Hotel Boycott Grows Over Brunei Penal Code – NYTimes.com

The response here to the planned imposition of Islamic law in Brunei, with extreme penalties for adultery and gay sex, has become more pointed in recent days as two Hollywood-related charities moved events from the Beverly Hills Hotel, which is owned by the Brunei Investment Agency.

According to the Deadline Hollywood news site, a fund-raiser on Wednesday for the youth organization Teen Line will be moved from the hotel to the Sony lot in Culver City, Calif. The event will honor Amy Pascal, co-chairwoman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Jenny Pascal, her sister.

Separately, the Hollywood Reporter wrote that the annual “Night Before the Oscars” fund-raiser for the Motion Picture and Television Fund, usually held at the Beverly Hills Hotel, will now be held elsewhere.

The sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, last week began phasing in a new penal code based on Islamic law, or Shariah, that by 2015 will make gay sex and adultery punishable by stoning to death. The sultan’s investment agency owns the Dorchester Collection, which manages a chain of hotels that includes the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Hotel Bel-Air and other luxury hotels.

via Hotel Boycott Grows Over Brunei Penal Code – NYTimes.com.

MERS in America: Importation ≠ Secondary Transmission

Mens et Manus

Since MERS landed in the United States, there have been a lot of questions about what the disease exactly is and whether or not it’s dangerous. In short, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome is an infectious disease that exhibits high case fatality rates; seems to prefer individuals with pre-existing conditions; and most likely finds its origins in camels. But today, I want to talk about how likely it is that we’ll be facing an outbreak here in the US anytime soon.

The answer? Most likely no.

This is not the first time MERS has hitched a ride on a plane and found itself far from home. We’ve seen imported cases pop up in the UK, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and several others. If you’re curious about the exact numbers, click through the map below to an interactive visualization of MERS around the world:
MERS Around the World82% of cases that have occurred since…

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Protection against filovirus (ebola) diseases by a novel broad-spectrum nucleoside analogue BCX4430 : Nature : Nature Publishing Group

  1. Good and bad – the researchers know what they are doing but Ft. Detrick is also the place were nerve gas was tested and developed. The close ties between testing for cures and for militarizing things troubles more than a few people.

(Very shortly now, I expect rumors will begin that these labs or someone else is behind the MERS-CoV epidemic in Saudi Arabia and UAE)

Most importantly, BCX4430 completely protects cynomolgus macaques from Marburg virus infection when administered as late as 48 hours after infection. In addition, BCX4430 exhibits broad-spectrum antiviral activity against numerous viruses, including bunyaviruses, arenaviruses, paramyxoviruses, coronaviruses and flaviviruses. This is the first report, to our knowledge, of non-human primate protection from filovirus disease by a synthetic drug-like small molecule.

via Protection against filovirus diseases by a novel broad-spectrum nucleoside analogue BCX4430 : Nature : Nature Publishing Group.

Who did the research?

  1. Division of Molecular and Translational Sciences, Therapeutic Discovery Center, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), Fort Detrick, Maryland 21702, USA

    • Travis K. Warren,
    • Jay Wells,
    • Rekha G. Panchal,
    • Kelly S. Stuthman,
    • Nicole L. Garza,
    • Sean A. Van Tongeren,
    • Lian Dong,
    • Cary J. Retterer,
    • Brett P. Eaton,
    • Gianluca Pegoraro,
    • Shelley Honnold,
    • Lisa S. Welch &
    • Sina Bavari
  2. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc., Durham, North Carolina 27703, USA

    • Shanta Bantia,
    • Pravin Kotian,
    • Xilin Chen,
    • Brian R. Taubenheim,
    • Yarlagadda S. Babu &
    • William P. Sheridan
  3.  

IRIN Middle East | Alert over spike in Middle East flu virus | Egypt | Israel | Iraq | Jordan | Lebanon | Libya | Oman | OPT | Syria | United Arab Emirates | Yemen | Early Warning | Flu | Health & Nutrition

Last month some 400 passengers from an Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi to Manila were called in for testing by the Philippines Ministry of Health after it was discovered one person on board had been diagnosed with MERS-CoV in the UAE, but had left the country before his results were known.

via IRIN Middle East | Alert over spike in Middle East flu virus | Egypt | Israel | Iraq | Jordan | Lebanon | Libya | Oman | OPT | Syria | United Arab Emirates | Yemen | Early Warning | Flu | Health & Nutrition.

Special Edition: Bassem Sabry (1982 – 2014)

Nervana

Bassem Photo

Egypt has lost one of its best bloggers, and democracy activists, Bassem Sabry. He was mourned by many across the globe.

Few thoughts about my friend Bassem

 I still feel numb. I have struggled to write since the tragic passing of Bassem Sabry. I kept reading one tribute after another; all were poignant, accurately describing the wonderful human being Bassem was ___ all made me more tearful and more numb.

 Tragic, sudden death is no stranger to me. As a child, my father passed away suddenly, and I had to endure my mother wearing mourning garments for seven successive years…

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Photos: Domestic Workers Celebrate Labor Day

Hummus For Thought

As previously written , today was the final day of the 3-day Workers’ Day Parade and Festival celebrating Labor day organized by the  Anti-Racism MovementFi Chi Ghalat , and various other NGOs. For the Facebook Album, click here .

All Photos are under a Creative Commons license (use if you want but please credit me.)

First, we marched

from Dora to Mar Mikhael (random order).

Then, we rested

at Mar Mikhael Train Station

And then, we celebrated

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Guinea’s Ebola death toll rises to 81 – Xinhua | English.news.cn

CONAKRY, May 4 (Xinhua) — The Ebola virus has killed 81 people out of 127 confirmed cases in Guinea so far this year, according to a latest update from the Guiean Health Ministry.

Guinean Health Ministry official Sakoba Keita said as of May 2, six new cases were reported in the West African country, with one in capital Conakry and five in the southeast town of Guekedou, the epicenter of the epidemic.

First discovered in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks in Sudan and in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), the Ebola virus was named after the Ebola River where the DR Congo outbreak was found in a nearby village.

via Guinea’s Ebola death toll rises to 81 – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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