Category Archives: human rights

Avian Flu Diary: England: PHE Press Release On MERS Case Transiting London

(not a SciFi script but could be a good start for one but probably would be rejected because who would believe that it could be so easy to carry a potential killed disease from Saudi Arabia to the USA in a matter of hours and not be stopped and taken off the plan and all on the flight put in isolation?)

The passenger, who is not a UK national, was on British Airways Flight 262 from Riyadh to London, and transferred at Heathrow for onward travel to the USA, where they were later hospitalised with suspected MERS-CoV.

 

The risk of the infection being passed to other passengers on Flight 262 is extremely low. However, as a precautionary measure, Public Health England has contacted UK passengers who were sitting in the vicinity of the affected passenger to provide health information.

 

Any UK based passengers on Flight 262 on April 24 who have since become unwell or experienced respiratory symptoms, such as shortness of breath are advised to contact NHS 111.

 

PHE will also work with the US health authorities to contact any UK passengers on the April 24 onward flight from London to Chicago, American Airlines Flight 99.

via Avian Flu Diary: England: PHE Press Release On MERS Case Transiting London.

Maronite patriarch to make historic Jerusalem trip | Maan News Agency

The patriarch of the Maronite church will travel to Jerusalem next month to greet Pope Francis, the first head of his Lebanon-based denomination to visit since Israel’s creation in 1948, he said Friday.

“The pope is going to the Holy Land and Jerusalem. He is going to the diocese of the patriarch, so it’s normal that the patriarch should welcome him,” Beshara Rai told AFP by telephone from France.

Rai’s visit is diplomatically noteworthy because Lebanon remains technically at war with Israel and bans its citizens from entering the country.

via Maronite patriarch to make historic Jerusalem trip | Maan News Agency.

Laundering the Russian Invasion of Ukraine · Global Voices

In other words, the Kremlin might project its power into Ukraine’s mainland by encouraging, and perhaps arming, Crimean militia, who in turn would advance on Slaviansk. In theory, Moscow might succeed, if only semantically, in “laundering” an armed intervention in this way.

What follows is the video and a full translation of the public address by the supposed Crimean militia leader, which was published on YouTube today.

via Laundering the Russian Invasion of Ukraine · Global Voices.

US terror report details ‘price tag’ violence by Israeli settlers – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

September 2012, Minister of Internal Security Yitzhak Aharonovitch announced the establishment of a new police unit to counter settler violence and called for a “zero-tolerance policy against terror, the desecration of Islamic religious institutions, attacks on symbols of governance and attacks commonly known as ‘price tag.’”

“We know who are committing these acts and plan to make more arrests shortly. We intend on putting these criminals behind bars,” Aharonovitch said while visiting the mosque in the Israeli Arab village Fureidis, the site of one recent such attack. “These are a bunch of criminals taking the law into their own hands. Most of them are in Judea and Samaria, are part of the extreme right and we know who most of them are.”

via US terror report details ‘price tag’ violence by Israeli settlers – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Cintas chief takes up growth, race | www.journal-news.com

“Yes, a lot of progress has been made in Middletown and America, but … things come up like a pro basketball owner who makes very negative comments related to race, or a Texas rancher who wonders aloud if African Americans were better off as slaves, or we have a Treyvon Martin situation or we have voter suppression laws coming into play,” he said. “Any number of issues just remind us that, unfortunately, no we haven’t moved into this more idealistic, post-racial or racism phase.”

via Cintas chief takes up growth, race | www.journal-news.com.

DR Congo’s Red Light to Invention – Inter Press Service

“There are several robots in the world, but that one which regulates traffic is made in Congo,” Thérèse Izayi, a female engineer and the Congolese inventor of two very unusual traffic signals, tells IPS.

Situated at an intersection on Triumphal Boulevard, near the Democratic Republic of Congo’s parliament in the capital, Kinshasa, the 2.5-metre traffic signal looks like an actual robot — with arms, legs, a chest and a head.

The breastplate pivots as the lights on it change from green to red. Then, it raises its arm to stop the traffic on one road, allowing vehicles from another to pass. The talking robot — it speaks both French and the local Lingala language — instructs: “Drivers, you can leave the road to pedestrians.”

It is made from aluminium to withstand high temperatures and humidity, and the heavy rains of this equatorial climate. There are cameras by its eyes and on its shoulders, which continuously film the traffic. It is also solar-powered to ensure its independence from electricity.

via DR Congo’s Red Light to Invention – Inter Press Service.

“For Tennessee lawmakers, punishing pregnant women is more important than protecting fetal life.”

As I mentioned yesterday, Tennessee has officially become the first state in the country to criminalize drug use during pregnancy. The new law, which was signed by the Governor yesterday despite the best efforts of reproductive justice advocates, holds pregnant people criminally liable for harm caused to their fetuses or newborns.

Over at The Nation, Michelle Goldberg points out that, in addition to being just generally terrible for the health of both pregnant people and fetuses, the law could lead to more abortions — since folks who have used drugs during pregnancy may opt to terminate (which, lest we forget, is still totally legal) instead of risking up to 15 years in prison. In fact, that was a concern expressed by at least some anti-choicers when the legislature was considering the bill.

But, as Goldberg notes, apparently most ultimately chose to prioritize punishing pregnant people over protecting fetal life. Which, given that anti-choicers consistently oppose things, like birth control and comprehensive sex-ed, that would reduce abortion rates, is hardly surprising — but telling nonetheless.

via “For Tennessee lawmakers, punishing pregnant women is more important than protecting fetal life.”.

Live poultry markets to be closed in S China – Headlines, features, photo and videos from ecns.cn|china|news|chinanews|ecns|cns

{They do not all need to be frozen – poultry is cold shipped all over the US and not frozen – they could do the same and “lose” little flavor and gain less flu and deaths from flu} According to the food safety administration, all poultry in the three districts will be slaughtered at appointed slaughterhouses and frozen before going to markets.

The centralized slaughter of poultry will be implemented over the entire city in October.

He Jianfeng, chief expert at Guangdong’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the centralized system will reduce the number of people who have contact with live poultry and will help lower the risk of being infected with bird flu.

“Many business owners mix their poultry, including chickens, ducks, geese, quails and doves in the coops in markets,” he said, which raises the risk of infection.

“Banning live poultry in local markets is of great significance in preventing bird flu from spreading, which has a high annual incidence of flu in winter and spring,” he added.

via Live poultry markets to be closed in S China – Headlines, features, photo and videos from ecns.cn|china|news|chinanews|ecns|cns.

First Nations Film & Video Festival Returns for Spring in Chicago

Ma

y 2, 2014 – The first day of the festival will be a daylong event at two sites, the downtown “Loop” and the historic Uptown neighborhood, and two feature length films. Beginning the day at the Illinois State Museum, there will be an afternoon series of short films and a screening of “The Cherokee Word for Water” in the Chicago Gallery.  ”The Cherokee Word for Water” chronicles the journey of Wilma Mankiller to become Chief of the Cherokee Nation and how the Cherokee people used traditional Native values to work together to solve a problem, the Bell Waterline Project.

via First Nations Film & Video Festival Returns for Spring in Chicago.