised crime and green issues.

Despite disputes in a number of areas remaining unresolved, the three leaders succeeded in presenting an amiable Three Amigos image. The three leaders expressed solidarity, and an understanding of each others position.

The unresolved issues include the buy American clauses in the US stimulus package, tit for tat reprisals by the Mexican authorities over Canadian visa restrictions on Mexican travellers, and the US ban on Mexican trucks from crossing the border.

Risking the ire of human rights activists back home President Obama expressed support for President Calderón’s war against drugs saying he had “great confidence” in the Mexican authorities.

Sources

• An. “Canadian and Mexican leaders fail to reach agreement on visas” — Xinhua News Agency, August 11, 2009
• An. “North American leaders wrap up summit, joint statement embodies cooperation” — Xinhua News Agency, August 11, 2009
• Tanya Huntington Hyde. “Ignoring Mexico’s human rights abuses” — The Guardian, August 11, 2009
• “Border ban angers Mexico truckers” — BBC Online, August 09, 2009

Mexican Federal Police (Policía Federal) have foiled an alleged plot to assasinate the President of Mexico Felipe Calderón. Acting on intelligence gathered over a year the Federal Police arrested five drug cartel members on Sunday and publicly paraded their captives and a number of weapons ,including automatic rifles, on Monday. Speaking during a summit of North American leaders Calderón played down the threats on his life, saying that the cartels are being destroyed by his policies.

Some 11000 have died since President Calderón’s took office in 2006 and made the war on drugs a cornerstone of his administration.

Sources

• “Drug cartel allegedly plotted to kill Mexican leader” — CNN, August 11, 2009
• “Mexican police foil drug cartel plot to kill president” —  August 11, 2009
• Julie Watson. “Mexico: Suspect plotted to kill president” — Associated Press, August 10, 2009

Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced by a court in Burma to a further three years of house arrest for violating the terms of her previous sentence. However her sentence was immediately commuted to 18 months on the orders of Burmese head of state Senior-General Than Shwe out of respect for her father General Aung San and out of a desire for “national reconciliation”.

The period of her arrest will prevent Aung San Suu Kyi from participating in the general elections scheduled for 2010. The sentence was immediately condemned by Western leaders, and breaking from their usual silence, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) through its current chair Thailand issued a statement expressing disappointment. The ASEAN statement and talk of further European Union and United States sanctions are unlikely to have any impact on Southeast Asian country given the support of India and China.

The Chinese issued a statement calling for the world to respect Burmese sovereignty and laws, and is seen as an indication that China, a veto power will not support any United Nations actions.

John Yettaw whose unauthorised visit led to Aung San Suu Kyi’s prosecution has himself been sentenced to seven years imprisonment, four of which will be for hard labour.

Sources

• “Asian regrets at Suu Kyi verdict” — BBC Online, August 12,2009
• Li. “Myanmar gov’t gives reasons to commute Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence” — Xinhua News Agency, August 12, 2009

Four employees of the Rio Tinto Group have been formally arrested in China on charges of bribery and using improper practises in its negotiations with Chinese companies. The Chinese accuse the men of improperly learning the negotiating position of Chinese companies wishing to buy iron ore, and through this charging 700 billion yuan (US$102.46 billion) more then they would otherwise have been able to

The four were initially held on espionage charges and have been held since early July. The formal charges allows the Chinese authorities to hold the four a further seven months as it prepares its case against them. Their arrests followed the collapse of an attempted by Chinese owned Chinalco to raise its stake in the Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto Group to 18%.

Sources

• Anne Barrowclough. “Rio Tinto China executives charged with bribery” — The Times, August 12, 2009
• “Watchdog on secrets: Rio caused “huge loss”” — Xinhua News Agency, August 10, 2009
• “A souring relationship” — The Economist, August 10, 2009

Michael Jackson will be the star of a film to be released on October 28, some four months after his death. The film will be primarily cut from footage of Jackson rehearsing for the series of concerts that would have taken place at the O2 in London, but will also feature interviews with Jackson’s family and friends.

The film becomes possible after AEG Live, the promoter of the O2 concerts, reached an US$60 million agreement with Columbia Pictures for over 100 hours of footage of Jackson preparing for his swan song.

“He was the architect of ‘This is it‘, and we were his builders…” said Kenny Ortega, Jackson’s collaborator on the project “…it was clear that he was on his way to another theatrical triumph.”

Sources

• Rosie Swash. “Michael Jackson film gets October release date” — The Guardian, August 11, 2009
• “Michael Jackson rehearsal film set for worldwide cinematic release” — New Musical Express, August 11, 2009