UK clinics refuse to pay for toxic breast implant removal

Cosmetic surgery clinics have failed to offer free replacement of breast implants at the centre of major health concerns to the vast majority of the women who have them.

The vast majority of clinics which fitted the devices made made by Poly Implants Prostheses (PIP) failed to match the pledge by Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, that any implanted by NHS hospitals would be replaced if that was what women wanted.

While some firms which carried out small numbers of operations have fallen into line, the Harley Medical Group and the Transform Medical Group, two companies which between them used the implants in more than 47,000 operations offered no such pledge.

Transform said offering free removals would put them out of business. The company is offering operations to replace them at a cost price of £2,800.

Nigel Robertson, its chief executive, said: “If this catastrophic situation was our fault we would deserve to go out of business and I would hold my hands up.”

Patients were last night advised by the Department of Health to seek legal advice in the wake of its key report into the PIP scandal. more

Iran: Bold Lie Turns High-Seas Run-In Into Dramatic Rescue

Late on Thursday afternoon, as the American destroyer Kidd loomed alongside this hijacked Iranian dhow, the warship’s loudspeaker issued a command in Urdu to the dhow’s frightened Urdu-speaking crew. American sailors stood ready, weapons in hand.

If you have weapons aboard, the voice boomed, put them where we can see them, on the roof of your wheelhouse.

Fifteen Somali pirates were also on board Al Mulahi, crouched and cornered on the very vessel they had seized in November to use as their mother ship. They had knives, a pistol and four assault rifles. But they did not speak Urdu. For a moment, the captors depended on their captives. They asked their Iranian hostages what the American sailors had just said.

One of the hostages, Khaled Abdulkhaled, answered without pause: “They said they are about to blow this ship up.”

The pirates panicked. Their unity broke down. Each man hoped, variously, to surrender, find cover or hide. Discarding their weapons, nine of them crammed into a small hold beneath the wheelhouse. Six more huddled near the open bow.

Soon, armed American sailors climbed aboard. They spotted the six Somalis on the bow, who did not resist. As more of the boarding team swarmed over the side, the Iranian hostages pointed to where the remaining pirates were hiding. The sailors pulled those men out, one by one, into the light and forced them face down onto the deck.

Al Mulahi was secured. The Iranian hostages had been saved without a shot being fired. more

Note: One can only wonder if that was the only bold lie told that day.

Yellowstone Bighorn Sheep struck down by Pneumonia

The Associated Press is reporting that a bighorn sheep lamb in Yellowstone National Park has pneumonia.

Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks has been tracking sheep in the Gardiner area just north of Yellowstone National Park since reports of coughing bighorn were given to them in early December. In response FWP has killed 5 sheep but it appears that pneumonia has spread into Yellowstone National Park where there is a larger population of bighorn sheep.

The article also mentions that FWP speculates that the pneumonia may have been contracted from domestic sheep. Hopefully more details will emerge but this is potentially very bad news for the bighorn sheep of Yellowstone National Park.

For those unfamiliar with this issue, domestic sheep carry organisms which can result in deadly pneumonia among bighorn sheep. Read More

Passer-by in Indian city was scalped by a ferocious jungle leopard - WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

A fully grown leopard attacked and injured four people after it strayed into a residential area in the north-east Indian city of Guwahati today.

The locals were seriously wounded by the leopard after it ran into a house on the busy Nabagraha Road in a central residential neighbourhood of Silphukhuri.

An auto rickshaw driver managed to cage the panicked leopard inside the house, which was kept locked until forest department officials arrived and sedated the animal.

Eyewitness Nipu Das said: "We were simply shocked and stunned to find the leopard inside the house and soon the cat started attacking."

One of the injured was admitted to hospital with injuries to his head and face.

The leopard was taken for observation at the Assam State Zoo in Guwahati.

"We believe the cat strayed into the area from a nearby hillock, maybe in search of food," a forest department official said.

The hills around Guwahati are covered in dense jungle. Read More

5.7 Magnitude Earthquake KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION - 7th Jan 2012

A magnitude 5.7 earthquake has struck the Kermadec Islands at a depth of 20.3 km (12.6 miles), the quake hit at 18:37:59 UTC Saturday 7th January 2012
The epicenter was 258 km (160 miles) East of Raoul Island, Kermadec Islands
No Tsunami Warning Issued - No Reports of Injuries or Damage at this time

Note: USGS has this earthquake listed as a 5.5 Magnitude - EMSC has it listed as a 5.7 Magnitude

Station Measurements

LHI - 6.0 Magnitude
KNTN - 6.3 Magnitude
ARMA - 5.4 Magnitude
EIDS - 5.5 Magnitude
HNR- 6.4 Magnitude
CAN - 6.0 Magnitude
CMSA - 5.9 Magnitude
QLP - 5.7 Magnitude
CTA - 5.9 Magnitude
CTAO - 5.9 Magnitude

Royal Navy dispatches new £1bn destroyer to the Gulf as Britain sends a clear signal to Iran that trade route WILL stay open

The Royal Navy's newest and most advanced ship is being sent to the Gulf for her first mission amid heightened tensions with Iran over threats by Tehran to block a busy shipping lane.

The Type 45 destroyer HMS Daring, which has a 'stealth' futuristic design to help avoid detection, is to join the British presence in the region, the Ministry of Defence confirmed.

The dispatch of the ship comes days after Defence Secretary Philip Hammond warned the regime that any attempt to block the Strait of Hormuz would be 'illegal and unsuccessful' and would be countered militarily if necessary.

