Search is not available for this dataset
query
stringlengths 1
13.4k
| pos
stringlengths 1
61k
| neg
stringlengths 1
63.9k
| query_lang
stringclasses 147
values | __index_level_0__
int64 0
3.11M
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
Egyptian woman with bird flu dies: health official | A 37-year-old Egyptian woman who tested positive for the bird flu virus has died in hospital, bringing the number of deaths from the disease in Egypt to 13, a government health official said on Friday. | A woman attacked in the same area where a French student was murdered sends the family her sympathy. | eng_Latn | 500 |
U.N. Agency Is Moving to Contain Outbreaks of Disease | As rains dilute the salt water and create stagnant pools that could serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes, fears have arisen about a surge in viral and parasitic diseases. | Hospitals in the Indonesian capital were overwhelmed on Tuesday with hundreds of flood victims suffering from water-borne diseases after the city's worst flooding in five years. | eng_Latn | 501 |
Avian flu kills tigers in Thailand, chickens in Vietnam | Oct 19, 2004 (CIDRAP News) - A government official in Thailand said 23 tigers at a private zoo died of avian influenza after eating the carcasses of chickens believed to have had the disease, the Associated Press reported today. | Elton John has clashed with photographers at Taiwan's Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek Airport, calling them "vile pigs.". | eng_Latn | 502 |
Another bird flu outbreak likely | World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that an outbreak of bird flu mixed with a human influenza virus could kill millions of people across the globe that had the potential to be worse than the SARS virus. | U.S. authorities last week blamed tuberculosis carrier Andrew Speaker's illicit reentry to America on a single point of human error, faulting a Champlain, N.Y., inspector who failed to detain him as instructed by a computer alert. | eng_Latn | 503 |
Experts dampen bird flu fears | International health officials at an emergency meeting in Bangkok Monday said there is no evidence that bird flu has been passed from one human to another. | Big Issue founder John Bird scraps plans to run for London mayor next year and will fight poverty instead. | eng_Latn | 504 |
Thailand bird flu deaths increase | A girl becomes the 11th Thai victim of bird flu this year, dying only a few days after falling ill. | Hospitals in the Indonesian capital were overwhelmed on Tuesday with hundreds of flood victims suffering from water-borne diseases after the city's worst flooding in five years. | eng_Latn | 505 |
One more Vietnamese suspected to contract bird flu | HANOI, Aug. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- A child from Vietnam's southern Hau Giang province, the home to most suspected cases of bird flu in the country, received treatment after showing symptoms of fever and breathing difficulties. | Big Issue founder John Bird scraps plans to run for London mayor next year and will fight poverty instead. | eng_Latn | 506 |
Six feared dead in chopper crash | SIX people were feared dead after a US Coast Guard helicopter crashed into the icy Bering Sea while rescuing the crew of a Malaysian ship that broke up off the Alaska coast. | Zimbabwe warns of floods from the aftermath of Cyclone Favio which injured at least 20 in central Mozambique. | eng_Latn | 507 |
Egyptian woman tests positive for bird flu: WHO | A 37-year-old Egyptian woman has tested positive for the deadly bird flu virus, bringing the number of confirmed cases in Egypt to 21, a World Health Organization official said on Wednesday. | BRITAIN is "in the grip of a serious HIV epidemic" as the number of people suffering from the infection continues to soar, new figures showed today. | eng_Latn | 508 |
Why bird flu has been kept at bay | Scientists say they have found a key reason why bird flu has so far not posed a widespread threat to humans. | Big Issue founder John Bird scraps plans to run for London mayor next year and will fight poverty instead. | eng_Latn | 509 |
British bird flu farm says not at fault for outbreak | Bernard Matthews, the head of the turkey-producing firm that bears his name, has said that the recent outbreak of a potentialy deadly strain of avian flu at his company's farm was not their fault. | An investigation is under way to discover how a banned antibotic is found in organic chicken processed in NI. | eng_Latn | 510 |
Don't ignore less virulent bird flu strains, experts say | Experts have called for closer study of less lethal strains of the H5N1 bird flu virus because they might be more likely candidates to spark an influenza pandemic. | Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) ["Common Kestrel Tested for H5 Virus in HK" - Xinhua headline] Hong Kong, Feb. | eng_Latn | 511 |
Tigers in Thai zoo dying of bird flu | BANGKOK - Avian influenza has killed 23 tigers and sickened 30 more at a private zoo in eastern Thailand, Thai officials said on Tuesday. | Elton John has clashed with photographers at Taiwan's Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek Airport, calling them "vile pigs.". | eng_Latn | 512 |
Scientists Warn That Bird-Flu Virus Remains a Threat | This year, bird flu seems all but forgotten. But scientists say that the virus is as dangerous and unpredictable as ever. | Big Issue founder John Bird scraps plans to run for London mayor next year and will fight poverty instead. | eng_Latn | 513 |
Avian flu pandemic likely unless more efforts taken, WHO chief ... | A top World Health Organization official warned Saturday of a likely global pandemic of avian flu unless tougher efforts are made to combat the virus's spread and improve sanitation in the poultry industry. | Scientists and officials strengthened efforts to forestall the extinction of thousands of species and protect the world's habitats in talks in Bangkok, but governments need to work harder to promote conservation, an international environment agency said Thursday. | eng_Latn | 514 |
Don't give up on advanced human bird flu cases: expert | An expert who treated numerous bird flu victims in Vietnam has urged doctors not to lose hope with patients who are admitted late to hospital as there is still a good chance that they can survive. | Big Issue founder John Bird scraps plans to run for London mayor next year and will fight poverty instead. | eng_Latn | 515 |
Common Kestrel Tested for H5 Bird Flu Virus in Hong Kong | Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) ["Common Kestrel Tested for H5 Virus in HK" - Xinhua headline] Hong Kong, Feb. | ISLAND STRATEGIC PLAN INQUIRY TO GO AHEAD THE public inquiry into the Island strategic plan will go ahead despite concerns it is 'fundamentally flawed'. Property developer Henry Kennaugh, director of Baccarat ... | eng_Latn | 516 |
Ominous signs in avian flu's return | YEN NGHIA COMMUNE, Vietnam A small house here by a river covered with dark green spinach plants is quieter now, the cries of an 11-month-old girl no longer heard. | Hundreds of U.S. bird-lovers have flocked to a New England resort island to catch a glimpse of a rare falcon that appears to have made a wrong turn, ended up half a world away and may never find its way home. | eng_Latn | 517 |
Nearly 100 Vietnamese dead or missing in typhoon | Nearly 100 people were killed or are missing after a typhoon hit the southern coast of Vietnam this week, damaging hundreds of thousands of flimsy homes, a government report said on Thursday. | A girl becomes the 11th Thai victim of bird flu this year, dying only a few days after falling ill. | eng_Latn | 518 |
Bird Flu causes concern | Health officials are concerned about a Bird Flu outbreak they say could kill millions of people. The World Health Organization says as many as seven million people could die and billions of others could get | Can worrying about terrorism be just as bad for your health as terrorism itself? | eng_Latn | 519 |
Asia battles earthquake aftermath | Survivors and rescuers are battling through the devastation left by sea surges that killed more than 15,000 people on Asia's southern shores. | SINGAPORE (dpa) - An Asean taskforce set up to deal with the bird flu threat targeted on Tuesday eight "action areas" including drawing up emergency preparedness plans to respond quickly to new outbreaks. | eng_Latn | 520 |
Some Muslim states not ready to fight bird flu: WHO | Some Muslim countries are ill-prepared to tackle an outbreak of bird flu because of poor resources and public apathy, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said at a meeting of Islamic nations on Wednesday. | Somalia's Islamists reject accusations that they were behind the suicide attack on the government. | eng_Latn | 521 |
HK scientists seek effective cures to avian flu | Hong Kong scientists have been researching a vaccine for the avian flu epidemic, commonly known as bird flu. Doctor John Nichols, a pathologist at Hong Kong University, says | Big Issue founder John Bird scraps plans to run for London mayor next year and will fight poverty instead. | eng_Latn | 522 |
Horse flu stops Australian races | Authorities cancelled all horse races in four Australian states on Saturday after the country's first outbreak of equine influenza, which has set off fears of massive financial losses. | ORLANDO, Fla. -- Florida's hurricane quartet this year may have helped the state avoid another record season of the potentially lethal West Nile virus. | eng_Latn | 523 |
Hungary import 'link' to UK bird flu | The likely cause of bird flu at a farm in Suffolk was poultry imported from a factory in Hungary, officials say. | A Polish town finds geese rearing a good way of keeping heads above water in an uncertain economic climate. | eng_Latn | 524 |
Thunderstorms in Mexico kill 7 stressed kangaroos | Violent thunderstorms have driven seven distressed kangaroos to death at a Mexican zoo, say veterinarians who are now pampering the remaining three mothers and their babies. | WESLACO - The Rio Grande Valley leads the nation in cervical cancer and overweight children, according to a study released Wednesday. | eng_Latn | 525 |
If this keeps up, they just may be able to swing it | CHICAGO -- This national TV stuff, Terry Francona still has some work to do. "I showed up for the wrong inning," said the Red Sox manager, who had been lined up to do a between-innings interview by Fox yesterday and eventually got on, but just a little later than he thought he would. | BANGKOK - The head of the World Health Organization's global influenza program, Dr, Klaus Stohr, has nominated the bird flu virus in Asia as the most likely cause of the world's next flu pandemic. | eng_Latn | 526 |
Weather hampers China mine rescue | Low temperatures complicate efforts to reach trapped miners after a blast kills at least 203 in China. | N'DJAMENA - Six French aid workers sentenced to hard labor in Chad for trying to kidnap 103 children flew out of the African nation on Friday bound for France where they are due to serve their sentences in jail. | eng_Latn | 527 |
S. Korea kills animals to stop bird flu | A 2-year-old dachshund barked chained to its dingy, wooden house Tuesday, unaware of its fate as South Korea began slaughtering hundreds of dogs, cats and pigs in an effort to stem the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. | Israel declared psychological war on hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners Monday, saying it would barbecue meat outside their cells to try to break their will. | eng_Latn | 528 |
WHO says bird flu virus mutated | A World Health Organization investigation showed that the H5N1 virus mutated slightly in an Indonesian family cluster on Sumatra island, but bird flu experts insisted Friday it did not increase the possibility of a human pandemic. | MULTAN (Pakistan) - A leader of a radical Sunni group blamed yesterday's bombings at a religious gathering on radical Shi'ite Muslims. | eng_Latn | 529 |
China flood death toll rises to 76, as villages submerged | The death toll from nearly a week of heavy rain in southern China rose to 76 on Tuesday, as reports emerged of authorities deliberately flooding some villages in an effort to save bigger cities. | A girl becomes the 11th Thai victim of bird flu this year, dying only a few days after falling ill. | eng_Latn | 530 |
Malaysian bird flu an isolated case | A recent case of bird flu Malaysia appears to be an isolated event, the World Health Organization says. Health officials have confirmed the case, found in the poultry of | A US teenage girl has survivied full-blown rabies she contracted from a bat - the first human ever to do so without vaccination, TechNewsWorld reports. | eng_Latn | 531 |
Epidemic threatens as tsunami toll hits 85,000 | With the death toll soaring to nearly 85,000 in the tsunami havoc, the World Health Organization Wednesday warned that disease in the aftermath of the disaster | A girl becomes the 11th Thai victim of bird flu this year, dying only a few days after falling ill. | eng_Latn | 532 |
Biologists Concerned About Bobwhite Quail | The bobwhite quail, which is disappearing in the Southeast, can make a comeback and add millions of dollars to the rural economy if landowners are willing to make changes in the way they manage their crops and timber to protect the birds' habitat, biologists say. | Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) ["Common Kestrel Tested for H5 Virus in HK" - Xinhua headline] Hong Kong, Feb. | eng_Latn | 533 |
Bird flu silences once bustling HK songbird market | In its heyday, Hong Kong's famous Bird Garden market bustled with shoppers bargaining in Cantonese for exotic birds for sale as pets or for Buddhist rituals. | WASHINGTON - The reddish bacterium to blame for this yearâs shortage of flu vaccine has a colorful history. Until the 1960s, Serratia marcescens was considered harmless - so safe, in fact, that the military | eng_Latn | 534 |
Illness kills more than 100 in Congo | More than 100 people have died in a remote part of Congo, including all those who attended the funerals of two village chiefs, in what health officials fear is an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever. | Survivors of the storm that ravaged Haiti face a new menace as contaminated water, putrefying bodies and devastated sanitary systems threaten an outbreak of waterborne diseases such as malaria and tetanus, aid workers warned yesterday. | eng_Latn | 535 |
Measles kills 10 in western China | Ten people in China's western Xinjiang province died of measles last month and more than 4,000 were sickened, the local health bureau said Wednesday, in a dramatic rise in the number of cases. | A girl becomes the 11th Thai victim of bird flu this year, dying only a few days after falling ill. | eng_Latn | 536 |
Typhoon Meari kills nine in Japan | moving northeast over large parts of the country including Tokyo, with winds up to 67 miles per hour. Media reports said at least nine had died, but public broadcaster NHK said the toll had reached 11. | I Paesi occidentali cominciano a contare i loro morti nella zona asiatica devastata domenica dal maremoto. La consigliera federale Micheline Calmy-Rey ha annunciato ieri che sono almeno nove i turisti svizzeri deceduti e dodici i feriti. | eng_Latn | 537 |
UN Warns of Disease in Affected Areas | A girl receives tetanus shot from a medic at a relief camp in Nagore, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004. | PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb. 9 -- U.N. troops fought a block-by-block gun battle with gangs in one of this capital's notorious slums Friday, in the force's largest offensive since being deployed here in 2004. | eng_Latn | 538 |
Thailand to Ban Open-Air Fowl Farming in Effort Stop Avian Flu | Thailand plans to ban families from raising fowl in open-air farms in an attempt to stop the spread of the avian influenza virus, the government said, without providing any details on how it will implement the ban. | China is to abolish tuition fees for 150 million rural students in a bid to tackle rural poverty, state media say. | eng_Latn | 539 |
Powerful typhoon targets eastern China | A powerful typhoon targeted China's booming eastern province of Zhejiang and the nation's financial capital, Shanghai, on Tuesday, prompting evacuation of over 1.6 million people as ships were recalled to port. | Pictures of the devastation left by huge earthquake-triggered waves around the Indian Ocean | eng_Latn | 540 |
Several hurt as earthquake rocks Indonesia | Powerful earthquake damages buildings and injures several people in Indonesia but does not trigger a feared tsunami | KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysian officials on Saturday were testing three people who fell ill in a village hit by the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain, after international health officials warned that the virus appeared to be entrenched in parts of ... | eng_Latn | 541 |
Thailand Confirms 10th Bird Flu Death | BANGKOK, Thailand Sept. 28, 2004 - A woman who died earlier this month of bird flu probably got the disease from her daughter, a Thai official said Tuesday, increasing concern the case is the first known human-to-human transmission of the disease. | Weather conditions are set to ease after three people die in severe flooding across England and Wales. | eng_Latn | 542 |
Bird flu most likely to be cause of next pandemic, say WHO ... | BANGKOK - The head of the World Health Organization's global influenza program, Dr, Klaus Stohr, has nominated the bird flu virus in Asia as the most likely cause of the world's next flu pandemic. | By DAVID SMYTH THE WHO may have this week announced two Wembley dates, but rumours abound that they are to give up touring? Don't fret too much. You'll still be able to see Pete Townshend, alive and well and delivering biscuits on the internet. | eng_Latn | 543 |
Chua: Three free from bird flu | KUALA LUMPUR: The three people warded at the Kota Baru Hospital on Thursday are confirmed to be free from bird flu. Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said tests conducted by Institute of Medical Research | A Food and Drug Administration team plans to meet Thursday with the British regulators who abruptly shut down Chiron Corp.'s flu shot plant last week, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson said ... | eng_Latn | 544 |
