Mutated bird flu okay to publish, says U.S biosecurity panel

Two controversial papers on bird flu will be published by scientific journals this year after the go-ahead was given by a U.S biosecurity panel.

The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) took a stand over the papers last year out of concerns that details of the studies - which induced mutations in the H5N1 avian flu virus that made it transmissible among mammals by air rather than by close physical contact - could be used for bioterrorism.

Explaining its decision, announced last Friday, the NSABB said in a statement that ‘the data described in the revised manuscripts do not appear to provide information that would immediately enable misuse of the research in ways that would endanger public health or national security’. Read More

Egypt reports two new cases of human infection with bird flu

Egypt has reported the seventh and eighth cases of human infection with H5N1 avian influenza in 2012 according to a World Health Organization (WHO) Global Alert Response (GAR).

The Ministry of Health and Population of Egypt notified the WHO Monday of two children, a 2-year-old and a 15-year old, infected with the potentially fatal virus.

According to the GAR:

The first case is a 2 year-old female from Demiatta Governorate. She developed symptoms on 19 March 2012 and was admitted to a hospital on 20 March 2012 where she received oseltamivir. She is still under treatment and in good medical condition. The case was laboratory confirmed by the Central Public Health Laboratories (NIC) on 22 of March 2012.

The second case is a 15 year-old female from Giza Governorate. She developed symptoms on 25 March 2012 and was admitted to a hospital in critical condition on 29 March 2012. She received oseltamivir on admission. She died on 31 March 2012. The case was laboratory confirmed by the Central Public Health Laboratories (NIC) on 31 March 2012. Source

'Millions of lives at risk' from drought in the drought-stricken Sahel region of northern Africa.

Vast portions of west and central Africa have become so dry that they can't support crops, livestock and the millions of people who live there.

The Sahel - a belt of arid land that stretches across Africa below the Sahara Desert - is a zone prone to cycles of drought, and eight countries are seeing the worst of it this time.

The United Nations estimates that more than 10 million people are in danger of starving to death. Aid workers on the ground say it's getting worse quickly. Read More

Moscow Market Warehouse Fire Kills 17

A fire at a market warehouse on the outskirts of Moscow has killed 17 people, Russian authorities have said.

Earlier it was reported that 15 people have been killed but the death toll has since risen.

"They were migrant workers. We are trying to confirm which (ex-Soviet) republic they came from," an emergencies ministry spokesman said.

Unconfirmed news reports said the migrants came from the impoverished Central Asian nation of Tajikistan.

It is common for Moscow markets to employ cheap labourers from the region without giving them proper housing conditions.

The blaze broke out in the early hours of Tuesday at a market on the southern outskirts of the city called Kachalovsky. Read More

'Pink slime' company files for bankruptcy amid controversy over the ammonia treated filler

A company that makes ‘pink slime’ products has filed for bankruptcy as the backlash against the controversial beef filler continues.

AFA Foods has announced that it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and selling its assets after the public outcry over the beef substance derailed its efforts to save its already struggling business.

The Pennsylvania-based company processes more than 500 million pounds of ground beef products a year and distribute to retailers including Wal-Mart and Safeways – both supermarkets that no longer sell beef containing ‘pink slime.’

AFA Foods, which also sells products under the brand names Moran's, Stone River Ranch and Miller Quality Meats, provide beef to customers including Burger King, Wendy's and Jack in the Box.

The bankruptcy comes a week after Beef Products Inc, another company which sells ‘pink slime’, announced they were suspending operations at three of four plants where the beef ingredient is made.

Beef Products Inc. have stopped operations at its plants in Texas, Kansas, and Iowa - a move that will affect 650 jobs. Read More

Plane crashes into Florida mall as terrified shoppers flee

A small plane crashed into a Florida shopping mall and burst into flames tonight, injuring at least five people and sending shoppers running from the building.

Several people at the Northgate Shopping Center in Deland, Florida called emergency services at 7.20 pm to report that an aircraft had plunged into the complex, according to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.

Witnesses described seeing the plane sputtering just before it plummeted and hit the building. The pilot and one passenger were airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center.

They were both in critical condition, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. At least five people had been injured, two with burns.