Scheduled to leave Portsmouth next Wednesday, the £1 billion destroyer, also carries the world's most sophisticated naval radar, capable of tracking multiple incoming threats from missiles to fighter jets.

The vessel has been fitted with new technology that will give it the ability to shoot down any missile in Iran's armoury, according to The Telegraph. Read More

For years, YOU'VE paid their £2,000-a-week rents. But the housing benefit gravy train is about to stop.... I will believe that when I see it

At the kitchen table, two pretty girls giggle as they draw pictures with crayons. On the wall are posters listing their times-tables, while in the corner, the family’s tropical fish, Bubbles and Tiger, swim in a heated aquarium.

But this happy domestic scene is threatened with upheaval because, in nine days’ time, the Rostant family - two parents, eight children and their pet fish - may be homeless.

Until now, the family have been one of four families claiming the highest amount of housing benefit in the country.

Their £2,000-a-week rent (more than £103,200 a year, given to the landlord) has been paid by taxpayers. But the money is to be stopped as the result of the Government’s crackdown, which began this week, on the long-running scandal of housing benefit abuse (which costs the working public a staggering £20billion a year). Read More

4.7 Magnitude Earthquake BABUYAN ISLANDS REGION, PHILIPPINES - 7th Jan 2012

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake has struck the Babuyan Islands Region at a depth of 43.8 km (27.2 miles), the quake hit at 18:01:01 UTC Saturday 7th January 2012
The epicenter was 132 km (82 miles) NNE of Laoag, Luzon, Philippines
No Tsunami Warning Issued - No Reports of Injuries or Damage at this time

4.8 Magnitude Earthquake IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION - 7th Jan 2012

A magnitude 4.8 earthquake has struck the Izu Islands, Japan Region at a depth of 155.1 km (96.4 miles), the quake hit at 17:56:13 UTC Saturday 7th January 2012
The epicenter was 175 km (109 miles) SSE from Hachijo-Jima, Izu Islands, Japan
No Tsunami Warning Issued - No Reports of Injuries or Damage at this time

Haiti cholera epidemic kills 7,000 and Sickened MORE than 520.000

Image: Haiti 2012

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Cholera has killed at least 7,000 people and sickened more than 520,000 in Haiti two years after a devastating earthquake struck the country, officials said.

The cholera outbreak in Haiti is "one of the largest epidemics of the disease in modern history to affect a single country," the U.N. World Health Organization's Pan-American Health Organization said in a news release.

Jon Andrus, the PAHO deputy director, said about 200 new cholera cases a day are reported in Haiti and the number will increase during the coming rainy season, which begins in April.

Andrus said in the U.N. release eliminating cholera will require "major investment" for decades to ensure safe water and sanitation for all residents.

The disease has spread from Haiti to the neighboring Dominican Republic, where 21,000 cases and 363 deaths from cholera have been reported, Andrus said.

The magnitude-7 Haiti earthquake, which struck 16 miles west of Port-au-Prince, and aftershocks killed an estimated 316,000 people and left 1.5 million people homeless, the Haitian government says. Many still live in tents and unsanitary conditions. Read More

VIDEO - 8 Months after the Haiti Earthquake

Haiti 2 years later: Half a million still in camps despite Billions being offered in Aid

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Days after the earthquake killed their little girl and destroyed much of their house, Meristin Florival and his family pitched a makeshift tent on a hill in the Haitian capital and called it home. Two years later they're still there, living without drains, running water or electricity.

A few kilometers (miles) away, Jean Rony Alexis has left the camp where he spent the months after the quake and moved into a shed-like shelter built on a concrete slab by the Red Cross. But he's not much better off. The annual rent charged by a landlord who lives in a nearby camp jumped from $312 to $375, and he too has no running water.

"This is misery," said Florival, whose 4-month-old daughter was crushed to death in the quake-stricken family home. "I don't see any benefits," said Alexis, whose shed is flooded with noise at night from a saloon next door that's appropriately named the "Frustration Bar."

The two men are among hundreds of thousands of Haitians whose lives have barely improved since those first days of devastation, when the death toll climbed toward 300,000 and the world opened its wallets in response.

While U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and others vowed that the world would help Haiti "build back better," and $2.38 billion has been spent, Haitians have hardly seen any building at all. Read More

5.9 Magnitude Earthquake EASTERN NEW GUINEA REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA - 7th Jan 2012

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake has struck the Eastern New Guinea Region, Papua New Guinea at a depth of 58.7 km (36.5 miles), the quake hit at 17:24:50 UTC Saturday 7th January 2012
The epicenter was 71 km (44 miles) West of Madang, New Guinea, Papua New Guinea
No Reports of Injuries or Damage at this time

Note; USGS has this earthquake listed as a 5.4 Magnitude and EMSC has this listed as 5.8 Magnitude.

Stations:

QLP - 5.1 Magnitude
SOEI - 5.9 Magnitude
KMSI - 6.1 Magnitude
LUWI - 6.2 Magnitude
APSI - 6.2 Magnitude
BASI - 6.3 Magnitude
WSI - 6.6 Magnitude
PCI - 5.9 Magnitude - Revises upgraded to 6.0 Magnitude

UPDATE: This earthquake has just been revised by EMSC and now listed as a 5.9 magnitude

UPDATE 2: EMSC has revised the earthquake again and now lists this earthquake as a 5.6 Magnitude. Station measurements are still as listed as above.