China confirms bird flu outbreak | China has confirmed an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus among ducks in an outlying district of the southern city of Guangzhou. | Hospitals in the Indonesian capital were overwhelmed on Tuesday with hundreds of flood victims suffering from water-borne diseases after the city's worst flooding in five years. | eng_Latn | 545 |
Bird Flu Spread a Worry, But No WHO Travel Warning | The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday voiced concern about the spread of bird flu in Vietnam, but said it was not considering warning against travel there as the risk of human infection was low. | Frightened Westerners - many of them longtime residents of this former African economic success story - piled into buses, boats and planes Saturday as a French-run evacuation built, despite government promises to protect the expatriates from a surge of | eng_Latn | 546 |
Riau bans chickens from Malaysia | PEKANBARU, Riau: The province of Riau has banned the entry of chicken and eggs from Malaysia following reports on the spread of bird flu in the neighboring country, a local official said on Wednesday. | Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) ["Common Kestrel Tested for H5 Virus in HK" - Xinhua headline] Hong Kong, Feb. | eng_Latn | 547 |
CO Dangers Continue to Dog Hotels | By Mike Gorrell, The Salt Lake Tribune Jun. 7--Over a 15-year period, carbon monoxide poisoning at hotels, motels and resorts claimed 27 lives nationwide, according to a study by the medical director of LDS Hospital's Hyperbaric Medicine Center. | Manila airport officials prevented a real life version of horror flick "Snakes on a Plane" this week when they stopped more than 130 reptiles, including poisonous cobras, from boarding a flight to Bangkok. | eng_Latn | 548 |
WHO: Bird Flu Outbreak Will Likely Cause New Human Flu Pandemic | The World Health Organization is warning Asian nations that its current struggle with bird flu could lead to the next deadly human flu pandemic across the globe. | US strikes on Iran predicted as tension rises over arms smuggling and nuclear fears. | eng_Latn | 549 |
Threat of Disease Fades, But Agencies on Guard | BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - The threat of disease decimating survivors of Asia's tsunami has receded but aid agencies are remaining on their guard, the U.N. said on Friday as doctors reported children dying from pneumonia. | A new outbreak of foot and mouth in Britain was caused by the same strain of virus which was declared "eradicated" only last week, initial test results showed Thursday. | eng_Latn | 550 |
Wild China weather kills 25 | Unusually severe winter weather besieged China's business and farming heartland on Tuesday amid the country's worst power crisis, with one mountain road accident blamed on snow killing 25 people ahead of a major holiday. | Thailand's PM says senior officials' negligance led to the deaths in custody of more than 80 Muslim protesters. | eng_Latn | 551 |
Bird flu flares again in Asia | Bird flu has resurfaced in parts of Asia, with human deaths reported in Indonesia and China and fresh outbreaks plaguing other countries during the winter months when the virus typically flares. | Restrictions over foot-and-mouth are to be eased in some areas from Thursday, Defra says. | eng_Latn | 552 |
Deadly Typhoon Aere Hits Mainland China | China evacuated 320,000 people from the east coast as Typhoon Aere hit the mainland Wednesday, after a mudslide buried a family of four in northern Taiwan pushing the regional death toll to 16. | Hong Kong's worsening air quality is driving down analyst estimates for real estate companies?and could start driving residents away | eng_Latn | 553 |
Bird Flu Believed Endemic in Asia, Spreads to Pigs | BEIJING/KUALA LUMPUR - The discovery of a deadly bird flu strain in Malaysia after cases elsewhere in Southeast Asia signaled a major winter outbreak was likely, international health experts said on Friday. | Tsunami News, Search Engines and Blogs Lead Traffic to Humanitarian Sites With relief coming in from all over the world, U.S. citizens are embracing the Internet to support relief efforts for victims of the Asian Tsunami disaster. According to Hitwise, the world’s leading online competitive intelligence service, the market share of ... | eng_Latn | 554 |
Bird flu transmitted between humans in Thailand | A 26-year-old Thai woman who died of acute pneumonia on 20 September was a âprobableâ case of human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 bird flu virus, the Thai Ministry of Public Health confirmed on Tuesday. | Elton John has clashed with photographers at Taiwan's Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek Airport, calling them "vile pigs.". | eng_Latn | 555 |
Fears mount over Asian bird flu | A Thai woman who died of bird flu may be the first in the latest outbreak to catch it from human contact. | Big Issue founder John Bird scraps plans to run for London mayor next year and will fight poverty instead. | eng_Latn | 556 |
China shares bird flu sample, first time in year-WHO | China has shared human bird flu samples for the first time in more than a year, giving a boost to international efforts to track the deadly H5N1 virus and develop vaccines, the World Health Organisation said on Friday. | The FBI added 10 names to a list of four Chinese nationals it is seeking to question in connection with an unspecified potential threat to the city of Boston, an official with the bureau said on Thursday. | eng_Latn | 557 |
China Rushes to Halt Bird Flu Among Ducks | BEIJING, Sept. 18 -- China scrambled to respond Tuesday to an outbreak of bird flu among ducks in the southern city of Guangzhou. But as officials sought to reassure the public, there were signs that China was reluctant to release details about a possible health threat. | The U.S. Department of Agriculture is preparing for a potential pandemic with steps that include expanding the ability of employees to work remotely, plus cots, food and water in data centers in the event of a quarantine. | eng_Latn | 558 |
Dengue kills Paraguayan health official | One of Paraguay's top health officials died Friday of dengue fever, the latest casualty in an epidemic that has infected thousands of people. | A woman in charge of a hospital trust where 90 patients died after a superbug outbreak applied to run hospitals in Greater Manchester, it is revealed. | eng_Latn | 559 |
NO HOLIDAY FOR AIDS: Fight for Access Grows in Thailand | (New York, NY, December 24, 2004) AIDS has not taken a holiday. More than 8,000 people around the world die daily from this pandemic. | The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday voiced concern about the spread of bird flu in Vietnam, but said it was not considering warning against travel there as the risk of human infection was low. | kor_Hang | 560 |
Sneezing winged death⦠| Authorities warn that millions of people could be killed. Humans, rather than animals, would be the carriers of the new flu. The high density of poultry and humans in several Asian countries has been blamed | A new version of the Santy worm appeared over Christmas, and according to analysis done by some global security firms, may pose a broader threat than its ancestors. | eng_Latn | 561 |
Pig Disease in China Worries the World | FOSHAN, China -- At first, it was just some of the piglets. The mother gave birth to 13, all of them stillborn. Within a few weeks, however, she and other adult pigs in neighboring stalls became feverish and died. By the end of the summer, all but a handful of the village's 300 pigs had succumbed... | Description: NPR's Richard Knox reports on the contamination of flu vaccines manufactured by Chrion. Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the contamination was detected early enough | eng_Latn | 562 |
Vietnam reports 29th human bird flu case; 16-year-old in critical ... | A 16-year-old girl from southern Vietnam has become infected with the bird flu strain that killed 32 people earlier this year and devastated the poultry industry across Asia, a doctor said Thursday. | PHUKET, Thailand - A plane carrying foreign tourists crashed yesterday as it tried to land in stormy weather on the resort island of Phuket, killing at least 90 people, including 54 foreign tourists. | eng_Latn | 563 |
Bird flu farm continued exports | The Suffolk farm site were bird flu was found continued to export cooked meat after the outbreak was confirmed. | An investigation is under way to discover how a banned antibotic is found in organic chicken processed in NI. | eng_Latn | 564 |
Two hospitalised in Malaysia amid bird flu outbreak | KUALA LUMPUR : Two people have been hospitalised in Malaysia's northeastern Kelantan state after a suspected new outbreak of the deadly strain of bird flu that has killed 27 people across Asia, officials said on Tuesday. | Powerful earthquakes in Indonesia recall the 2004 tsunami and prompt concerns over whether we're ready for another disaster | eng_Latn | 565 |
Indonesian teenager dies of bird flu | A 16-year-old Indonesian boy from Central Java has died from bird flu, taking the country's death toll from the virus to 104, the health ministry said on Saturday. | Man killed after trapping his foot in a flooded drain, as torrential downpours hit the UK. | eng_Latn | 566 |
Typhoon death toll in Japan rises to 62 | The death toll in Japan from Typhoon Tokage has risen to 62 - making it the deadliest typhoon to hit the country in more than two decades. | A girl becomes the 11th Thai victim of bird flu this year, dying only a few days after falling ill. | eng_Latn | 567 |
WHO concerned over bird flu in Indonesia | The U.N. health agency described the deaths of six Indonesian family members from bird flu as the most important development in the spread of the virus since 2003, saying the size of the cluster and difficulties in determining the source were worrying. | Medical team starts work with survivors in a town half destroyed by the earthquake and floods. In the next 48 hours, two MSF staff will make an air assessment of the northeast part of Aceh, using a helicopter | eng_Latn | 568 |
Bird flu cases 'underestimated' | Scientists say the number of cases of humans being infected with bird flu may have been underestimated. | âOvertreated,â by Shannon Brownlee, is the best description I have yet read of a huge economic problem that we know how to solve â but is so often misunderstood. | eng_Latn | 569 |
New UK tactics against bird flu | New methods are being employed around Britain to check for possible outbreaks of bird flu in areas considered to be at risk. | Eight people arrested over failed car bombings in Glasgow and London all have links with the NHS. | eng_Latn | 570 |
Egyptian girl infected with bird flu: WHO | A 10-year-old girl from southern Egypt has been infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, and is in "very critical" condition, a World Health Organization official said on Friday. | PARIS - France's health minister yesterday called for hospitals and police to work more closely after two hospital workers were found slain -- one decapitated and the other with her throat slit -- at a psychiatric facility. | eng_Latn | 571 |
New Vietnam Bird Flu Death Likely H5N1 Type -WHO | A 14-month-old Vietnamese boy who died of bird flu on Sunday was probably infected by the H5N1 strain that has killed 27 people in Asia this year, an official at the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. | A red jungle fowl is seen in this undated handout photo. Researchers have assembled the genome sequence of the Red Jungle Fowl, the ancestor of all domestic chickens. | kor_Hang | 572 |
Egypt teenager dies of bird flu | A 17-year-old girl is the latest victim of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza to die of the virus in Egypt, the WHO says. | Police check the home computers of two girls who apparently formed a suicide pact which left one dead. | eng_Latn | 573 |
Fourth bird flu suspect case in Malaysia | ANOTHER person, a veterinarian, has been put under quarantine for suspected bird flu as health officials say three others in a similar situation have yet to show any symptoms of the disease. | Powerful earthquakes in Indonesia recall the 2004 tsunami and prompt concerns over whether we're ready for another disaster | eng_Latn | 574 |
WHO: Bird Flu Likely Source of Next Pandemic | The bird flu virus that rampaged across much of Asia this year is the most likely cause of the next human flu pandemic, which could hit up to 30 percent of the world's people, a top international expert said Thursday. | WASHINGTON - Pilgrim's Pride Corp., the nation's second-largest poultry producer, Monday said profit for its latest quarter nearly tripled as the acquisition of ConAgra Foods' chicken unit and an insurance gain helped its bottom line. | eng_Latn | 575 |
China takes more steps to protect against bird flu | BEIJING - China has drastically stepped up vigilance against bird flu in regions along the border with Vietnam, where a series of outbreaks have recently been reported. | Environmental authorities set up Wednesday a temporary restriction zone around a farm in west central England because of a new suspected case of foot and mouth disease. | eng_Latn | 576 |
Three tested for bird flu discharged from Malaysian hospital | KUALA LUMPUR : Three Malaysians who fell ill in a village hit by the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain have been discharged from a hospital after tests showed no sign of the virus, a senior official said. | Manila airport officials prevented a real life version of horror flick "Snakes on a Plane" this week when they stopped more than 130 reptiles, including poisonous cobras, from boarding a flight to Bangkok. | eng_Latn | 577 |
This new dome continued to grow throughout 2005 and into 2006 . | This new dome grew throughout 2005 and into 2006 . | In January 1925 , doctors realized that a diphtheria epidemic was likely to sweep through Nome 's young people . | eng_Latn | 578 |
The cases include 20 deaths, and 102 infection cases .
Seventy patients are hospitalized with the virus .
The new strain wasn't known until three weeks ago .
International experts in China to monitor the H7N9 strain . | (CNN) -- The number of bird flu cases in China jumped Sunday to 102, including 20 deaths, the World Health Organization announced. Seventy patients remain hospitalized with the virus. The WHO said there is still no evidence of human-to-human transmission. So far the virus has mainly affected eastern China, with 11 deaths and 33 infection cases reported in Shanghai, 24 cases, including three deaths, in Jiangsu Province, 38 cases, including five deaths, in Zhejiang Province, while Anhui Province has confirmed three cases, with one ending in death. Further afield, four people -- including one in Beijing in northern China and three in central Henan Province -- have tested positive for the H7N9 virus. The current strain of bird flu, H7N9, was not detected in humans until last month. A team of international experts are currently in China conducting a week-long assessment of the virus, the WHO said on Friday. "Right now it is still an animal virus that rarely infects humans," Dr. Michael O'Leary, the head of the WHO's office in Beijing, told reporters. On Thursday, the central government suspended wild bird sales to try to prevent the spread of the virus, although many questions remain as to the source of infection. It follows a ban on live poultry trading in affected provinces. A large number of birds have also been slaughtered, state-run Xinhua said. O'Leary said there was legitimate reason for concern about the new virus, but suggested it was premature to begin mass culling of poultry. "I eat chicken every day," O'Leary said with a laugh. "Chicken is of no concern at all." Until March, the virus had only been present in birds, which is why they've become the focus of the investigation. However, 40% of patients with H7N9 had not come into contact with poultry, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Authorities are continuing to monitor more than 1,000 people who have come into close contact with confirmed cases. CNN's Miriam Falco and Hilary Whiteman contributed to this report. | (CNN) -- Typhoon Haikui slammed into the east coast of China on Wednesday morning, pummeling the area around the business metropolis of Shanghai with heavy wind and rain. The storm's winds were at "severe typhoon" strength when it made landfall in the province of Zhejiang, about 225 kilometers (140 miles) south of Shanghai, the China Meteorological Administration said. The winds diminished to typhoon strength as Haikui moved inland. A severe typhoon is considered to have maximum sustained wind speed of between 150 and 184 kilometers per hour (93 and 114 mph). A typhoon has maximum sustained winds of between 118 and 149 kilometers per hour (73 and 93 mph). Think it's hot? Imagine living here . Hundreds of thousands of people had been evacuated from Haikui's path as it approached, the third tropical cyclone to hit China's east coast in less than a week. Chinese officials had relocated 374,000 people from Shanghai and 250,000 from Zhejiang, according to the state-run newspaper China Daily. Although the storm's winds are expected to weaken as it moves overland, it will continue to dump large amounts of rain on the surrounding area, raising the risk of landslides and flooding. What's behind Asia floods? "The rain is the bigger impact going forward," said CNNI Meteorologist Taylor Ward. "We have already had up to 8 inches in some locations." Ward said another 6 to 10 inches of rain were expected to fall, with "maybe isolated amounts greater." Haikui was moving northwest at 20 kph (12 mph) but was expected to slow over the coming two days, he said. More rains worsen Philippines floods . Ernesto weakens, but new strength forecast . | eng_Latn | 579 |
Mexico City, Mexico, flight bound for Seattle, Washington, diverted due to heavy fog .
Flight returns to Mexico after customs agents can't process all passengers .