A witness reported that the twin-engine plane appeared to have crashed into the roof of a Publix chain supermarket. Read More

Antidepressants may affect pregnancy (and mental health, and physical health, and child development, and the environment, and, and, and…)

Taking antidepressants during pregnancy may slightly increase a woman’s risk of developing high blood pressure, new data suggests.

Researchers at the Université de Montreal compared 1,216 women who developed pregnancy-induced high blood pressure with or without pre-eclampsia — a life-threatening disorder most often characterized by a rapid rise in blood pressure that can lead to seizure, stroke, multiple organ failure and death of the mother and/or baby — with 12,160 matched controls.

The women had not suffered from high blood pressure before their pregnancies. The study found that 3.7 per cent of those women with hypertension had taken antidepressants compared with 2.5 per cent in the control group. Read More

Antibiotics useless for most sinus infections (yet we keep handing them out like candy, creating deadly resistant bacteria and viruses)

Nearly all people who have sinus infections don’t need antibiotics, according to new guidelines for doctors.

Sinus infections are the fifth leading reason why doctors prescribe antibiotics. But 90 to 99 per cent of cases are caused by viruses that antibiotics won't help.

"There is no simple test that will easily and quickly determine whether a sinus infection is viral or bacterial, so many physicians prescribe antibiotics 'just in case,'" said Dr. Anthony Chow, chair of the guidelines panel and professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the University of British Columbia, in a release.

“If the infection turns out to be viral — as most are — the antibiotics won't help and in fact can cause harm by increasing antibiotic resistance, exposing patients to drug side effects unnecessarily and adding cost." Read More

Work-related carcinogens need more scrutiny

A breast cancer survivor who was exposed to a toxic mix of cancer-causing chemicals on the job at a plastic factory 20 years ago is warning that the health of workers still isn't protected enough.

Sandy Knight, a former health and safety chairperson at a plastics factory in Windsor, Ont., now speaks to men and women about potentially dangerous substances in the workplace.

She says she hears about five-minute brush-up sessions on the dangers, which Knight calls little help when an industry has high worker turnover rates.

"I was just so amazed to hear what's going on," the Burlington, Ont., resident said. "You're doing what we did back in the '80s," such as working without adequate ventilation.

Provincial and federal laws regulate the use of known cancer-causing substances in the workplace, but some experts say workplace exposure to carcinogens has not come under enough scrutiny. Read More

Coast Guard plans for Arctic drilling protests

The U.S. Coast Guard is expecting an aggressive protest effort as Shell Oil drills for oil in the Chukchi Sea this summer, and is planning a very active response of its own.

Protests would likely take place in Seattle or Dutch Harbor, two staging areas for the summer offshore oil exploration effort in the Arctic.

“We’re going to have what we call ‘deployable specialized forces,’ a force of small boats that will be staged in Dutch Harbor during the month of June,” said Capt. Buddy Custard, chief of staff for the Coast Guard in Alaska.

Custard was speaking to the Alaska Legislature’s Northern Waters Task Force at the Capitol March 16.

Custard and Fran Ulmer, chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, spoke about some of challenges coming with what she called the “industrialization of the Arctic.” Read More

Infographic: The secret life of drinking water

Water scarcity will be one of the defining features of the 21st century. The U.N. predicts that by 2025 two thirds of the world's population will suffer water shortages. Here CNN takes a look at what we do with the water we can drink. More

Oslo: Truck Driver Survives 200ft Truck Plunge down a snow-covered cliff.

A truck driver in Norway has had a lucky escape after he survived a 200ft drop down a snow-covered cliff.

His lorry did not have the right winter tread tyres and was stuck on an icy road.

It was being towed off the mountain pass north of Oslo by a large rescue tow truck when the accident occurred.

The incident was filmed by a passenger in a car travelling behind the two vehicles. Read More

Moscow Federation Tower Blaze

Fire is seen atop an under-construction skyscraper, planned to be Europe's tallest building, in Moscow, Russia, Monday, April 2, 2012. Orange flames were leaping about 250 meters (880 feet) Monday, visible in the night sky to much of the city. No injuries have been reported.

Huge flames danced for hours on the top floors of an under-construction Moscow skyscraper that is to be Europe's tallest, lighting up the night sky Monday. No injuries were reported in the blaze.

The fire at the eastern part of the Federation Tower complex was visible from much of the Russian capital's western half. Two firefighting helicopters noisily circled the blaze, dumping huge buckets of water on the flames before the Emergencies Ministry said the fire had been stopped from spreading by about 11:30 p.m., some three hours after it broke out.

