Tag Archives: countries

Odd

Prayer ritual alarms U.S. air crew (Reuters)

March 15, 2011 – 7:28 pm

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – An orthodox Jewish prayer observance by three passengers aboard an Alaska Airlines flight alarmed flight attendants unfamiliar with the ritual, prompting them to lock down the cockpit and issue a security alert, officials said. Alaska Flight 241 from Mexico City to Los Angeles International Airport landed safely on Sunday and was met by fire crews, foam trucks, FBI agents, Transportation Security Administration personnel and police dispatched as a precaution. The three men, all Mexican nationals, were escorted off the plane by police and questioned by the FBI before being released to make connecting flights to other countries, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. No charges were filed, she said. The three passengers had startled members of the cabin crew with what was interpreted as suspicious behavior shortly after takeoff, airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said. "The three passengers were praying aloud in Hebrew and were wearing what appeared to be leather straps on their foreheads and arms," she said. "This appeared to be a security threat, and the pilots locked down the flight deck and followed standard security procedures." It turned out the passengers were engaged in the wearing of tefillin -- small, black prayer boxes containing scripture that devout Jews bind to their foreheads and arms with black leather straps in a daily ritual accompanied by special prayers. Asked about the authorities' reaction to the alert, Eimiller said: "We're obligated, of course, to respond when the flight calls us to clear up concerns." (Reporting by Steve Gorman. Editing by Peter Bohan) Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook

Tags airport, alaska-flight, countries, fbi, foreheads, mexico, Odd, ritual, their-foreheads | Comment (0)
Popular

US Navy ill-prepared for new Arctic frontier: study (AFP)

March 11, 2011 – 9:35 am

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Climate change is rapidly transforming the Arctic and the US Navy is falling behind as international powers jockey for power over vast oil resources, suggested a US study released on Thursday. The report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) pointed to areas where the United States needs to bolster its forces as warming temperatures break up polar ice, raise sea levels, and potentially cause more international chaos. A sea-level rise in the Arctic over the next two decades is "highly certain to occur and highly certain to come with economic costs" in a region thought to hold more than one-fifth of the world's untapped hydrocarbons, it said. The past three years have seen a surge of global interest in the Arctic, on a level not seen since the Cold War, but United States has not pursued this with the same vigor as Russia, Norway, Denmark and other countries. "The retreat of Arctic sea ice in summer is fundamentally altering the naval forces' mission by allowing increasing access to the harsh and highly variable Arctic environment," said the study by the NAS's National Research Council (NRC). "Surface and air operations have not been a priority for the Navy in the high latitudes for almost 25 years; so, today's naval forces lack experience and procedures for the challenges of these northern environments," it said. Less ice near the North Pole means more boats will have access to the waters, leaving countries more prone to bickering over existing border disputes. "It is anticipated that major international maritime passages in the Arctic will be accessible by the year 2030, at least during the summer months," said the study. Over the next 90 years, the global average sea level rise could range between 0.4 to two meters (1.3-6.5 feet), with a most likely value of about 0.8 meters (2.6 feet), it said citing recent peer-reviewed scientific literature. "There are eight 'frontline' Arctic nations -- Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States -- many with unresolved claims in the region," it said. "Russia, Canada, Norway, and Denmark are all expanding their Arctic military capabilities," the study added. "There should be no assumption that the geostrategic situation will take care of itself or that US interests in the region are currently protected and promoted." Meanwhile the US Navy has no surface combatants hardened for ice operations, and the world's sole superpower has only one working icebreaker ship. Icebreaker operating budgets are controlled by the National Science Foundation, not the US military. "US icebreaking resources are clearly inadequate to meet national needs," it said. "This deficiency is particularly significant given the recent and continuing investment in icebreaking resources by other countries, including China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union." According to an earlier report by the NRC, Russia has 18 icebreakers -- seven of which are nuclear-powered -- while Finland and Sweden have seven each and Canada has six. "China and (South) Korea, while not Arctic nations, have signaled their interest and intent to participate in the Arctic, including routine deployments of an icebreaking research vessel," it added. The research group said the fact that the United States has signed but not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) "will become even more problematic with time and as more states call for international recognition of their Arctic claims." Other areas of concern include how the US naval ships may be called to respond to more natural disasters around the world, and may need to stay deployed for longer periods. The Navy also has no methods for long term forecasting of sea and climate shifts and must rely on civilian and international groups for those figures even though it has "billions of dollars in assets exposed to the threats of climate change." The researchers suggested that planning scenarios be revised to account for the effects of climate change, and urged new war gaming activities to test their response to new challenges. Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook

Tags climate, climate-change, council, countries, russia, south-korea, study, summer, united-states, yahoo | Comment (0)
Health

Laughing gas returning as option for laboring moms (AP)