Representatives with Aeromexico plan to investigate situation . | (CNN) -- Some passengers on a diverted Aeromexico flight finally reached their destination in Seattle, Washington, on Wednesday after spending 16 hours in limbo. The plane was scheduled to fly from Mexico City, Mexico, to Seattle on Tuesday, but was diverted to Portland, Oregon, because of thick fog, said Kara Simonds, a spokeswoman for Portland International Airport. In Portland, the passengers were not allowed to exit the plane for four hours because the airport did not have enough customs agents to process them, according to CNN affiliate KING. KING also reported several passengers became so angry that police boarded the plane and told them to stay there or be arrested. Fire officials tried to calm down the outraged passengers by providing them with burgers from a local fast-food restaurant during their wait, Simonds said. Passengers were then flown back to Mexico City after officials could not solve the issue with customs agents, Simonds said. Seattle residents Mike and Karin Kuntz said they had a good vacation in Mexico, but it went downhill after they tried to get home. "We had a wonderful time, everything went great. Then the flight home turned into a nightmare," Karin Kuntz told KING. "We just felt like we were hostages -- that we, as passengers, had no rights." Karin Kuntz said she was concerned about the pilot's fatigue and the safety. "Can he fly back? Is he logged in? How many hours does he have," she said. "No one seemed to be concerned about putting us back on that plane for all that time and that poor tired pilot." The couple said they waited in the airport in Mexico City for 10 hours before getting a flight back to Seattle on Wednesday night. It is unclear whether other passengers on the flight were able to get to their destination. Representatives from Aeromexico said they were investigating the situation and issued a statement apologizing for the inconvenience. "We will seek an explanation about why the customs agents were not available to assist the plane and its passengers in Portland," the statement said. "We will also take appropriate steps to thank the passengers who were inconvenienced by this situation for their patience." However, the ordeal did not end for the Kuntzes when they reached Seattle. "They lost one of our bags," Mike Kuntz said. It is unclear if other passengers on the flight were able to get to their destination. Representatives from Aeromexico said they were investigating the situation and planned to release a statement. CNN's Amanda O'Donnell contributed to this report. | (CNN) -- Typhoon Megi marched toward southern China on Wednesday after leaving 11 people dead in the Philippines, prompting Chinese authorities to close train services in the region, state media said. Trains from Sanya to other provinces were canceled until Thursday, while trains heading from other provinces to Sanya will stop at Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, the Xinhua news agency reported. Megi may be the strongest typhoon to hit China this year, Xinhua said. It is expected to make landfall in Hainan or Guangdong province on Saturday, Xinhua said. The death toll in the Philippines from Megi has climbed to 11 as the powerful storm moved away from the country. According to civil defense officials, the fatalities were for various reasons, including falling trees, drowning and lightning. Parts of the Philippines could still be vulnerable to mudslides and landslides. The typhoon could approach Hong Kong and mainland China in the next few days. Megi is expected to lash Hainan and Vietnam. Southern provinces such as Hainan, Guangdong and Fujian are gearing up for heavy rains and strong winds, state media said. | eng_Latn | 580 |
NEW: Xinhua says 3,736 cases in kids in city of Fuyang, 4,529 in Anhui province .
NEW: Province south of Beijing upgrades health emergency to allow quarantines .
NEW: Virus can cause poliolike paralysis; death toll at 22 .
Outbreak worries Chinese officials preparing for Beijing Olympics . | BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China's Health Ministry strengthened surveillance and dispatched specialists to the eastern Anhui province as the death toll from a virulent virus climbed to 22, the Xinhua News Agency reported. A girl suffering from an Enterovirus 71 infection receives treatment this week in a Fuyang, China, hospital. The number of reported cases of the virus in children rose to 3,736 early Saturday in the hardest-hit city of Fuyang, according to the state-run news agency. There were 3,321 reported cases Friday in Fuyang. Xinhua reported that 4,529 children have been sickened in 15 cities in Anhui province. The virus -- called Enterovirus 71, or EV71 -- can cause hand, foot and mouth disease. It's often confused with foot-and-mouth disease in livestock, but the diseases aren't the same, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An Anhui province official, Wang Yan, told Xinhua that 978 children are hospitalized, including 48 in critical condition. "Authorities in Anhui ... are doing the utmost to treat the children and strengthen disease control," he said. The virus is another concern for Chinese officials as the nation prepares to host the Summer Olympics, which open August 8 in Beijing. Anhui province is south of the Chinese capital. The Health Ministry issued a pamphlet Saturday urging local health bureaus to step up prevention and control of infectious diseases as the Olympics approach, Xinhua reported. In milder cases, EV71 can cause coldlike symptoms, diarrhea and sores on the hands, feet and mouth, according to the journal Genetic Vaccines and Therapy. But more severe cases can cause fluid to accumulate on the brain, resulting in polio-like paralysis and death, according to the journal. There is no effective antiviral treatment for severe EV71 infections, and no vaccine is available. Adults' well-developed immune systems usually can fend off the virus, but children are vulnerable to it, according to the CDC. There was a large outbreak of the virus in Taiwan in 1998 with 78 deaths, and smaller outbreaks recurred in 2000 and 2001, the CDC said. Wang Jinshan, secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, visited hospitals in Fuyang on Friday and called for a long-term system to prevent such outbreaks, Xinhua said. In addition, 45 medical specialists have arrived in the city. Anhui has upgraded its public health emergency status from Class 3 to Class 2, meaning the provincial government can quarantine patients and control movement in to and out of Fuyang. In a statement Friday, the World Health Organization noted that the number of hospitalized cases has gradually risen since late March, with a sharp increase in the number of cases since April 19. Public health officials expect the number of cases to peak in June or July, the WHO said. "Chinese health authorities have put in place targeted prevention and control measures in Fuyang city and Anhui province, including enhanced surveillance, training of health care workers at all levels in treatment, prevention and control, strengthening of environmental health management and the supervision and monitoring of drinking water quality," the WHO statement said. "A public awareness campaign is ongoing, stressing the need for good personal hygiene, mostly by hand washing." E-mail to a friend . | (CNN) -- Typhoon Haikui slammed into the east coast of China on Wednesday morning, pummeling the area around the business metropolis of Shanghai with heavy wind and rain. The storm's winds were at "severe typhoon" strength when it made landfall in the province of Zhejiang, about 225 kilometers (140 miles) south of Shanghai, the China Meteorological Administration said. The winds diminished to typhoon strength as Haikui moved inland. A severe typhoon is considered to have maximum sustained wind speed of between 150 and 184 kilometers per hour (93 and 114 mph). A typhoon has maximum sustained winds of between 118 and 149 kilometers per hour (73 and 93 mph). Think it's hot? Imagine living here . Hundreds of thousands of people had been evacuated from Haikui's path as it approached, the third tropical cyclone to hit China's east coast in less than a week. Chinese officials had relocated 374,000 people from Shanghai and 250,000 from Zhejiang, according to the state-run newspaper China Daily. Although the storm's winds are expected to weaken as it moves overland, it will continue to dump large amounts of rain on the surrounding area, raising the risk of landslides and flooding. What's behind Asia floods? "The rain is the bigger impact going forward," said CNNI Meteorologist Taylor Ward. "We have already had up to 8 inches in some locations." Ward said another 6 to 10 inches of rain were expected to fall, with "maybe isolated amounts greater." Haikui was moving northwest at 20 kph (12 mph) but was expected to slow over the coming two days, he said. More rains worsen Philippines floods . Ernesto weakens, but new strength forecast . | eng_Latn | 581 |
NEW: The storm knocks out power in almost 200,000 households in South Korea .
NEW: More than 100 flights are canceled and about 20 roads are closed .
Four Chinese fisherman are found dead and 17 have been rescued .
The search is on for another 12 fishermen still missing . | Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- Four Chinese fishermen died and 12 were missing in stormy waters off South Korea's Jeju Island on Tuesday as Typhoon Bolaven brought howling winds and torrential rain to the Korean Peninsula. Maritime police on Jeju Island, situated off the southern tip of the South Korean mainland, said that 17 people had been rescued but that searches were on for those still unaccounted for after two boats capsized early Tuesday as Bolaven raged. The powerful storm was moving north alongside the west coast of South Korea by Tuesday afternoon, disrupting transport, cutting off power and damaging property. The South Korean Central Disaster Relief Headquarters said one person had died after being crushed by a container and that another had been injured after being hit by an object blown by the wind. Nearly 200,000 households were without power, the disaster agency said, most of them in the south of the country. About 1,000 people in coastal areas had been advised to relocate to safe areas, it said. The storm prompted the cancellation of 119 flights, the suspension of 96 ferry routes and the temporary closure of 21 roads, according to the agency. President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea had called Monday on government agencies to take measures to minimize damage from the approaching storm, the national news agency Yonhap reported, citing Park Jeong-ha, a spokesman for Lee. Okinawa, meanwhile, emerged relatively unscathed Monday after the typhoon buffeted it with maximum sustained winds near its center of 185 kilometers per hour (115 mph), according to the Hong Kong Observatory, which monitors storms in the region. That wind strength put Bolaven in the "super typhoon" category at the time. And with a cloud field of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), it was 20 times larger than Okinawa's length. The storm weakened somewhat Tuesday to become a regular typhoon, with maximum sustained winds of around 130 kilometers per hour (86 miles per hour). Okinawa, which is situated in an area of the western Pacific Ocean where typhoons are frequent, avoided the kind of destruction that some other storms have caused in East Asia this summer. Five people were injured on the island, the local authorities said, and 549 residents took shelter in public buildings to avoid potential damage to their homes. About 17,500 households lost electricity as the storm damaged power lines. Storm chaser James Reynolds was on the northwestern coast of the island during the worst of the typhoon. "Like the rest of the population we all just kind of holed up in the strong and sturdy buildings which make up Okinawa," he said Monday. The infrastructure on Okinawa is designed to withstand violent storms. "Everything's made of solid concrete," Reynolds said. The damage was also limited because Bolaven didn't bring winds as powerful as initially feared, said Morichiyo Ohshiro, an official from the Okinawa Prefecture Disaster Prevention and Crisis Management Division. Isaac near hurricane strength; watch extends to Louisiana . The power of Bolaven was also having an effect on another storm further south. Typhoon Tembin made landfall in southern Taiwan a few days ago, and was expected to work its way toward Hong Kong. But Bolaven, which is much stronger, has stopped Tembin's movement toward Hong Kong and has been spinning it around. Time: Most destructive U.S. hurricanes . "As Typhoon Bolaven moves northward towards the Yellow Sea, it will drag Tembin toward the China coast very near Shanghai," said CNN International meteorologist Tom Sater. "That's an amazing change in direction." Are you there? Share your stories, images and videos. Photos: Finding beauty in violent storms . CNN's Paula Hancocks, Yoko Wakatsuki and Ralitsa Vassileva; CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri; and journalist Yoonjung Seo contributed to this report. | LONDON (CNN) -- The search for missing workers in a flooded Wales coal mine ended tragically Friday as rescuers discovered the fourth and final man's body, South Wales police said. Authorities identified the men as Phillip Hill, 45, from Neath; and Charles Breslin, 62, David Powell, 50, and Garry Jenkins, 39, all from the Swansea Valley. Searchers have recovered all of the bodies, police said. Three other miners escaped Thursday after water rushed into the area where the men were working, apparently after they broke through to a neighboring abandoned mine, Rescue Officer Andrew Watson said. One of the surviving miners was hospitalized. His condition was not immediately known. First Minister Carwyn Jones, who leads the Welsh government, paid tribute to the efforts of rescue workers and families of the miners before the discovery of the fourth was announced. "My thoughts and deepest sympathies are with all of the families as this horrifying news filters through," he said. "The people of Wales, and indeed people across the world stand together in solidarity with the families through this terrible tragedy." The British government will carry out a full investigation into the incident, Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan said in a statement released Friday. As of June 2011, 1,500 people in Wales worked in the mining industry. according to government figures. In a drift mine like the one where the men were trapped, coal is excavated from the side of a hill using shafts that are almost horizontal. CNN's Laura Perez Maestro and Laura Smith-Spark contributed to this report. | eng_Latn | 582 |
Studies of 130 confirmed cases of H7N9 found one-in-three-death rate .
Compares with H5N1 death rate of around 70 per cent .
Death rate of 2009 swine flu epidemic was just one per cent .
Virus has shown resistance to Tamiflu in some sufferers . | By . Helen Collis . More than a third of patients infected with a new strain of bird flu died after being admitted to the hospital earlier this year, Chinese researchers report in a new study. Since the new H7N9 bird flu first broke out in China in late March, the strain has infected more than 130 people and killed 37. The World Health Organization (WHO) has previously described H7N9 as 'one of the most lethal influenza viruses' it has ever seen and said it appeared to spread faster than the last bird flu strain, H5N1, that threatened to unleash a pandemic. After making some adjustments for missing data, the Chinese scientists estimated the overall death rate to be 36 per cent. Precautions: An employee wearing a protection suit sprays disinfectant on chickens at a poultry market in Hefei, Anhui, China, last month . The outbreak was stopped after China . closed many of its live animal markets - scientists had assumed the . virus was infecting people through exposure to live birds. That makes the new strain less deadly than H5N1, which kills about 70 per cent of the people it infects. Still, H7N9 is more lethal than the . swine flu that caused a 2009 global epidemic. That had a death rate of . less than one per cent. The results were released in two papers on the H7N9 strain, published online Monday in the journal Lancet. One article compared the new H7N9 . strain with the H5N1 strain, using data from confirmed cases of H7N9 . (130 patients) and H5N1 (43 patients) that were reported until May 24, . this year. It found that both viruses were . related to exposure to poultry - 75 per cent of patients infected with . H7N9 and 71% of those with H5N1. New strain: Researchers found that the virus effectively mutated to resist treatment in three of 14 cases (file picture) Though there was little evidence, save for a small cluster, to show that H7N9 transmitted from human to human. The new flu strain appears to infect . older people more. Researchers found the average age of infected . patients was 62 years, compared with 26 for H5N1. Men in urban areas appear to be more prone to infection than women. 'The good news is that numbers of . (H7N9) cases have stalled,' Cecile Viboud and Lone Simonsen of the U.S. National Institutes of Health wrote in a commentary accompanying the . article. However, they warned that the threat . of the virus still 'persists' and predicted that the strain might return . in the winter, when flu viruses are typically most active. Resistant: Three Shanghai sufferers of a strain of bird flu which has killed 36 people in China have shown resistance to antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu (pictured) That assessment echoes the WHO, which earlier this month also warned of the virus adapting and becoming resistant to therapy. Shanghai doctors treating 14 . sufferers of the H7N9 virus recently found that it had become resistant . to Tamiflu in three of the patients. Researchers at the Shanghai Public . Health Clinical Centre said that while the drug reduced levels of the . virus in 11 of the patients, genetic testing of bird flu in the three . who did not respond to treatment showed it was able to effectively . mutate to resist Tamiflu. | Cairo (CNN) -- Egypt's general prosecutor on Friday ordered a police officer to submit to questioning regarding his suspected role in shooting protesters in the eyes during recent clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square. "The Ministry of Interior is preoccupied by the latest events, but he will come in for questioning soon," Adel Saeed, a spokesman for Egypt's general prosecutor, said about the suspect, 1st Lt. Mahmoud Sobhi El Shinawi. The evidence offered against El Shinawi includes videos recorded by protesters and posted on Facebook, Saeed said. At least five demonstrators have been shot in the eye, according to authorities. They are among hundreds of casualties over the past week. Some 41 people have died -- 33 of them in Cairo -- while an additional 3,250 had been wounded as of Friday, Health Ministry spokesman Hisham Shiha has said. Protesters have called El Shinawi, specifically, "The Eye Hunter" and have sprayed "wanted" stencils featuring his face, name and rank on the walls around Tahrir Square. Fliers with his photograph have also been distributed to people in the square, which is the hub of the activist movement railing against Egypt's military leaders. They include a reward offer of 5,000 Egyptian pounds ($800) for information leading to the suspect, according to the artist who painted the stencil and asked not be named. El Shinawi has been on duty on Cairo's Mohamed Mahmoud street during the recent clashes and is a "highly trained marksman," 1st Lt. Alaa Mahmoud, an Interior Ministry spokesman, told CNN. The spokesman declined to comment on the specific accusations against El Shinawi. One of the suspect's alleged victims is Ahmed Harrara. Harrara, who lost one eye on January 28 during the uprising against then-President Hosni Mubarak, lost his other eye last Sunday on Mahmoud Street. Both he and at least one other victim, Malek Mustapha, said they were blindsided by their shootings -- and, therefore, could not pinpoint the shooter or shooters. Yet they were able to recall the circumstances. Harrara told CNN that he'd arrived in Tahrir Square around 3 p.m. Saturday "and joined the front lines in (the) street battle." "Around 3 a.m. I was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet from about a distance of 7 to 10 meters (23 to 33 feet)," he said. He lost his second eye, then fell to the ground "during one of many tear gas attacks." "My friend drove me on a motorbike to three hospitals that could not (treat) the injury, until one hospital operated and closed the wound," Harrara recalled. The bullet remains lodged in his eye socket, leaving him blind. But the shooting victim said, "My spirits are high, and I should be traveling to Switzerland within the next 10 days (for) tests and operations." Harrara said that he had no political affiliations during the initial uprising that led to Mubarak's ouster in February. He is now a member of the People's Socialist Party, which opposes military leaders' interim authority over the Egyptian government. On Friday, his older brother Hatem, and friends helped Harrara navigate around Tahrir Square once again. "My brother's eye is more important than Egypt, but for Ahmed, Egypt is more important than his eyes," Hatem said. "The policeman who shot my brother must be punished and executed." Last Saturday, CNN witnessed a similar incident also on Mahmoud Street involving Mustapha, a blogger who was shot in his right eye. "Doctors say I have a blood clot in the eye and will need several operations soon," Mustapha told CNN. Mansour al-Essawy, the interior minister appointed by Egypt's ruling military council, said Friday in a statement that "no live ammunition, rubber or birdshot (has been) fired at the protesters." But Shiha, a Health Ministry spokesman, has told CNN that many of those killed and wounded were shot by "live ammunition, rubber bullets and birdshot." | eng_Latn | 583 |
April 17 blast in Texas town killed 15 people .