The fire, some 250 metres above street-level, was believed to have started when plastic sheeting came in contact with a spotlight illuminating a work area, Nikita Zhuravlev, a representative of project developer Potok8, told Associated Press Television News. He said a firefighting helicopter appeared to have spread the flames by flying too low over the fire.

The Federation Tower is part of a massive development on the banks of the Moscow River about 2.5 kilometres west of the Kremlin.

When completed, it is to consist of two glass-sheathed office towers flanking a mast reaching 560 metres.

The tower that caught on fire is to top out at 360 metres. Read More

Moscow Market Warehouse Blaze Kills 12

Twelve people have been killed by a fire that swept through a market warehouse in southern Moscow.

The victims were migrant workers from former Soviet states, AFP news agency quoted the city's emergencies ministry as saying.

The two storey building was being used as living quarters for the market vendors.

The fire at Kachalovsky market came hours after a blaze at a skyscraper in Moscow, in which no-one was hurt.

The market fire broke out at about 04:50 (00:50 GMT) and was extinguished some three hours later, RIA Novosti said, citing officials.

There are unconfirmed reports that the people who died came from the central Asian nation of Tajikistan.

Emergency workers described squalid, cramped living conditions where people slept on hard cots stacked on top of each other, according to the Interfax news agency. Read More

Can Baghdad be beautiful again?

(CNN) -- Think of Baghdad and for most people what comes to mind is a city of damaged buildings and concrete checkpoints.

This is what Caecilia Pieri expected the first time she visited the Iraqi capital just months after the American-led invasion in 2003.

Baghdad has a history dating back to ancient Mesopotamia and was later one of Islam's great capitals. But Saddam Hussein's closed regime left the modern city unknown to the outside world.

"I had no idea what to expect, but had heard that the modern city had nothing to offer," said Pieri.

She was astonished to find a city that she fell in love with. And, surprisingly, what most enthralled her was Baghdad's 20th century architecture, including buildings commissioned by Saddam. Read More

Dying for Work

Across America, people are dying for work. It’s not because they’re unemployed. It’s because they work for corporations that don’t care if they die.

Every day, 12 workers die on the job in America – often because a corporation has defied regulations or ignored standard safety procedures. Many more die prematurely from work exposure to toxic materials.

If corporations are people, as Mitt Romney and the Republican majority on the Supreme Court claim, then their privileges as humans come with the responsibility to act humanely. Corporate-people must fulfill their obligations to workers and communities. Profit can’t be their sole raison d’etre. That’s not how it is with flesh-and-blood people. If it were, then society would condone profit-motivated murder, like killing a parent for insurance money. Now that they’re people, corporations have an even greater duty to prevent deaths on the job. And if they don’t, they must be held accountable in criminal court the same way a money-grubbing son would be if he murdered his parents for the life insurance.

Workplace explosions get all the attention. Three that occurred two years ago next month killed 47 workers. Within 18 days, seven died at the Tesoro refinery in Anacortes, Wash.; 29 in Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia and 11 on the BP Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Read More

How the Surging Popularity of 'Himalayan Viagra' Is Causing Murder and Violence in Nepal

It has become the most expensive herbal remedy in Chinese medicine and it is prized for its reputation as a powerful aphrodisiac that boosts men's sexual prowess.

CHAME, Nepal – In a dim, dusty stockade in this small Himalayan town, Krishna Lama contemplated his ruined life – a dead father, a college career cut short and criminal charges, all because of a potent fungus that promises the vigor of youth and sexual prowess for men. A devout Buddhist, Lama was a 20-year-old college student home on holiday in 2009, when he was compelled to join a posse protecting the lucrative fields near his home village of Nar, at altitude 13,450 feet and a steep two-day trek from the Annapurna trail in the Manang district.

What ensued was one of Nepal’s most gruesome mass killings – over the fungus called yarsagumba.

Fearing their fields had been poached by interloping yarsagumba pickers from Gorkha, a mob from Nar beat two men to death and threw their bodies into a deep crevasse. They rounded up the five other men and savagely beat them to death with sticks and stones. To conceal their crime, they cut the corpses into small pieces, wrapped them in plastic and threw them into a glacial torrent. Read More