Salon.com > David Trifunov

Brace for bird flu in the U.S.

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Brace for bird flu in the United States, authorities told health-care workers on Thursday, as China announced 92 confirmed cases of the new, mysterious H7N9 strain of the illness.

Hospitals and clinics should be vigilant for people exhibiting flu-like symptoms who have traveled from China, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The CDC also issued on Thursday “interim guidance” regarding the use of antiviral drugs in treating the disease.

There is no vaccine available for this strain of H7N9 avian flu, the CDC said, although it cautioned that the measures it is taking are routine.

While there is little evidence the disease is easily transmitted from poultry to humans, experts are watching the new strain closely because of its sudden arrival.

Because the strain is considered “novel,” or non-human, the threat of pandemic remains high should the disease mutate and spread between people.

China declares war on Apple

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 22:55:00 +0000

HONG KONG, China — The Chinese are no exception when it comes to Apple users' loyalty, and they’re coming to the iPhone maker’s defense following a widespread state media campaign accusing the Cupertino, Calif. company of greed and arrogance.

One of the latest salvos came in an op-ed today in the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily that ripped into the computer company under the headline "Destroy Apple's Unparalleled Arrogance."

It accuses Apple of "Westerners' traditional sense of superiority" in its policies toward China. Although China requires all companies to offer two-year warranties for thier products, Apple has only a one-year global warranty for its devices, according to People's Daily.

The article denounces Apple for being greedy, profit-driven, and "arrogant" in what Beijing commentator Bill Bishop calls a "fairly nasty nationalist tone."

The op-ed comes on the heels of other anti-Apple news reports and editorial cartoons in state-run media.

Sprinter withdraws from Olympics

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 21:19:00 +0000

Debbie Dunn, a US Olympic sprinter, has withdrawn from the 2012 Summer Games in London after a positive drug test, The Chicago Tribune reported.

The 34-year-old Dunn tested positive for elevated testosterone-epitestosterone levels – indicating possible anabolic steroid use – at the recent US Olympic trials in Eugene, Ore.

After a fourth-place finish in the 400 meters at the trials, she was part of a group of athletes that would likely form the 4x400-relay team.

“While I work with USADA to resolve this matter, I am withdrawing from my relay pool position for the 2012 Olympic Games,” Dunn’s statement to The Tribune said. “I do not want any issue like this to distract from my teammates’ focus for the biggest meet of their lives. I wish Team USA best in London as I work toward resolving this matter.”

The USADA said it’s now examining Dunn’s “B” sample to verify the positive test.

Hitler spared Jewish comrade

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 14:30:00 +0000

Adolph Hitler intervened to save a former Jewish comrade, his commanding officer from their First World War regiment, the Jewish Voice from Germany reported.

The newspaper unearthed a letter from SS commander Heinrich Himmler giving certain freedoms to Ernst Hess.

After Nazi strongmen beat Hess in 1936, he appealed to Hitler, Reuters reported.

Hitler spared Hess from persecution or deportation.

A letter from Himmler said that “as per the Führer’s wishes” Hess was “not to be inopportuned in any way whatsoever.”

Hess earned the Iron Cross as well as the Bavarian Military Order of Merit for his time with the 2nd Royal Bavarian Reserve Infantry and served briefly as Hitler’s company commander, the Jewish Voice said.

He became a judge after the First World War, but left Germany temporarily for the German-speaking region of Tyrol, Italy, for his daughter’s sake.

Army tests lightning weapon

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 14:35:00 +0000

Not only is it effective, think about the psychological impact of sending a bolt of lightning at your enemies.

Perhaps that’s why US Army researchers are so excited about recent successful tests of a laser-guided lightning-bolt weapon.

“We never got tired of the lightning bolts zapping our simulated (targets),” project leader George Fischer said.

They tested the weapon at the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey.

They call it a Laser-Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC), and it mimics lightning rather than harnessing it, Live Science reported.

Fischer said that lightning travels the path of least resistance, so researchers found a method that allows the charge to travel along the laser beam.

The laser’s electro-magnetic field uses electrons to create a “plasma pathway” for the lightning.

The likely, unlucky targets could be anything that conducts electricity better than the ground, say tanks, vehicles or other weapons.

Egypt parliament dissolved

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 02:24:00 +0000

Egypt's Supreme Court issued two rulings today likely to sink that country into further political turmoil, first allowing a former military commander to run for president and then dissolving Parliament.

The court said the lower house of Parliament must be dissolved and new elections held because of violations during a vote earlier this year, Reuters reported.

“The ruling regarding Parliament includes the dissolution of the lower house of Parliament in its entirety because the law upon which the elections were held is contrary to rules of the constitution,” Farouk Soltan, leader of the Supreme Court, told Reuters.

Egypt's presidential elections continue on Saturday.

CNN is reporting that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took over after the ousting of Hosni Mubarak, said it will form a 100-person assembly to write a new constitution by Friday.

Earlier, the court ruled that former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq can continue his bid for presidency in a contest against Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Teacher calls Toulouse shooter a “victim”

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:35:00 +0000

A French high school teacher faces disciplinary action after she urged students to observe a minute of silence for Mohammed Merah, the man who shot and killed three students outside a Jewish school in Toulouse this week, AFP reported.

On a day when France observed a minute of silence for the children and his four adult victims, the country’s education minister, Luc Chatel, said the teacher should be suspended.

The teacher is said to have called Merah a victim, and media and French President Nicolas Sarkozy invented his links to the terrorist organization Al Qaeda, AFP said.

Police shot and killed Merah on Thursday after a 32-hour standoff in Toulouse. He’s believed to have gunned down the three children and a rabbi outside a Jewish school, as well as killing three French soldiers earlier.

Marriage problems? PTSD?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:49:00 +0000

The U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians Sunday was drinking and stressed from a failing marriage the night he went on his alleged rampage, The New York Times reported.

Quoting an anonymous U.S. government source, The Times said the 38-year-old staff sergeant was on his fourth tour of duty.

“When it all comes out, it will be a combination of stress, alcohol and domestic issues — he just snapped,” the source said, according to The Times.

The suspect could be flown to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., after the Kuwaiti government “blew a gasket” when it learned the suspect was in the country, the official told The Times.

In Seattle, the lawyer hired to represent the solider didn't rule out post-traumatic stress as a defense in the case, but he said the soldier’s marriage was “fabulous,” The Guardian said.