Rick Perry lauds the state appeal for a disaster declaration .
FEMA denied a request in June for a "major disaster" area . | (CNN) -- The Obama administration has issued a disaster declaration for the Texas town hit by fertilizer plant blasts in April. The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Friday aid for the area affected by the tragedy in the town of West. Federal funding will supplement state and local recovery efforts "for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the explosion in McLennan County," FEMA said. The April 17 fire led to simultaneous blasts at a fertilizer distribution facility, killing 15 and decimating homes, businesses and more within 37 blocks. This decision came after FEMA in June told Gov. Rick Perry it was denying a request to declare the small town a "major disaster" area, a move sharply criticized by local and state officials. The letter from FEMA spokesman Craig Fugate noted Obama had previously issued an emergency declaration and other measures that paved the way for some direct federal assistance. "Based on our review of all of the information available, it has been determined that the remaining costs for permanent work is within the capabilities of the state and affected local governments," Fugate said at the time. "Accordingly, we have determined that a major disaster declaration is not necessary." After the Friday announcement, Perry, who slammed the FEMA move two months ago, lauded a successful state appeal of the initial federal move. "The approval of the state's appeal for a major disaster declaration is great and welcome news for the people of West," Perry said. "I appreciate everyone who joined me in standing with the people whose lives have been forever impacted to move this appeal forward, especially our congressional delegation." Perry said the federal action and the state legislature's disaster relief funding "will help this community rebuild their infrastructure, school district and public works as quickly as possible." A fire at the facility operated by West Fertilizer Company set off two explosions that registered on seismographs as a magnitude-2.1 earthquake and were felt 50 miles away. The blasts leveled a portion of the town, damaging numerous homes, a nursing home and the town's high school and middle school. According to local officials, the city is still well short of the $17 million it needs to repair roads, water and sewage lines and other damaged infrastructure. CNN's Elwyn Lopez contributed to thsi report . | By . Ted Thornhill . UPDATED: . 08:19 EST, 8 February 2012 . H5N1 warning: Professor Paul Keim . Details of secret experiments by scientists who have created the most deadly form of bird flu in the lab will inevitably be leaked - potentially into the hands of terrorists - an expert has warned. A furore erupted in December over the decision by the U.S National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) to censor details of the virus being made public, which can be transmitted by coughs and sneezes. But now the head of that board claims they will enter the public domain anyway. Professor Paul Keim has issued a stark warning to governments to begin preparing for an outbreak. ‘We recognise that, in the long term certainly, the information is going to get out, and maybe even in the midterm,’ he told The Independent. ‘But if we can restrict it in the short term and motivate governments to start getting busy in terms of building up the flu-defence infrastructure, then we’ve succeeded at a certain level.’ Chillingly, he added: ‘The infrastructure to stop a pandemic in this area is not there. We just don’t have the capabilities. Even if we spotted it early on, I don’t think we have enough vaccines. The vaccines aren’t good enough, and the drugs are not good enough to stop this emerging and being a pandemic.’ When H5N1 bird flu erupted over seven years ago, out of the 584 people known to have caught it, 335 died. What stopped it from becoming a world-wide killer was its inability to jump from birds to humans easily. However, a mutation of the virus was made by Ron Fouchier and his team at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam in Holland, which was just as deadly and passed easily between ferrets, the animal that best indicates whether humans will catch it. In December, the NSABB asked the journals Nature and Science to censor publication of the study, and similar research conducted by American scientists, setting off a furious debate in the scientific and public health communities. The move followed a voluntary 60-day suspension of a study into the virus by the researchers themselves, who became worried that their work could lead to a pandemic. Fears were raised that the engineered . viruses may escape from the laboratories - not unlike the frightful . scenario in the 1971 science fiction movie The Andromeda Strain - or . possibly be used to create a bioterror weapon. In a letter published in Nature and Science, 39 scientists defended the research as crucial to public health efforts. Deadly: The new H5N1 virus can be transmitted by coughs and sneezes . Among the scientists who signed the letter were leaders of the two teams that have spearheaded the research, at Erasmus Medical College in the Netherlands and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, as well as influenza experts at institutions ranging from the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the University of Hong Kong. The letter in full can be read here. The researchers, however, were critical of the NSABB's decision to partially censor their work. | eng_Latn | 584 |
Driver Huang Lingyong, 31, 'braked hard' when he saw the bird walk out .
Heard a 'sickening thud' and then went to see the bird wedged in the car .
Accident happened near industrial park in Xinfeng county, south China .
Car dealer said the bumper was a cheap copy and not original part . | By . Wills Robinson . A Chinese car that collided head-on with a chicken came out worst in the encounter. The bird miraculously survived the encounter while the Japanese-made car was left with a large hole in the bumper. The accident happened near an industrial park in Xinfeng county in south China’s Jiangxi province. Huang Lingyong, 31, was at the wheel of his Toyota Corolla doing around 70 mph when the bird suddenly crossed the road in front of him. Bird-brained: The driver was doing around 70mph near an industrial park in Xinfeng county, south China, when the bird walked out in front of him . 'I braked because I am an animal lover and didn’t want to harm the chicken,' said Huang. 'But it was too late. 'I heard a sickening thud and I thought the chicken had gone to meet his ancestors. 'I stopped the car, got out and walked around to the front. There was a hole in the bodywork and the chicken wedged inside. I thought it must be dead but then I heard a cluck-clucking and bent down to look closer. It was a little shaken up and its feathers all ruffled, but otherwise OK. Stuck: The man behind the wheel said he heard a 'sickening thud' before stepping out to see the brid wedged in the front of the car . 'It seemed to me to be a very good advert for the durability of chickens and a very bad one for the quality of the car that I was driving. 'I took some video with my phone and uploaded the pictures on to the web and I was not surprised when there was a lot of feedback from people who shared my opinion of the car.' Many Chinese people who saw his video took the opportunity to put the boot into the Japanese model. However, the car dealer who sold the car said that the bumper was a cheap Chinese copy, and not an original part. Cocnern: Huang Lingyong, 31, said he 'braked hard' because he is an animal lover and wanted to avoid harming the chicken . | (CNN) -- The number of bird flu cases in China jumped Sunday to 102, including 20 deaths, the World Health Organization announced. Seventy patients remain hospitalized with the virus. The WHO said there is still no evidence of human-to-human transmission. So far the virus has mainly affected eastern China, with 11 deaths and 33 infection cases reported in Shanghai, 24 cases, including three deaths, in Jiangsu Province, 38 cases, including five deaths, in Zhejiang Province, while Anhui Province has confirmed three cases, with one ending in death. Further afield, four people -- including one in Beijing in northern China and three in central Henan Province -- have tested positive for the H7N9 virus. The current strain of bird flu, H7N9, was not detected in humans until last month. A team of international experts are currently in China conducting a week-long assessment of the virus, the WHO said on Friday. "Right now it is still an animal virus that rarely infects humans," Dr. Michael O'Leary, the head of the WHO's office in Beijing, told reporters. On Thursday, the central government suspended wild bird sales to try to prevent the spread of the virus, although many questions remain as to the source of infection. It follows a ban on live poultry trading in affected provinces. A large number of birds have also been slaughtered, state-run Xinhua said. O'Leary said there was legitimate reason for concern about the new virus, but suggested it was premature to begin mass culling of poultry. "I eat chicken every day," O'Leary said with a laugh. "Chicken is of no concern at all." Until March, the virus had only been present in birds, which is why they've become the focus of the investigation. However, 40% of patients with H7N9 had not come into contact with poultry, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Authorities are continuing to monitor more than 1,000 people who have come into close contact with confirmed cases. CNN's Miriam Falco and Hilary Whiteman contributed to this report. | eng_Latn | 585 |
Follows outbreak of H5N1 virus which can be deadly in humans .
Chickens culled and eggs buried in pits in bid to contain virus .
Virus has caused deaths of nearly 400 people worldwide since 2006 . | Thousands of chickens and other poultry have been culled following the outbreak of a highly contagious strain of bird flu in India. Officials ordered 250,000 birds to be slaughtered in Telangana after cases of the H5N1 virus were identified, which can be deadly in humans. The virus caused the deaths of nearly 400 people and hundreds of millions of poultry after it spread from Asia into Europe and Africa in 2005-2006. Culled: About 250,000 birds infected with the H5N1 virus are slaughtered in Telangana, India . Since then, India has regularly reported cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza in wild and domestic birds. Veterinary staff from the local government's animal husbandry department carried out the cull - which included destroying hundreds of thousands of infected eggs - at Thorrur village in the Ranga Reddy district. Birds present in poultry farms were slaughtered while the eggs, including those stored in warehouses, were dumped in a pit. Destroyed: Thousands of infected eggs were dumped in a pit and buried following an outbreak of bird flu . Clean up: Authorities ordered the destruction of birds and eggs at farms across Telangana in India following the latest bird flu outbreak . Bird feed stock was burned and the sites were all thoroughly disinfected in a bid to stop the virus from spreading. India has culled 6.4 million birds due to bird flu since 2006. Experts point out that cross-infection to humans is still relatively rare and usually occurs where people have been in close contact with infected birds. But fears remain the aviation flu could combine with a human strain to produce a mutation that is more dangerous and difficult to control. In February, three people were tested for bird flu and 10,000 chickens slaughtered in Britain's first outbreak of the H7N7 strain in seven years. There have been several outbreaks of the H7N7 flu in China and 18 months ago it was found in Italy. During the Italian outbreak in August 2013, three poultry workers became infected with the virus, developing conjunctivitis. More than 1 million chickens and other poultry were culled during the Italian crisis. | (CNN) -- Rescuers in China had pulled a total of 31 bodies from the wreckage from a landslide the size of a small town that rushed down a mountain earlier in the week. State-run CCTV reported on Friday that the number of people missing in and around the city of Dujiangyan was 166, up from 107 the previous day. The flooding that caused the landslide has destroyed 5,100 houses and damaged another 90,000. Rescuers continued digging through the debris in search of survivors and victims. The forecast calls for less rain, which should make the search easier. Flooding that triggered the landslide has affected 1.5 million people and inundated tens of thousands of acres of crops. The torrents have plagued the mountainous region since Monday, smashing bridges and knocking out power to thousands. They have washed away property worth more than $40 million, provincial officials said. Zhang Jiuchun is an interior designer living in Mianyang, the second-largest city in Sichuan. He told CNN in a phone interview that flooding, landslides and mudslides have paralyzed highway and rail services in many parts of the province. Zhang said suburban areas have been hit the hardest. "I think it's the worst since 1998," Zhang said of the disaster, referring to major flooding sweeping across China over a decade ago. Xinhua also reported that more than 400 stranded people have been securely moved out of Dujiangyan. In January: 46 dead after landslide in southwest China . | eng_Latn | 586 |
NEW: Pig carcasses test positive for porcine circovirus .
More than 2,800 dead pigs found floating in Shanghai river .
Authorities say local tap water still safe to drink but residents worried .
Reports suggests that more than 10,000 pigs died in a neighboring province earlier this year . | Hong Kong (CNN) -- At least 2,800 dead pigs have been fished from a Shanghai river since Friday, but authorities insist that tap water in the city is still safe to drink. State news agency Xinhua said labels tagged to the pigs' ears indicated they came from the upper waters of the Huangpu River, which flows through the center of Shanghai and is a source of the city's drinking water. It's not clear why the pigs had been dumped in the river, though local media reported earlier this month that a disease had killed thousands of pigs in a village south of Shanghai. "We will continue to trace the source, investigate the cause, co-operate with neighboring areas and take measures to stop the dumping of pigs into rivers," the Shanghai Municipal Agricultural Commission said in a statement posted on their website on Monday. As of Sunday, water quality on the Songjiang section of the river, where most of the pigs were found, remained normal and the incident has had "no significant effect on tap water supply," the commission added. However, local residents and users of of the popular Twitter-like microblog service Sina Weibo have expressed concern that the dead pigs would make the city's tap water unsafe to drink. "Huangpu river is the source of drinking water for more than 20 million Shanghai residents. And this horrific incident was only made public when residents started posting pictures on Weibo," business investor Xue Manzi said in a post on his account. The agricultural commission said it had tested organ samples from the pig carcasses and the results suggested the animals had contracted a type of porcine circovirus. According to Professor Fred Leung, who specialises in animal diseases at Hong Kong University, this is a fairly common disease in pigs and not usually fatal on its own. Pictures showed sanitation workers with sticks retrieving the bloated bodies of small pigs caught up in reeds and debris at the side of the river. A local newspaper in Jiaxing, a city in Zhejiang province south of Shanghai, reported on March 6 that tens of thousands of pigs had died of an animal disease in a major pig farming village in the past two months. "According to our records, 10,078 pigs died in January, another 8,325 died in February. More than 300 pigs die everyday in our village, and we barely have any space left to dispose of the dead pigs," a local villager was quoted by the paper as saying. Chen Yi, a veterinarian at the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told the Global Times newspapers that farmers are required by law to dispose of dead animals at community disposal sites or bury them with disinfectant. CNN's Zhang Dayu reported from Beijing . | Beijing, China (CNN) -- The death toll from the devastating mudslide in China's northwestern Gansu province rose slightly to 1,254 Monday, a day after the country paused for three minutes in memory of those who perished. Another 490 people are still missing a week after torrential rains triggered the mudslides on July 8, the state-run Xinhua news agency said. At 10 a.m. Sunday, Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top leaders paid a silent tribute ahead of a party meeting. At the Dongjie Village in hardest-hit Zhouqu county, more than 5,000 rescuers and villagers stood still atop mudslide debris with their heads bowed, Xinhua said. Large-scale national displays of mourning are rare in China, though the country designated three days of mourning after a massive 2008 earthquake in Sichuan. The country also had a day of mourning after a quake in Yushu earlier this year. China has been drenched by heavy rains and floods since the end of May. More than 400 million people have been affected. On July 8, heavy rains caused the side of a mountain broke off in the night and tear through remote Zhouqu county, burying some homes and ripping others apart. The path of the mudslide is covered in three to four stories of rock and mud. By Sunday, crews had cleared out roads, allowing for the delivery of relief supplies. Power has been restored to about 76 percent of homes, and wells have been dug to supply more water, Xinhua said. | eng_Latn | 587 |
2014 has been a major year for new skyscrapers, but what is in the pipeline for 2015?