February 14, 2011 – 5:16 pm

CONCORD, N.H. – Labor pain is nothing to laugh at. Yet. The use of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, during childbirth fell out of favor in the United States decades ago, and just two hospitals — one in San Francisco and one in Seattle — still offer it. But interest in returning the dentist office staple to the delivery room is growing: respected hospitals including Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center plan to start offering it, the federal government is reviewing it, and after a long hiatus, the equipment needed to administer it is expected to hit the market soon. Lori Rowell, due to give birth to her second child in June, is intrigued by the option. "I would definitely think about it, and read about and talk to my doctor about it," said Rowell, 36, of Concord. "It is nice to know that it doesn't affect the baby, because that's what scares me about an epidural." Though nitrous oxide is commonly used for labor pain relief in Canada, Great Britain and other countries, it's been all but abandoned in the United States in favor of other options, such as epidurals, said Judith Bishop a certified nurse midwife at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center and leader in the effort to reintroduce nitrous oxide for labor. With an epidural, medication to block pain seeps through a tube into space surrounding the spinal cord. Because it must be administered by an anesthesiologist, an epidural is significantly more expensive than nitrous oxide. Both are covered by insurance. "In this country, most people when they hear about nitrous, they think it sounds pretty retro, that it sounds very old-fashioned and they're sure there's something bad or dangerous about it and we must've chosen to eliminate it. But I think we eliminated it because we went for the more specialized, higher-tech options," said Bishop, who will be among the speakers Monday at a conference for New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine hospital officials. She and other advocates of reintroducing nitrous oxide emphasize that it is no silver bullet — it "takes the edge off" pain rather than eliminates it. But they say it should be among the options offered to women, particularly those who give birth at small or rural hospitals that lack round-the-clock anesthesiologists. Laughing gas is easy for women to self-administer, takes effect quickly, and can be used late in labor. "It's not right for everybody, but it's something that for many women will offer a certain amount of relief," Bishop said. Michelle Collins, a certified nurse midwife and assistant nursing professor in Tennessee, previously worked as a nurse in London and saw how widely and well nitrous oxide was used there. She has been working with an anesthesiologist to bring nitrous oxide for laboring women at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and said she expects it to become available later this year. Early Wednesday morning, she delivered a baby to a woman she said would have been a perfect candidate for nitrous oxide: the mother arrived at the hospital at midnight and gave birth about three hours later. "There was a period of time just before birth when she was starting to lose it. Nitrous would've been awesome for her: just a few puffs to get her over that hump," she said. Vanderbilt has purchased second-hand equipment to deliver nitrous oxide, but Dartmouth-Hitchcock and others are hoping to buy new equipment that is expected to become available in April. After obstetric demand for nitrous oxide dropped, the one company that made the equipment stopped. But a new company has stepped into that gap and has begun taking orders. At Dartmouth-Hitchcock, where officials plan to order two machines, nurse midwife Suzanne Serat estimated that 10-20 percent of her patients might try nitrous oxide. "We have a number of people who don't want to feel the pain of labor, and nitrous oxide would not be a good option for them. They really need an epidural, and that's perfect for them," she said. "Then we have a number of people who are going to wait and see what happens, and when they're in labor, decide they'd like something and then the only option for them is an epidural but they don't need something that strong. So they would choose to use something in the middle, but we just don't have anything in the middle." The hospital hopes to begin offering nitrous oxide for labor by summer. In the meantime, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is reviewing the effectiveness and safety of nitrous oxide compared to other pain relief methods. Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook

Tags bishop, countries, country, dentist, labor, london, medical, middle, nitrous-oxide, seattle, united-states, university | Comment (0)
Health

FDA aims to accelerate medical device reviews (AP)