Major new projects will be completed in China, the UAE, Russia and the U.S.
Fast developing cities are at the forefront of some of the most ambitious architectural projects . | 2014 has been a big year for towering new skyscrapers -- literally. One World Trade Center became the biggest skyscraper in the United States when construction was completed in early November while ground was broken on the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which will rise one kilometer skywards to become the world's tallest building when completed in five year's time. But what does 2015 have in store? We've compiled a list of the ten tallest buildings set for completion in 2015 using data held by the Skyscraper Center, the global tall building database. Unsurprisingly, some of the world's fastest developing cities are at the forefront of plans that will come to fruition in 2015. Find out where by flicking through the gallery atop the page. The top 100 tallest buildings under construction . | By . Kieran Corcoran . A wall collapsed onto a house full of of Chinese workers, killing 18 of them and injuring three more. The workers, from the recycling plant in Qingdao, eastern China, had taken shelter in the house to escape heavy rain, according to state media. But the storm was so fierce that it waterlogged the ground around the house, causing a nearby wall, which was holding back tonnes of earth, to collapse on top of it. Scroll down for video . Search: Rescuers in Qingdao, eastern China, hunt through the rubble after a wall collapsed in heavy rain . Shelter: 40 workers from the Qingdao recycling plant were taking shelter when a the retaining wall collapsed . According to the Xinhua news agency, 40 people were gathered in the house at the time of the collapse earlier today. The Qingdao government information office said that authorities were investigating the collapse. China's eastern coastal and southern regions have been drenched by heavy rains in recent days. Two other deaths in Hunan province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region were linked to the rains as flooding and landslides hit swathes of the country. Destroyed: Three people were also injured in the crush, which happened earlier today . | eng_Latn | 588 |
Immunization rates are declining in parts of Western countries .
Many U.S. measles cases in 2014 are linked to travelers to the Philippines .
The Philippines, which is coping with measles after Typhoon Haiyan, had over 50,000 cases in 2014 . | (CNN)Measles this year has hit the most disparate places: camps for internally displaced people in northeast Nigeria, who've had to flee from Boko Haram, and Disneyland in California. The differences of the two settings are stark. In one, people are fighting for survival and have difficulty getting health care; the other is a first-world amusement park where people can afford medical choices regarding a vaccine-preventable disease. The United States is grappling with the resurgence of a disease it eliminated 15 years ago. But it's not alone. Data by the World Health Organization indicate that measles immunization rates are declining in several Western countries, like Canada, Belgium, Denmark and Spain, as some parents are opting out due to personal beliefs. The data also show that more than 100 countries, including Zimbabwe, Iran and North Korea, have higher measles immunization rates than the United States, which was at 91%. Dr. Robert Kezaala, senior health adviser of immunization at UNICEF, spent years promoting polio and measles vaccines in Africa. "Generally, in the developing world, people welcome the vaccines," he said. "The vaccine hesitancy, concern among the elite ... this is not a major issue in immunization against measles, because people have seen devastation from the outbreaks." Globally, measles deaths hit record lows in 2012, which the WHO attributed to successful immunization campaigns as annual deaths declined to 122,000 from 562,000 in 2002. But the WHO warned that progress was fragile, because outbreaks still occur and measles remains one of the leading killers of children in the world. A joint global plan involving UNICEF, the WHO, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Red Cross and UN Foundation aims to eliminate measles by 2020. "In the last two to three years, we've seen more stagnation of progress because there is complacency," said Kezaala. Countries with the highest measles incidence per 100,000 population . 1. Georgia -- 79.5 . 2. Bosnia and Herzegovina -- 62.9 . 3. Angola -- 59.3 . 4. Philippines -- 58.2 . 5. Namibia -- 41.9 . Countries with the most suspected measles cases . 1. China -- 107,024 . 2. Philippines -- 57,564 . 3. Vietnam -- 17,267 . 4. Ethiopia -- 16,028 . 5. Angola -- 12,300 . Source: WHO, does not include data from all countries . Asia has the most suspected case of measles, with China at top, followed by the Philippines and Vietnam, according to 2014 data from the WHO. But the rate, rather than raw numbers, offers a more accurate measure of the disease. One of the countries worst hit by the measles is the Philippines, which was struck by Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013. The spread of the virus has been exacerbated by mass migration, with nearly 4 million people displaced by the devastating storm. But what happens in the Philippines has a direct connection to the United States, because the virus can easily travel -- as was the case of the unvaccinated Amish missionaries who brought back measles from the Philippines to cause an Ohio outbreak that infected 383 people in 2014. The CDC reported that 25 U.S. travelers, most of them unvaccinated, got ill with the measles after returning from the Philippines last year. China, which had the most measles cases in 2014, is also going through multiple outbreaks. Measles has been reported in a university in Shanxi province and a downtown Beijing office, resulting in quarantines and vaccinations for thousands of people, according to Xinhua, the Chinese state-run news agency. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported three toddler deaths and more than 2,700 measles cases in January -- double the rate seen in the same month two years ago. "Measles outbreak occurs every four to five years, and now it's on an uprising stage based on its pattern," said Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the local Beijing disease control agency. Officials from the national health agency told state-run CCTV that many of the cases are occurring in adults who never received their vaccines. Vaccine campaigns were not strong in the 1970s and 1980s, so some missed their shots. As many as two-thirds of the Beijing cases are among people over the age of 20. "This outbreak reveals to us the fact that some unvaccinated people have become older, and it's like an accumulated debt from the past," Zeng Guang, an official with the China CDC, told CCTV. Measles outbreaks have also been reported in Sudan and Nigeria. In mid-January, the News Agency of Nigeria reported a measles outbreak in the state of Adamawa in the country's northeast at camps for internally displaced people. The state is frequently under attack by Boko Haram militants. An official told the media that the outbreak stemmed from a daily mass movement of people. UNICEF has to deal with logistical, infrastructure and transport challenges to get vaccines to some of the most remote and insecure areas in the world, said Kezaala. Regarding the current outbreak in the United States, he said: "It perplexes me, to see a country with no logistical challenges, readily available resources, with refuted studies and the anti-vaccine lobbies, you still see transmission continuing. It's not easy for me to grasp." The United States is not the only developed country going through vaccine skepticism. In Canada last year, a group that doesn't get vaccines carried the infection back after visiting the Netherlands. Local health authorities in British Colombia confirmed 375 cases, which was declared the worst measles outbreak in 30 years in Canada. The Netherlands also saw a major measles outbreak from May 2013 to March 2014, where more than 2,600 people contracted the disease in communities that do not typically vaccinate. Europe reported 4,735 measles cases in 2014, in which 85% of the cases were unvaccinated and 10% had not finished their doses. The continent saw a peak in 2010, with 32,480 measles cases. CNN's Lu Shen and Beijing intern Sherry Ju contributed to this report. | Buried neck deep in filthy, ash covered debris, Filipino children sift through the charred debris from an enormous fire that razed a shanty town in Malabon City. With just weeks to go to Christmas, hundreds of people lost everything when their homes were destroyed by the wind whipped blaze. Many were made with light materials that were unable to stand the intense heat from the blaze. Arson investigators estimate that it caused at least £20 million worth of damage, with much of the debris washing into rivers and the sea around the slum, according to the Philippine Star newspaper. But astonishingly, fire officials told the paper that only six people were injured by the wind whipped blaze as it raced through the informal settler community which has built up in the city around 10 miles north of the country's capital, Manila. Up to the neck in filth, a young Filipino boy looks for salvageable material among the debris, following a fire that ripped through a shanty town in Malabon City . Much of the debris was washed into the sea and rivers around the settlement. Malabon city has a population of more than 350,000 and is around 10 miles north of the Philippine's capital Manila . Amazingly, only five people were injured by the fire which razed hundreds of homes. Arson investigators think it caused at least £20 million worth of damage . Wading through the rubbish on the hunt for anything salvageable, children look for metal and other valuable goods amid the wreckage. Filipino authorities think up to 1,000 people were affected by the fire . Knee deep in sludge children continue to look for valuable. The cause of the fire is unknown, but local media reported that investigators were checking claims that an illegal electrical connection may have been the cause of the fire . Examining the debris closely, a young girl hunts through the ash charred debris. The blaze came just days after parts of the Philippines were devastated by Typhoon Hagiput . The cause of the blaze is unknown investigators were checking claims that an illegal electrical connection may have been the cause of the fire, Chief Inspector Rodrigo Navalta Reyes, told the Manila Bulletin newspaper. 'A short circuit may have developed at the second floor of a home,' he said, adding that the investigation was ongoing. It is unknown how many people lived in the Shanty town, but when record were last taken in 2010, Malabon City had a population of almost 350,000. With Christmas on the horizon, the affected families have asked the government for help, the paper reported. Just weeks away from Christmas victims have asked the government, in the predominantly Catholic country, for help . Salvaging whatever they can from the fire which swept through their community. It is unknown how many people live in the shanty town . Digging deep for scraps, a young man sifts through the rubbish caused by the blaze. Emergency services in the Philippines are already stretched to breaking point by the damage from Typhoon Hagiput . It has placed added strain on the country's rescue services who were already struggling to cope with the fallout from the destruction wreaked by Typhoon Hagupit which destroyed nearly 16,500 houses and damaged more than 33,100 on the island of Samar. Rescue teams were struggling to reach upland communities on the eastern island which were thought to have been battered by gale force winds and rain from the storm, which struck almost a year after the country was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan. Hagupit has since been downgraded to a tropical storm and on Wednesday was headed for southern Vietnam. As they look valuables from the fire in Malabon City, rescue teams on the island of Samar are struggling to reach remote communities affected by typhoon Hagiput . Made from light materials the homes could not stand the intense heat from the blaze as it ripped through the slum . | eng_Latn | 589 |
Typhoon Usagi damaged hundreds of houses in Guangdong province .
More than 200,000 people had to be relocated because of the storm .
Hong Kong, which had been in its path, avoided a severe impact .
Airlines are scrambling to deal with hundreds of canceled flights . | (CNN) -- At least 25 people have died after Typhoon Usagi slammed into the coast of southern China, state media reported Monday. Bringing strong winds and heavy rain, Usagi forced the relocation of hundreds of thousands of people, the cancellation of hundreds of flights and the closing of a major shipping lane. "Usagi has devastated the eastern part of Guangdong," where it made landfall late Sunday, the state-run news agency Xinhua said. The storm trashed construction sites, damaged hundreds of homes and cut off power and water, the news agency reported. Twenty-five people have so far been confirmed dead, it said. At one point the most powerful storm so far this year, Usagi has menaced the region for days. It left at least two people dead and three others missing in the Philippines and at least nine people injured in Taiwan. The typhoon weakened Sunday as it got nearer to the Chinese coast, but was still packing sustained winds of around 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph) when it hit land. By Monday afternoon, it had faded to become a tropical depression. The densely populated financial center of Hong Kong, which had appeared to be in the storm's path before it began to track in a more northerly direction on Sunday, avoided the worst of its fury. Seventeen people in the territory sought medical attention, eight of whom were admitted to hospitals, authorities said. Flights disrupted . Usagi, which means rabbit in Japanese, also wreaked havoc on transportation, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights at Hong Kong International Airport, according to airport officials. With thousands of passengers stranded, airlines and airport authorities were scrambling to deal with the backlog as flights resumed Monday. Major Chinese airlines, including China Southern Air, canceled flights into the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, Xinhua reported. In preparation for the storm's arrival, four of six reactors at the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station in Shenzhen reduced their operating capacity, Guangdong authorities told Xinhua. A total of 226,000 people were relocated in Guangdong, the news agency cited the local civil affairs bureau as saying. The typhoon severely damaged or destroyed 7,100 houses, it reported. In neighboring Fujian Province, more than 80,000 people were evacuated and 50,000 disaster-relief personnel were deployed, Xinhua reported. A major shipping lane between Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Taiwan was closed Saturday in anticipation of the storm's arrival. More than 22,000 fishing boats in Fujian and another 48,000 in Guangdong have been ordered into port, authorities told Xinhua. East Asia is buffeted for several months a year by heavy storms that roll in from the Pacific. At its peak, Usagi eclipsed Super Typhoon Utor, which hit the Philippines and South China last month, as the strongest storm of the year so far. About 50 people died as result of Utor in China, and 11 people were killed in the Philippines. CNN's Anjali Tsui, Jethro Mullen and Pamela Boycoff contributed to this report. | (CNN)The passengers and crew aboard AirAsia Flight QZ8501 expected to land in Singapore at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, after a flight of just over two hours. They departed Juanda International Airport in Indonesia's East Java early that morning, but amid increasingly bad weather one of the pilots requested to deviate from their planned route, AirAsia said in a statement. Although little is known about the aircraft's disappearance, the region has been struck by torrential rain -- which has some speculating that inclement weather could have played a role in the flight's disappearance . The plane was still traceable about five minutes before it disappeared, according to Indonesian state media. One minute before it lost contact, the pilot requested to raise the plane's flying altitude due to bad weather. CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis says that this maneuver could have been made in order to avoid turbulence. "Turbulence doesn't bring an aircraft down," Maginnis said. "It may be a pilot reaction to the turbulence. It may be perhaps it got too close to a thunderstorm. There could be so many variables." It's unclear where the diversion took place, but CNN's aviation expert Richard Quest says that's where investigators' attention should focus. "Bad weather per se does not bring down aircraft," he said. "How the pilot may respond to bad weather could be an issue in this case." AirAsia statement on missing airliner . Torrential rains . The region has been plagued by heavy rain and severe flooding in recent weeks -- something that the pilots should have been acutely aware of and trained to respond to, according to Maginnis. "It is typical they would encounter monsoon weather," Maginnis said. "They (the pilots) would have had monsoon training." With around 8,000 flying hours between them, the pilots could be considered "moderately experienced," Quest said. Tony Fernandes, the CEO and founder of AirAsia, told CNN's Andrew Stevens that the captain had 20,000 hours of flying experience, 7,000 of which were with AirAsia on the same model of plane that disappeared. Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation, said weather can change quickly and there may have been little time to act. "This weather system might have built up very quickly and they're on their own up there. With the weather up to 52,000 feet, and the operation ceiling is up to about 40,000 on this plane, so they might not have had many options," she said. Search and rescue . The plane was flying through Indonesian-monitored airspace -- or Indonesia's flight information region -- when contact was lost, according to AirAsia. Several hours after it disappeared, Malaysia's Ministry of Transport confirmed the Indonesian government had started a search and rescue mission for the missing plane. "They need to be searching the water but not necessarily for a plane, they need to be searching for any clues," Schiavo said. The flight's original flight path, a journey of 1,362 kilometers (846 miles), took it over the Java Sea. And while the search won't cover as large an area as that of MH370, the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared in March, it is still a "broad area," which will be affected by weather, according to Maginnis. | eng_Latn | 590 |
Court says the accused led a terrorist group that planned and executed the attack .
The train station attack shook the country and state media labeled it "China's 9/11" | Four people were convicted Friday of plotting a knife attack that killed 31 people at a railway station in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming. A court in the city said in an online statement the accused led a terrorist group that planned and executed the attack, which wounded 141 people on March 1. Three were sentenced to death; the fourth to a life in prison. The names of the four suspects suggested they were Uyghur, a mainly Muslim ethnic group from Xinjiang, northwest China. Authorities had blamed terrorists from the region for the attack. One of the accused stormed the railway station, along with at least four other assailants whom police shot dead at the scene. The attackers wore black and wielded long knives and machetes. State television broadcast an interview with a police officer who was part of the SWAT team dispatched to the railway station, one of China's busiest. "The person closest to me had his face covered by a black veil. I shot him down when he was about a meter away from my gun. His knife was around 60 or 70 centimeters long," the officer told CCTV. The other three who stood trial were caught by police when they were trying to sneak out of the country a few days before the attack, the court said . The train station attack shook the country and state media labeled it "China's 9/11." It was the deadliest of a recent spate of violent incidents that have been blamed on Uyghurs. In May, terrorists used car bombs to attack an open-air market in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, leaving 39 dead and 94 injured. Last month, China executed three it said had masterminded an October 2013 suicide car crash in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. | Hong Kong (CNN) -- The death of a sixth patient from a SARS-like virus comes on the week that marks 10 years since the deadly outbreak hit Hong Kong. Reports of the new virus' spread remind me of a phone call I received a decade ago: "Kevin, we're hearing that there might be a case of SARS on Lamma," said my boss, referring to the tiny island off Hong Kong where I live. Back then I was working for The Wall Street Journal Asia, and my colleagues and I had been reporting on the outbreak for weeks from our homes. Like many businesses at the height of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, employees were encouraged to stay away from the office, or any other places where large numbers of people gather. Still, I remember thinking: What do I do with this information? How do I defend against what is unknown and unseen? And is the sniffle I have more than just a runny nose? When the World Health Organization (WHO) issued its global alert on March 12, 2003 -- an ominous warning of a "world-wide health threat" due the outbreak of an unknown form of severe pneumonia -- Hong Kong became a city under siege. Those of us living in the city in the months following that alert watched as the disease spread daily, growing from 150 confirmed cases in 10 nations to 8,096 cases in 30 nations -- killing 774 people -- by July, according to WHO. Hospitals were overrun, an apartment complex was quarantined, and restaurants and bars in one of the most crowded cities in the world were deserted. The disease decimated social conventions: A public service announcement suggested Japanese-like bows rather than handshakes at business meetings; signs offered instruction on how to wash hands and proper spitting etiquette. Money changing hands suddenly took on a new scrutiny. Catholic priests were forbidden from offering sacramental wine and placing communion wafers in the mouths of the faithful. Many in this city of seven million turned to wearing masks, a prophylactic against panic yet an unnerving reminder of the life-and-death fights in the city's medical centers. We now know SARS started in November 2002 across the border in mainland China's Guangdong Province, percolating there until 10 years ago today. On February 21, 2003, a Chinese doctor who treated patients with atypical pneumonia in Guangdong province in China checked into Hong Kong's Metropole Hotel to attend a wedding. The next day, the doctor was admitted to a Hong Kong hospital for respiratory failure. Disease detectives say SARS then spread to other travelers at the hotel, who then hopped on jumbo jets and spread the illness around the world. But that is hindsight. At the time, more was unknown than known, which ratcheted fears. Statistics offered comfort: The numbers were relatively small, we told ourselves, and noted that tens of thousands of people die each year of pneumonia in the U.S. alone. But our emotional lives aren't lived in a realm of statistical truth, as the casino and lottery industries can attest. You can tell yourself the odds are far against infection, and farther still against death, and yet -- what's that tickle in my throat? Fear was driven by the novelty of the disease. Epidemiologists had a number of false starts on the origin of the disease -- It's chlammydia penuemoniae; no, it's a paramyxovirus -- until it was revealed to be a new strain of coronavirus, the same family of disease as the common cold. This did little to salve public nerves, because who hasn't come down with a cold? One day during the height of the outbreak I went to a movie with a friend, and I choked on my drink. As I coughed uncontrollably, a couple sitting behind us -- the only other people in the theater --got up and left. The economic and political backdrop of the disease didn't help. The WHO announcement came just days before the 2003 Iraq War began. The September 11 terrorist attacks were still fresh in the public psyche, and before the disease was identified many serious questions were being asked whether it was bioterrorist attack. Hong Kong was already dealing with record high employment, which SARS further raised to an unprecedented 8.6% by June. "It's a general emotional backdrop; life is not safe, the world is not safe, even the ground under my feet I can't count on," a local counselor told me at the time. "People are very, very tired and very insecure." Rumors spread faster than the disease. The suspected outbreak on my island proved false. After the outbreak at Amoy Gardens, an apartment complex where 329 people were infected and 42 killed, city officials went into overdrive to stop a rumor going viral on the internet that entire city was poised to be quarantined. A 14-year-old boy was later arrested for creating a fake news page creating the story. Most of the sick and dying were city medical professionals -- which made sense, considering they were the ones at the frontline treating the illness -- but that only added to our worries: If doctors and nurses can't protect themselves, how can we? The cost to business was high. Conventions shut down, tourists stayed away. A friend of mine nearly lost his consulting business as he paid office rental space and salaries for three people with no income for three months as clients canceled training sessions. The Asian Develop Bank estimated SARS cost East and Southeast Asian economies $60 billion in lost demand and business revenue. But as the months passed, so did the malady. You could see the green sprouts of recovery in the early weeks as people turned masks into fashion statements, embroidering surgical masks with sequins; other entrepreneurs started selling masks with Hello Kitty or other cartoon characters. On July 1, 2003, half a million of the city's residents took to the streets on the sixth anniversary of the handover of the former British colony to China. Ostensibly, the protests were against a controversial new security measure, but the outpouring of support was fueled by frustrations with public officials over SARS. The city's property market was leveled by fallout from the disease, but anyone who lived in Hong Kong at the time (this author included) is now kicking themselves for not purchasing an apartment during SARS -- the city's property is now among the most expensive in the world. In retrospect, it can be argued that the paranoia of the first few months paid off: SARS was identified and stopped with unprecedented speed. "It was rapidly contained within less than four months of the initial alert, as a result of an unprecedented level of international cooperation designed to prevent it from becoming established in people, as HIV/AIDS had done during the 20th century," Professor David L. Heymann, head of the Centre on Global Health Security at UK think tank Chatham House, recently wrote. Still others argue lessons from SARS remain unlearned. "Once the initial dilly-dallying gave way to decisive and swift state action, resources were effectively mobilized against the epidemic and policy coordination was significantly improved," Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow on global health for the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote earlier this month. "Yet many of the measures widely credited for stopping the spread of the virus, such as isolation and quarantine, were only implemented after the virus" had dissipated, he said. The cases of a new SARS-like virus hitting a handful of people in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UK serves as reminder of the strange days that we in Hong Kong lived through a decade ago, and the hope that early detection of these cases will prevent other cities from living through a similar siege. | eng_Latn | 591 |
NEW: More than 3,000 flights delayed and almost 200 canceled .
Reporter measures line more than a mile long at Midway airport .
About 46 million people were expected to travel for Thanksgiving, AAA says .
90% of travelers were expected to go by road . | (CNN) -- For many fliers Sunday, it was holiday travel woes, round two. As of 6:30 p.m. ET, more than 3,000 U.S. flights were delayed and more than 190 were canceled, according to FlightAware.com. The line for security screening at Chicago Midway International Airport on Sunday morning was so long that reporter Denise Whitaker of CNN affiliate KOMO measured it: 1.2 miles. Traveler Sarah Crowder called it the worst she's seen, prompting the Chicago Tribune's Brian Cassella to call on the Transportation Security Administration to "do better." Sunday is one of the busiest travel days of the year, as millions of people return home after the Thanksgiving holiday. "This happens sometimes," Chicago Aviation Department spokeswoman Karen Pride said, according to CNN affiliate WLS. "There was a period of time earlier this morning, between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., that lines were long because that is when most people are traveling for the holiday period." On Wednesday, the weather was widely blamed, as snow snarled traffic for parts of the country. But conditions were much better Sunday in many areas, with "warmer and more tranquil conditions" in parts of the country including the East Coast, CNN meteorologist Todd Borek said. The temperatures were in the upper 40s in Chicago. While a lot of attention goes to the airports -- where the interconnected flight travel system can have a domino effect -- the vast majority of Thanksgiving travelers hit the road. Ninety percent of travelers were expected to go by road, AAA said, helped by the lowest gas prices in five years. In all, more than 46 million people were expected to travel 50 miles or more for Thanksgiving, marking the highest volume since 2007. 10 tips for Thanksgiving travel . "The average distance traveled this Thanksgiving will be 549 miles roundtrip and Americans will spend an average of $573 during the holiday weekend," AAA predicted. How's your holiday travel going? Join the conversation on Facebook. | Beijing, China (CNN) -- Family members of 19 Chinese tourists, who went missing in Taiwan after Typhoon Megi triggered rock slides, are headed to the island, China's state media said Monday. The tourists from Zhuhai city in southern China went missing about 10 p.m. Thursday. Two other people -- a Taiwanese bus driver and a Chinese tour group leader from another tour bus -- also are missing, according to official Taiwanese media. Emergency crews rescued hundreds of other people who were trapped by the rock slides, which happened mainly along the Suhua Highway, in northeast Taiwan. Sections of the scenic highway, which is perched along a cliff on Taiwan's eastern coast, gave way. Typhoon Megi made landfall in China's southeastern province of Fujian on Saturday, affecting nearly 650,000 people and destroying 500 houses, China's Xinhua news agency said. About 270,000 people had evacuated. Damage in Fujian from the strongest typhoon of the year was estimated at 1.59 billion yuan ($238 million). No deaths or significant injuries were reported, thanks to rigorous typhoon precautions in Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces, the state-run China Daily said Monday. Megi killed at least 13 people and injured nearly 100 others in Taiwan last week. It struck the Philippines earlier in the week, affecting an estimated 258,844 people and leaving thousands homeless. | eng_Latn | 592 |
Public Health England said cases have risen by 58% from 2012 to 2013 .
Last year 541 cases were reported in people returning from dengue-affected countries compared to 343 cases in 2012 .
Most cases reported in people returning from India and Thailand but marked increase in cases associated with Barbados also noted . | By . Lizzie Parry . Health experts have today warned of a rising tide of dengue fever cases in England, as infected travellers jumped 60 per cent in a year. More people are returning from infected areas of the world, bringing the viral illness home with them. Public Health England (PHE) said cases soared by 58 per cent from 2012 to 2013. Last year there were 541 cases reported in people returning from dengue-affected countries across the world. Public Health England has warned of a rise in the number of travellers returning to England with dengue fever, a viral infection spread by mosquitoes . That number is compared to 343 cases in 2012. A PHE spokesman said most cases were reported in travellers who had visited India and Thailand. But officials have also noted an increase in cases associated with travel to Barbados last year. Dengue is a viral infection spread by mosquitoes. Symptoms of include a severe flu-like illness, fever, headache, muscle ache, rash, nausea and vomiting. PHE also said the number of chikungunya fever cases have risen from 15 in 2012 to 24 in 2013. It is a viral illness with similar symptoms to dengue fever but joint pain may be a more prominent symptom. Most patients make a full recovery but in some cases joint pain and arthritis can persist for several months or even years. Dr Jane Jones, travel and migrant health expert at PHE, said: 'Dengue fever and chikungunya are unpleasant viral illnesses that are transmitted by day-biting mosquitoes. 'As there is no specific preventive medicine or vaccination against dengue fever or chikungunya, prevention relies on avoiding mosquito bites particularly around dusk and dawn when the day biting mosquitoes are most active.' The number of cases has risen by 60 per cent from 2012 to 2013. A Public Health England spokesman said most travellers have contracted the illness in India and Thailand, but increasing numbers were associated with travel to Barbados (pictured) last year . Dengue fever (pictured is a computer generated image of the virus) is spread by mosquitoes . Dengue is a common viral infection spread by mosquitoes. It is common in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. Symptoms include: . Dengue is spread by infected mosquitoes. An infected human is bitten by the mosquito, the infected mosquito then bites another human and the cycle continues. The condition is widespread in areas with a high mosquito populations. Dengue usually clears up by itself within two to three weeks. There are no specific medications to treat the disease but symptoms can be managed using paracetamol. A number of people will go on to suffer a more serious form of the illness, known as 'severe dengue'. It is a potentially fatal complication which can lead to shock, bleeding and organ damage. | (CNN) -- Search crews in Indonesia have suspended efforts to locate two tourists, still missing two and half days after the tourist boat they were traveling in sank. The head of the rescue mission says the search will resume on Tuesday morning. Officials say 23 other passengers and crew were rescued, pulled from the water by local fishermen and search and rescue teams. The survivors spent more than 36 hours in the water. The two people missing are believed to be Spanish, other passengers on board said. However, officials at the Spanish foreign ministry could not confirm this. The tourists -- mostly from Europe -- were on what was supposed to be an exotic getaway: a cruise from west to east, departing from Lombok in the province of West Nusa Tenggara and ending in Labuan Bajo, in East Nusa Tenggara, with a number of stops along the way. Under normal conditions, the journey would have taken four nights to complete. Everything appeared fine when the vessel, named Versace Amara, set sail last Thursday. Three days into the trip, the boat ran into trouble. Budiawan, head of the rescue mission, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, says it's believed the boat hit rocks off the volcanic island of Sangeang, at about 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. Water began leaking into the vessel, forcing the passengers and crew to abandon ship. The vessel was carrying 20 tourists and three local crew members and two local guides. Budiawan says authorities were first notified of the incident on Sunday morning, and immediately deployed crews to the site. The nearest town is Bima on the island of Sumbawa -- a two-hour boat ride away from where the boat sank. The passengers appear to have split into two groups. The first, consisting of 10 tourists, remained near the accident site. They were rescued on Sunday afternoon. Five were picked up by local fishermen, the others retrieved by search and rescue teams and taken to hospital in Bima. After being rescued, one of the passengers identified as Rafael, criticized the lack of equipment on the boat. "On the boat there was no security. No radio, no GPS, no navigation equipment. There were nothing," he told CNN affiliate Trans7 Indonesia. "Only life jacket, but life jacket it doesn't work. If you're in the middle of the ocean with a life jacket, what happens? Nothing. Because the most important when you have an accident in the sea is to call the rescue team and to call the radio, GPS or something. They had nothing. In the morning, the crew said 'No one is coming to rescue us.'" Another 13 passengers and crew swam in the water using lifebuoys and life vests to stay afloat. They were retrieved by local fishermen on Sunday evening, in the waters of Sape, a town in East Nusa Tenggara province, and are currently being treated at a hospital there. Budiawan says it's believed the two missing men who were with the second group became separated because of the strong winds and current. | eng_Latn | 593 |
130 new cases were identified during a 3-day lockdown in Sierra Leone .
More than 75% of the targeted 1.5 million households were contacted .