February 9, 2011 – 9:43 am

WASHINGTON – Federal health officials are proposing a plan that would speed up the approval of innovative medical devices that have the potential to dramatically improve patients' lives. The so-called Innovation Pathway, announced Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration, would aim to review first-of-a-kind devices in five months, which is half the time currently spent reviewing most new devices. Under the program, the FDA would begin corresponding with device scientists in the early stages of development, helping them design studies to show the safety and effectiveness of their devices. The initiative comes amid complaints from medical device manufacturers that U.S. review times lag behind other countries. Medical device executives say it takes the FDA about twice as long to review new devices as their counterparts in the European Union, according to an industry survey released last month by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Executives ranked the U.S. as the seventh slowest nation in terms of device approvals, behind India, Israel and European countries like France and Germany. "European countries will continue to provide more supportive regulatory processes that encourage innovation yet ensure safety and effectiveness on a timely basis," the report concluded. Medical devices represent a $350 billion global business, with most of the major companies based in the U.S., including Medtronic Inc., St. Jude Medical Inc. and Baxter International Inc. The FDA said an innovative prosthetic arm developed by the Department of Defense would be the first device to use the new system. The device is remotely linked to a microchip in the brain that gives patients near-natural coordination of the prosthetic hand and fingers. It is intended for patients who have suffered spinal cord injury, stroke or amputation. Makers of devices accepted into the new program will receive a written agreement from the agency with a target approval date and a roadmap for the reviewing the product. The devices will be reviewed by a special committee within the FDA made up of experienced scientists and managers. The agency will hold a public meeting on the program March 15 to gather comments from the public. Tuesday's announcement comes as the FDA pushes ahead with a multiyear effort to overhaul its 35-year-old system for approving medical devices, which has been subject to increasing criticism by public safety advocates. Last month the agency announced a series of changes to the program, including streamlining the review process for some low-risk devices. But many significant changes favored by public safety advocates — including specifying when the agency can revoke a device's approval — were not included in the announcement. Those changes have been aggressively opposed by the medical device industry's lobbying arm, AdvaMed, which represents most of the largest device firms, including Boston Scientific Corp. and Johnson & Johnson. Those companies and several others have been forced to recall faulty products in recent years, attracting scrutiny from Congress. The Medical Device Manufacturers Association, which represents smaller medical device companies, commended the FDA's innovation plan and urged the agency to continue addressing delays in device approval. "Unnecessary and unreasonable delays for safe and effective products not only hurt innovation, they unfairly punish patients who are relying on America's med-tech entrepreneurs for help," said Mark Leahey, the group's president. Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook

Tags america, announcement, boston, business, countries, department, food, france, india, innovation, israel, program, time, yahoo | Comment (0)
Health

Global Fund announces new anti-corruption measures (AP)

February 5, 2011 – 9:50 pm

GENEVA – A $21.7 billion global health fund and the U.N.'s main development arm launched new anti-corruption measures Friday in the wake of intense scrutiny from donors and stories by The Associated Press detailing fraud in their grants. Chief among The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's new measures are plans to create a high-profile panel of experts to examine the fund's ability to prevent and detect fraud in its grants. "Programs supported by the fund have saved seven million lives and are turning back the three disease pandemics around the world," said the fund's executive director, Dr. Michel Kazatchkine. He said the fund has "zero tolerance" for fraud and corruption and was "responding aggressively when instances of fraud or misappropriation are detected." Kazatchkine said the new measures would be in place by June. Other corrective actions include doubling funds for its internal watchdog, the office of the inspector general, John Parsons. Before the announcement, Parson's office was to get $18.5 million this year so it could expand to 19 investigators and eight auditors. The Global Fund also plans to hire more internal financial managers, give outside firms more responsibility for monitoring grant spending and help the countries receiving grants better oversee that money. A key change will be tighter scrutiny over training events — a place where the fund's investigators have found high levels of fraud. In Mali, a large share of TB and malaria grant money was lost to forged signatures and fraudulent invoices for training that did not take place. In Mauritania, a similar pattern was found among HIV, malaria and TB grants. The Global Fund, created in 2002 to speed up health grants, has disbursed $13 billion of $21.7 billion approved by its directors, sending money to health ministries, international organizations and others to fight the three diseases. Its biggest donors are the U.S., France, Germany and Japan. It is the largest international funder of programs to combat malaria and tuberculosis and provides a fifth of all international funding to combat HIV/AIDS. Also Friday, U.N. Development Program Administrator Helen Clark announced stricter measures against internal fraud and corruption and backed the Global Fund's new safeguards, saying "we can and we must do better." UNDP carries out programs with the Global Fund's grant money in 27 countries, managing about $2.7 billion of the fund's grant money. "When funds intended for lifesaving treatment and prevention are stolen, that theft is tantamount to murder," Clark said. The U.N. agency said it will hire an investigator to check out allegations of corruption in UNDP-managed Global Fund grant money and plans to strengthen its investigative and audit teams. It also reached a deal with the Global Fund to better share information in fraud investigations. The AP reported last week the Global Fund's investigators were finding that high percentages of some grants they had examined were eaten up by corruption. The fund is demanding the return of $34 million in grant money. Parsons says his office could double its staff and still not handle all its caseload — there are now at least 100 active cases of possible fraud. The fund's investigators are looking into allegations of organized thefts of anti-malarial drugs in Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Togo and Ivory Coast and their sale in Nigeria, Benin, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Guinea. Following the AP articles, Germany's development minister called for a thorough investigation and halted further donations to the fund. Fund officials, facing their biggest crisis in years, are also scrambling to reassure Sweden and Denmark. Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook

Tags aids, benin, countries, france, fund, global, global-fund, ivory-coast, kenya, office, parson, uganda, yahoo | Comment (0)

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