At least 2,803 people have died from Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone . | (CNN) -- One hundred thirty new cases of Ebola were identified during a three-day lockdown in Sierra Leone, Stephen Gaojia, the country's head of emergency operations, said Monday. Officials are awaiting tests on another 39 potential cases, he said. During the lockdown from Friday through Sunday, no one was allowed to leave home. More than 75% of the targeted 1.5 million households were contacted, according to the Health Ministry. The latest report from the World Health Organization, released Monday, says at least 2,803 people have died during the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. In these three countries -- the hardest hit by the epidemic -- there have been at least 5,843 confirmed, probable or suspected cases. The death toll includes victims in all three categories. The first Ebola case was documented in December. The WHO is also tracking the virus in Senegal and Nigeria, where a much smaller number of cases have been confirmed. Only one case was confirmed in Senegal, and no deaths have been reported. In addition, the WHO reported, all of those believed to have been in contact with the infected person have completed follow-up evaluations with no further Ebola cases confirmed. The virus is spread through contact with bodily fluids, and early symptoms include sudden onset of fever, weakness, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat. The virus is named after the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), where one of the first outbreaks occurred in 1976. | Beijing, China (CNN) -- Family members of 19 Chinese tourists, who went missing in Taiwan after Typhoon Megi triggered rock slides, are headed to the island, China's state media said Monday. The tourists from Zhuhai city in southern China went missing about 10 p.m. Thursday. Two other people -- a Taiwanese bus driver and a Chinese tour group leader from another tour bus -- also are missing, according to official Taiwanese media. Emergency crews rescued hundreds of other people who were trapped by the rock slides, which happened mainly along the Suhua Highway, in northeast Taiwan. Sections of the scenic highway, which is perched along a cliff on Taiwan's eastern coast, gave way. Typhoon Megi made landfall in China's southeastern province of Fujian on Saturday, affecting nearly 650,000 people and destroying 500 houses, China's Xinhua news agency said. About 270,000 people had evacuated. Damage in Fujian from the strongest typhoon of the year was estimated at 1.59 billion yuan ($238 million). No deaths or significant injuries were reported, thanks to rigorous typhoon precautions in Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces, the state-run China Daily said Monday. Megi killed at least 13 people and injured nearly 100 others in Taiwan last week. It struck the Philippines earlier in the week, affecting an estimated 258,844 people and leaving thousands homeless. | eng_Latn | 594 |
A decade ago on February 21, the first victim of SARS came to Hong Kong .
Disease quickly spread around the world, killing 774 people by July 2003 .
There were 8,096 confirmed cases of SARS in 30 nations, according to WHO .
The city of Hong Kong was transformed as the epidemic unraveled in the city . | Hong Kong (CNN) -- The death of a sixth patient from a SARS-like virus comes on the week that marks 10 years since the deadly outbreak hit Hong Kong. Reports of the new virus' spread remind me of a phone call I received a decade ago: "Kevin, we're hearing that there might be a case of SARS on Lamma," said my boss, referring to the tiny island off Hong Kong where I live. Back then I was working for The Wall Street Journal Asia, and my colleagues and I had been reporting on the outbreak for weeks from our homes. Like many businesses at the height of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, employees were encouraged to stay away from the office, or any other places where large numbers of people gather. Still, I remember thinking: What do I do with this information? How do I defend against what is unknown and unseen? And is the sniffle I have more than just a runny nose? When the World Health Organization (WHO) issued its global alert on March 12, 2003 -- an ominous warning of a "world-wide health threat" due the outbreak of an unknown form of severe pneumonia -- Hong Kong became a city under siege. Those of us living in the city in the months following that alert watched as the disease spread daily, growing from 150 confirmed cases in 10 nations to 8,096 cases in 30 nations -- killing 774 people -- by July, according to WHO. Hospitals were overrun, an apartment complex was quarantined, and restaurants and bars in one of the most crowded cities in the world were deserted. The disease decimated social conventions: A public service announcement suggested Japanese-like bows rather than handshakes at business meetings; signs offered instruction on how to wash hands and proper spitting etiquette. Money changing hands suddenly took on a new scrutiny. Catholic priests were forbidden from offering sacramental wine and placing communion wafers in the mouths of the faithful. Many in this city of seven million turned to wearing masks, a prophylactic against panic yet an unnerving reminder of the life-and-death fights in the city's medical centers. We now know SARS started in November 2002 across the border in mainland China's Guangdong Province, percolating there until 10 years ago today. On February 21, 2003, a Chinese doctor who treated patients with atypical pneumonia in Guangdong province in China checked into Hong Kong's Metropole Hotel to attend a wedding. The next day, the doctor was admitted to a Hong Kong hospital for respiratory failure. Disease detectives say SARS then spread to other travelers at the hotel, who then hopped on jumbo jets and spread the illness around the world. But that is hindsight. At the time, more was unknown than known, which ratcheted fears. Statistics offered comfort: The numbers were relatively small, we told ourselves, and noted that tens of thousands of people die each year of pneumonia in the U.S. alone. But our emotional lives aren't lived in a realm of statistical truth, as the casino and lottery industries can attest. You can tell yourself the odds are far against infection, and farther still against death, and yet -- what's that tickle in my throat? Fear was driven by the novelty of the disease. Epidemiologists had a number of false starts on the origin of the disease -- It's chlammydia penuemoniae; no, it's a paramyxovirus -- until it was revealed to be a new strain of coronavirus, the same family of disease as the common cold. This did little to salve public nerves, because who hasn't come down with a cold? One day during the height of the outbreak I went to a movie with a friend, and I choked on my drink. As I coughed uncontrollably, a couple sitting behind us -- the only other people in the theater --got up and left. The economic and political backdrop of the disease didn't help. The WHO announcement came just days before the 2003 Iraq War began. The September 11 terrorist attacks were still fresh in the public psyche, and before the disease was identified many serious questions were being asked whether it was bioterrorist attack. Hong Kong was already dealing with record high employment, which SARS further raised to an unprecedented 8.6% by June. "It's a general emotional backdrop; life is not safe, the world is not safe, even the ground under my feet I can't count on," a local counselor told me at the time. "People are very, very tired and very insecure." Rumors spread faster than the disease. The suspected outbreak on my island proved false. After the outbreak at Amoy Gardens, an apartment complex where 329 people were infected and 42 killed, city officials went into overdrive to stop a rumor going viral on the internet that entire city was poised to be quarantined. A 14-year-old boy was later arrested for creating a fake news page creating the story. Most of the sick and dying were city medical professionals -- which made sense, considering they were the ones at the frontline treating the illness -- but that only added to our worries: If doctors and nurses can't protect themselves, how can we? The cost to business was high. Conventions shut down, tourists stayed away. A friend of mine nearly lost his consulting business as he paid office rental space and salaries for three people with no income for three months as clients canceled training sessions. The Asian Develop Bank estimated SARS cost East and Southeast Asian economies $60 billion in lost demand and business revenue. But as the months passed, so did the malady. You could see the green sprouts of recovery in the early weeks as people turned masks into fashion statements, embroidering surgical masks with sequins; other entrepreneurs started selling masks with Hello Kitty or other cartoon characters. On July 1, 2003, half a million of the city's residents took to the streets on the sixth anniversary of the handover of the former British colony to China. Ostensibly, the protests were against a controversial new security measure, but the outpouring of support was fueled by frustrations with public officials over SARS. The city's property market was leveled by fallout from the disease, but anyone who lived in Hong Kong at the time (this author included) is now kicking themselves for not purchasing an apartment during SARS -- the city's property is now among the most expensive in the world. In retrospect, it can be argued that the paranoia of the first few months paid off: SARS was identified and stopped with unprecedented speed. "It was rapidly contained within less than four months of the initial alert, as a result of an unprecedented level of international cooperation designed to prevent it from becoming established in people, as HIV/AIDS had done during the 20th century," Professor David L. Heymann, head of the Centre on Global Health Security at UK think tank Chatham House, recently wrote. Still others argue lessons from SARS remain unlearned. "Once the initial dilly-dallying gave way to decisive and swift state action, resources were effectively mobilized against the epidemic and policy coordination was significantly improved," Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow on global health for the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote earlier this month. "Yet many of the measures widely credited for stopping the spread of the virus, such as isolation and quarantine, were only implemented after the virus" had dissipated, he said. The cases of a new SARS-like virus hitting a handful of people in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UK serves as reminder of the strange days that we in Hong Kong lived through a decade ago, and the hope that early detection of these cases will prevent other cities from living through a similar siege. | (CNN) -- At least 510 people were killed in Caracas, Venezuela, in December, giving support to a recent report that called the city the murder capital of the world. A chalk message reads No More Murders as a student protests killings in Caracas in this file photo. It's against that backdrop that the country's minister for Interior Relations and Justice announced efforts this week to combat crime in 2009. Minister Tareck El Aissami said Monday he will form 50 community police units in Caracas and take other measures so that "we can have in a short time a culture of peace, tranquility and calm for all the Venezuelan public." By all accounts, it will be a tall order. Foreign Policy magazine said in September that Caracas tops the list of five murder capitals of the world, with an official tally of 130 homicides per 100,000 residents. The city, which is Venezuela's capital, has about 4 million inhabitants. Foreign Policy is owned by The Washington Post Co. and published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The United States made the magazine's top five, too, with New Orleans, Louisiana coming in at No. 3. Its murder rate is estimated as 67 per 100,000 by its police department and 95 per 100,000 by the FBI. Still, the rate in Caracas comes in far ahead of the following four murderous capitals. "Caracas has become far more dangerous in recent years than any South American city, even beating out the once notorious Bogota, [Colombia]," Foreign Policy said. "What's worse, the city's official homicide statistics likely fall short of the mark because they omit prison-related murders as well as deaths that the state never gets around to properly 'categorizing.' "The numbers also don't count those who died while 'resisting arrest,' suggesting that Caracas' cops -- already known for their brutality against student protesters -- might be cooking the books," the magazine said. CNN affiliate Globovision TV reported this week that officials reported 510 killings in Caracas this month, capping a particularly brutal year. "It's shocking," said Jennifer McCoy, director of The Americas Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta. "It's the biggest concern of the population -- crime and security." Federico Welsch, a political science professor at La Universidad de Simon Bolivar in Caracas for 25 years, has seen that crime up close. "Violence is the major problem for Venezuelans, according to any source you use," Welsch told CNN on Tuesday. "It's doubly sad because, primarily, the deaths occur almost exclusively in the poor sectors, and, secondarily, it's among youth under 30 years old." McCoy points out that the killings are "basically poor on poor." From the 1970s to the 1990s, the poverty rate nearly tripled, from 25 percent to 65 percent, McCoy said. Even though the poverty rate declined during the oil boom that started in the 1990s, she said, the rate remains high. "It's a combination of economic-driven crime ... with other types of gangs, to police abuse," McCoy said. "The police are not properly trained and not properly equipped." Anti-crime efforts in Caracas also suffered, she said, when the national government took over the city's police force in 2002. "There has been trouble getting the police force back to par," she said. Welsch said he doubts the anti-crime measures El Aissami announced Monday will work. "You can't resolve this problem with police," Welsch said. "The government is co-responsible for there being so many firearms. There is no good gun control, there are no permits and there is no good control over the militias." The problem, Welsch and McCoy said, transcends the drug trade and gang battles. "You don't have the guerrilla problems," McCoy said. "You don't have drug cartels. You don't have a large mafia." Welsch lays much of the blame on the 10-year-old government of socialist President Hugo Chavez. "The government discourse," he said, "is that if you are lacking something it is because of injustice. Then look for it, take it away from those who have it. You can obtain justice with your own hands." The magazine lists, in descending order, Caracas; Cape Town, South Africa; New Orleans; Moscow, Russia; and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, as the top five murder capitals in the world. | eng_Latn | 595 |
Flu season is hitting its peak in the United States .
Cases of swine flu, or H1N1, are rapidly increasing with the South hardest hit .
Texas has thus far borne the brunt of cases with still weeks to go of the normal flu season . | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 12:31 EST, 8 January 2014 . | . UPDATED: . 14:49 EST, 8 January 2014 . A 13-year-old Texas girl has died of influenza, taking this season's swine flu death toll to 17 in Dallas County alone. Lydia Christine Kizziar of Carrollton was just a seventh grader when she passed away Saturday and her little sister is in the hospital fighting off the very same illness. Lydia's circumstance is increasingly common. Texas has been hard-hit this year as swine flu, or H1N1, pummels the Southern U.S. and threatens Americans nationwide. Tragic: 13-year-old Lydia Kizziar died Saturday, becoming the 17th confirmed person to die during this rampant flu season . Looking for help: A memorial fund has been set up for Lydia (right) to help her unemployed parents pay for the Texas girl's funeral . Even as reports of infection and death tolls hit a steep rise, experts warn that the season is still on an upslope. 'It's too early to tell how severe it's going to be but we're still on the up slope of the flu season, so what we can expect is more flu, more intense disease and more deaths over the next few weeks,' Dr. Joe Bresee of the Center for Disease Control's influenze division said Sunday. Flu season last each year from October to April and can peak in January or February. Lydia Kizziar's tragic death came as her home state of Texas saw an uptick in flu cases. Rampant: The Southern United States are among the hardest hit this year by influenza. The color brown indicates widespread flu activity. In Dallas County alone, 17 flu deaths have been reported since September . Swine flu: The 2013-2014 flu vaccine accounts for various strains of the virus, including H1N1, or the swine flu . According to NBCDFW.com, health officials in Dallas and Denton counties had by Tuesday confirmed 19 deaths. While the very old and very young are usually the hardest hit by the flu, on Monday the Garland, Texas health department revealed that the two most recent mortalities were seen in patients under 50 with no other health conditions. Elsewhere in Texas, 13 had been reported dead from the Houston area by last week. The southern state of North carolina had also reported 13 deaths by last week. In South Carolina, nine have died since September. While the south appears to be suffering the most, everyone needs to remain mindful of the threat. Eye-opening: CDC data suggests the H1N1 strain, which became so virulent in the 2009-2010 season, is the predominant flu virus being spread this year . 'The virus is all around the United States right now.,' said Bresee. 'There is still a lot of season to come. If folks haven't been vaccinated, we recommend they do it now.' This season's virus has killed six children in the United States, according to CDC data. A memorial fund has been set up for Lydia Kizziar in order to help her family financially through this painful time. 'The Kizziar family is in need of financial blessings to help with the cost of care and funeral expenses for the passing of their sweet, young daughter, Lydia,' the page on youcaring.com reads. 'They are unemployed, recently, and also their youngest daughter, Katie, is still in the hospital from the same illness that took their sweet Lydia.' | (CNN) -- Typhoon Haikui slammed into the east coast of China on Wednesday morning, pummeling the area around the business metropolis of Shanghai with heavy wind and rain. The storm's winds were at "severe typhoon" strength when it made landfall in the province of Zhejiang, about 225 kilometers (140 miles) south of Shanghai, the China Meteorological Administration said. The winds diminished to typhoon strength as Haikui moved inland. A severe typhoon is considered to have maximum sustained wind speed of between 150 and 184 kilometers per hour (93 and 114 mph). A typhoon has maximum sustained winds of between 118 and 149 kilometers per hour (73 and 93 mph). Think it's hot? Imagine living here . Hundreds of thousands of people had been evacuated from Haikui's path as it approached, the third tropical cyclone to hit China's east coast in less than a week. Chinese officials had relocated 374,000 people from Shanghai and 250,000 from Zhejiang, according to the state-run newspaper China Daily. Although the storm's winds are expected to weaken as it moves overland, it will continue to dump large amounts of rain on the surrounding area, raising the risk of landslides and flooding. What's behind Asia floods? "The rain is the bigger impact going forward," said CNNI Meteorologist Taylor Ward. "We have already had up to 8 inches in some locations." Ward said another 6 to 10 inches of rain were expected to fall, with "maybe isolated amounts greater." Haikui was moving northwest at 20 kph (12 mph) but was expected to slow over the coming two days, he said. More rains worsen Philippines floods . Ernesto weakens, but new strength forecast . | eng_Latn | 596 |
Two-year-old boy one of four children pulled from the wreckage after surviving the horror crash on Wednesday .
TransAsia GE235 passenger plane with 58 people on board plunged into Keeling River in capital city Taipei .
At least 25 people have been confirmed dead, according to Taiwanese Civil Aviation Authority, and 18 are missing .
An emergency rescue operation with over 1000 personnel, including military troops, continues throughout the night .
There were 53 passengers and five crew on board, 31 of whom were tourists from mainland China .
It crushed a taxi, injuring the driver, before clipping a freeway overpass and plunging into the river .
An emergency rescue operation with more than 1,000 personnel, including military troops, is under way .
Investigators are examining the plane's blackbox retrieved from the wreckage to outline the cause of the accident . | A two-year-old boy was one of four children who miraculously survived a terrifying place crash in Taiwan, after the aircraft clipped a motorway overpass and crashed into a river, . So far 15 survivors have been pulled from the wreckage of the plane, as more than 1,000 rescue personnel scramble to try and save people trapped in the aircraft which crashed into the Keeling River in the capital city of Taipei. Dramatic footage of the rescue operation, which is still ongoing, shows the child being carried out on the aeroplane with by emergency workers with barely a scratch on him. Once the dinghy reaches dry land, he is rushed away to be looked over by medics. Scroll down for video . Miracle: A rescue worker hands over a two-year-old boy after survivor a devastating plane crash in Taiwan. The aircraft clipped a motorway shortly after take off and crashed into the Keeling River . Safe: The toddler and a Taiwanese official rush to safety once they reach dry land, after the little boy is rescued from the plane which crashed into the Keeling River in Taipai, Taiwan's capital city . Smash: Terrifying pictures have emerged of a passenger plane with 58 people on board plunging into a river near Taiwan's capital Taipei after clipping a bridge on the freeway . At least 25 people were killed in the crash, which happened just three minutes after the plane took off from a Taipei airport. While the survivors receive medical attention and counselling following the horrifying incident, emergency workers continue to look for 18 people who are still not accounted for as night falls on the crash site. Cranes have been used to remove part of the fuselage from the river, which was lying half submerged. Fire department officials have confirmed that 14 of the fatalities died at the scene while the others died as a result of their injuries before they reached a hospital,The Strait Times reports. Scroll for video: . NIghtfall: Rescue teams are set to work through the night to find missing passengers and establish the cause of the crash, which is currently unknown . Probe: Firefighters use torches to look for survivors and clues within the wreckage of TransAsia GE235 passenger plane, which crashed into the Keeling River after clipping a motorway and taxi shortly after taking off . Salvage: Cranes were used to lift part of the sunken aeroplane out of the river. At least 25 people have died from the crash . The other 18 passengers are believed to be still trapped inside the TransAsia Airways GE235 plane as the rescue operation on the Keeling River in the capital city of Taipei continues. Terrifying footage of the disaster, filmed by a passing motorist's dashboard camera, has emerged and shows the ATR 72-600 turboprop domestic flight, reportedly with 58 people on board, plunging into the water only three minutes after taking off from Songshan airport which was 5km away. Speaking earlier today Wu Jun-hong, a Taipei Fire Department official who was coordinating the rescue, said the missing people were believed to still be in the fuselage, blocked from the entrance by interior wreckage, or had been pulled downriver. 'The focus of our work is to try to use cranes to lift the front part of the wreckage, which is submerged under the water and is where most of the other passengers are feared trapped,' Wu told reporters at the scene. 'At the moment, things don't look too optimistic. Those in the front of the plane are likely to have lost their lives.' Attempt: Rescue personnel in a rubber dinghy remove a passenger from the wreckage using ropes before transporting them to land and hospitals . Lucky: A survivor is taken to safety by emergency crew: 25 people have reportedly died and 15 people have been rescued . Assistance: An injured passenger is helped onto land by emergency personnel along the river bank. Amongst those rescued are four children . Wounded: Another injured passenger is stretchered by emergency workers after being fitted with a neck brace . Aid: Rescuers transfer an injured passenger from a crashed plane in Taipei to an ambulance vehicle . However The Strait Times reported that eye witnesses of the disaster claimed they saw people being thrown out of the plane upon impact. Civil aviation officials said the flight took off at 10:53am, en route to the island of Kinmen, and lost contact with controllers two minutes later. The cause of the crash remains unknown. In what was believed to be the final communication from the cockpit, aired by local television news, the plane's crew could be heard shouting 'Mayday! Mayday! Engine flameout!'. A 'flameout' is when the flame in a plane's engine is extinguished, resulting in a loss of power or engine failure. Scroll down for video: . Tragedy: A white sheet is laid over one of the passengers killed in the crash, as the body is taken past military personnel drafted in to help with the rescue operation . Probe: Investigators are examining the plane's black box (pictured) retrieved from the wreckage to outline the cause of the accident . Safety: Fire department officials have confirmed that 14 of the fatalities died on the spot while the remaining died as a result of their injuries before they reached a hospital . Secure: Operators begin their operations to secure the crashed aircraft. On board the plane were 53 passengers and five crew, 31 of whom were tourists from mainland China . Prise: Search and rescue team members tried to open a hole in the plane to search for those trapped inside the fuselage . An official from the national fire agency told AFP at least three people showed 'no life signs' when rescue crews first arrived at the accident site. 'Three people showed no heartbeat and other life signs when they were rescued,' Lin Kuan-cheng said. More than 1,000 emergency personnel, including five rescue teams from the local fire crew and hundreds of military troops, were sent to Nanyang Bridge where they used inflatable speed boats to access the crash site. Rescue teams were also seen atop the wreckage, where they pulled passengers out to safety before assisting them to land and finally rushing them to various hospitals. On board the plane were 53 passengers and five crew, 31 of whom were tourists from mainland China. A taxi driver was also taken to hospital after suffering severe head injuries and concussion when the plane crushed his vehicle before colliding with the bridge, The Guardian reports. Crash: A taxi driver was also taken to hospital after suffering severe head injuries and concussion when the plane crushed his vehicle before colliding with the bridge . Debris: A man walks past the wreckage of the GE235 flight which clipped a freeway overpass before crash landing in a river . Help: 'The focus of our work is to try to use cranes to lift the front part of the wreckage, which is submerged under the water and is where most of the other passengers are feared trapped,'a senior fire department official said . The plane, which is a privately-owned airline, had just taken off from Songshan Airport in Taipei and was en route to the island of Kinmen . Civil aviation officials said the flight took off at 10:53 am and lost contact with controllers two minutes later . Rush: Thousands of people have crowded around the crash site in Taiwan as 20 passangers remain unaccounted for . Assistance: Rescue personnel, military and members of the media line up along the shore as the rescue operations continues . Help: An injured passenger with blood on her face is escorted by emergency personnel up the river bank . Investigators are examining the plane's black box retrieved from the wreckage to outline the cause of the accident. Lin Chih-ming, head of Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration, said the ATR 72-600 was less than a year old and was last serviced just over a week ago. The pilot had 14,000 flying hours and the co-pilot 4,000 hours, Lin said. It is not the first time TransAsia has been struck by tragedy as another of its planes, also an ATR-7, crashed in a rainstorm in July off Penghu Island in the Taiwan Strait. The plane crash killed 48 people and injured 10 others. Infographics: The plane crashed three minutes after take off, only five kilometres from the runway . Emergency personnel carry the body of a passenger extracted from the commercial plane after it crashed . Bags: A policeman takes photo of passengers' luggage recovered from the plane which crashed into the Keelung River . Collection: Military personnel carry items from the ATR 72-600 turboprop airplane to shore . Wreckage: Parts of the airplane are seen lying on the ground where they fell when the aircraft crashed into the freeway bridge . Divers at work: Lin Chih-ming, head of Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration, said the ATR 72-600 was less than a year old and was last serviced just over a week ago . Stranded: Civil aviation officials said the flight took off at 10:53 am and lost contact with controllers two minutes later . Wreckage: Investigators will be examining causes of the accident, the Aviation Safety Council spokesman Wang Hsing-chung said . | (CNN) -- The number of bird flu cases in China jumped Sunday to 102, including 20 deaths, the World Health Organization announced. Seventy patients remain hospitalized with the virus. The WHO said there is still no evidence of human-to-human transmission. So far the virus has mainly affected eastern China, with 11 deaths and 33 infection cases reported in Shanghai, 24 cases, including three deaths, in Jiangsu Province, 38 cases, including five deaths, in Zhejiang Province, while Anhui Province has confirmed three cases, with one ending in death. Further afield, four people -- including one in Beijing in northern China and three in central Henan Province -- have tested positive for the H7N9 virus. The current strain of bird flu, H7N9, was not detected in humans until last month. A team of international experts are currently in China conducting a week-long assessment of the virus, the WHO said on Friday. "Right now it is still an animal virus that rarely infects humans," Dr. Michael O'Leary, the head of the WHO's office in Beijing, told reporters. On Thursday, the central government suspended wild bird sales to try to prevent the spread of the virus, although many questions remain as to the source of infection. It follows a ban on live poultry trading in affected provinces. A large number of birds have also been slaughtered, state-run Xinhua said. O'Leary said there was legitimate reason for concern about the new virus, but suggested it was premature to begin mass culling of poultry. "I eat chicken every day," O'Leary said with a laugh. "Chicken is of no concern at all." Until March, the virus had only been present in birds, which is why they've become the focus of the investigation. However, 40% of patients with H7N9 had not come into contact with poultry, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Authorities are continuing to monitor more than 1,000 people who have come into close contact with confirmed cases. CNN's Miriam Falco and Hilary Whiteman contributed to this report. | eng_Latn | 597 |
Seven year-old victim's parents are in the poultry business .
She is the first case outside eastern China .
The death toll is at 11 people with 37 taken ill .
Neighbouring Jiangsu province on Saturday also confirmed two more cases .
Officials in an area of Zhejiang province have begun culling chickens .
WHO says there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission . | By . Olivia Williams . PUBLISHED: . 12:49 EST, 13 April 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 12:50 EST, 13 April 2013 . A seven-year-old girl has become Beijing's first case of a new bird flu strain that has killed 11 people. In eastern China 37 others have fallen ill, but this is the first case showing a spread to the north of the country. The girl, whose parents work in the live poultry trade, was admitted to a hospital in the capital on Thursday with a fever, sore throat, coughing and headache, the Beijing Health Bureau said on Saturday. Prevention: A city management officer kills a chicken as his colleagues stand by in a residential neighbourhood of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province . Panic: Health workers take a blood sample from a chicken imported from mainland China in Hong Kong . She was confirmed to be infected with the H7N9 virus on Saturday after tests by disease control and prevention centers. Two people in close contact with her were quarantined for observation, but have shown no symptoms so far. The virus was first spotted in late March, prompting massive slaughtering of live fowl and bans on the poultry trade in eastern Chinese cities, including Shanghai. Shanghai, the center of the outbreak, has reported 21 cases, including seven fatalities though the source of the virus has not yet been identified . The World Health Organisation says that there is no evidence as yet of human to human transmission. Contamination: Officers wear masks as they catch chickens close to a block of houses yesterday . The girl is recovering in a hospital, in a stable condition. Shanghai authorities said Saturday that a 56-year-old man, the husband of a woman hospitalised with the virus earlier this month, became the city's latest case after testing positive for H7N9. Health officials believe people are contracting the H7N9 virus through direct contact with infected poutry. Neighbouring Jiangsu province on Saturday also confirmed two more cases - a 77-year-old woman and a 72-year-old man, both in critical condition. Outbreak: Chinese officials in protection suits have been disinfecting poultry markets to contain further infection . Zhejiang province has reported 11 cases, including two today, and Anhui province has had two. China has been more open in its response to the new virus than it was a decade ago with an outbreak of SARS, when authorities were highly criticised for not releasing information. US scientists meanwhile have made a start on creating a vaccine for the new strain despite a sample from China only arriving yesterday.Government-backed researchers begun testing a 'seed' strain of the virus using a genetic code posted online.The new faster approach - born in the aftermath of the swine flu outbreak in 2009 - has seen weeks shaved off the vaccine making process.But it could still take five to six months before one is available. | (CNN)Up to 100 people are feared missing after two boats collided on the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the World Health Organization said Saturday. The collision happened Thursday morning but news of the disaster is only just emerging. Eugene Kabambi, a WHO spokesman in the country's capital, Kinshasa, told CNN that the wreck occurred at a resort downstream of the town of Kwamouth, when an overloaded barge en route to Inongo collided with a boat carrying 150 people. "We are searching for as many as 100 people in the Congo River as well as assisting these people with body bags, medical kit," said Kabambi. "One of the boats was totally destroyed and that is the one we believe was carrying the missing." Kabambi said his team had been told Friday by the provincial minister of transportation and infrastructure that there were 100 passengers in total and that 42 people had been rescued. However, WHO believes the number of passengers to be close to 150, based on survivors' accounts. A WHO statement released Friday said three bodies had been recovered from the river so far. No passenger manifest was available so it's difficult to establish the total number of people on board the privately owned vessel, it said. No one is thought to have been injured on the barge. The accident is believed to have been caused by powerful currents near the Ngobila rapids. According to WHO, which was awaiting a delivery of medical supplies and body bags to the area Saturday, overloaded barges and passenger boats frequently sink in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the Congo River and on the country's lakes. This is usually owing to the age of the vessels and failure to follow rules of navigation. | eng_Latn | 598 |
Heavy rains and severe flooding in central Vietnam led to the deaths of 20 people .
Over 30 inches of rain in one day triggered heavy flooding .
Over 150,000 homes were submerged .
Two weeks earlier, 66 people in region died after record-setting rains and subsequent flooding . | (CNN) -- At least 20 people have died in severe flooding in Vietnam, official media reported Monday. But the death toll varied as the state-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA) said the death toll is 30 as of Sunday, sourcing a government flood committee. Floods damaged crops and hindered transportation leaving passengers stranded in trains and blocking roadways, and flood waters covered more than 150,000 homes, VNA reported. Seven died in Ha Tinh province after Sunday's rainfall reached more that 800 millimeters (31.5 inches), according to VietNamNet. The province accounted for more than half the homes reported flooded. A similar amount of rain fell on Nghe An province, triggering flooding that killed eight people but inundating far fewer homes, VietNamNet reported. Four more died in Quang Binh province. One person has been reported missing in this week's floods. Throughout the region, people and cattle could be seen sitting on roofs, while boats floated through what would otherwise have been the nation's streets. About 1 meter of water lay over some parts of a Highway 1A, a north-south connection through Vietnam, and service on the north-south railway through the southeastern Asian nation was suspended, reported state-run Vietnam News. The Vietnamese government is distributing 2,000 tons of rice and $10 million worth of aid to the worst-hit areas, in Ha Trinh and Quang Binh provinces, reports said. Record-setting rains a few weeks earlier in central Vietnam spurred severe flooding that killed 66 people and inundated more than 10,000 dwellings. Hundreds of Vietnamese troops were dispatched to the region in the first week of October to help with rescue operations and help residents and business owners deal with millions of dollars of damage. | CNN -- The number of cholera deaths in Zimbabwe is now approaching 3,000, the World Health Organization says. Two men rest in a cholera rehydration tent on the South Africa-Zimbabwe border in December. Latest, WHO statistics show 2,971 deaths since the outbreak began in August, with 56,123 cases reported. The epidemic has swept through a country wracked with political and economic crises. Cholera is an intestinal disease caused by bacteria in contaminated water. The epidemic has been aggravated by erratic water supplies, shortages of water purification chemicals, broken water and sewer pipes and uncollected garbage. On top of that, the waste-disposing system has collapsed. Children can be seen playing on heaps of uncollected garbage in the suburbs of most urban areas in Zimbabwe. Last month, the government led by President Robert Mugabe declared the cholera epidemic a national emergency. The country already was wracked by an enormous economic crisis, with a hyperinflationary economy and shortages of all essentials including food, fuel, cash, foreign currency and electricity. Zimbabwe's rainy season peaks in January or February and ends in late March, and Zimbabwean Health Minister David Parirenyatwa warned the epidemic could get worse during the rainy season. | eng_Latn | 599 |