5.0 Magnitude Earthquake SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION - 3rd August 2012

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake has struck the SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION at a depth of 10.1 km (6.3 miles), the quake hit at 21:32:55 UTC Friday 3rd August 2012
The epicenter was 192 km (119 miles) NNW from Visokoi Island, South Sandwich Islands
No Tsunami Warning Issued - No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

Flu alert for Hunter: three deaths trigger quarantine lockdown, Australia

Quarantine restrictions are in place at two Hunter disability and aged care facilities after three people are suspected of dying from a strain of flu.

The deaths have prompted NSW opposition health spokesman Andrew McDonald to warn of a significant outbreak of influenza A, subtype H3N2.

More than 50 residents at Kanangra, in the grounds of Morisset Hospital, and Stockton Centre have been quarantined after showing symptoms of the potentially deadly flu.

It is understood the alarm was raised after two men, both in their 60s, from Kanangra, and a woman in her 40s, from Stockton, died in the past week after exhibiting flu-like symptoms.

The latest death occurred at Stockton yesterday and triggered the NSW Ministry of Health to intervene and place both facilities under lockdown.

Hunter New England public health physician David Durrheim said influenza A, H3N2, considered the dominant strand of flu in Australia, posed significant problems because the virus did not match the vaccine perfectly.

"Whereas with H1N1 the virus was perfectly matched to the vaccine, in this case it's drifted slightly," he said. Read More

GLAXOSMITHKLINE SHIPPING U.S. FLU VACCINE WITH NEW STRAIN ...Seems they timed it just right

GlaxoSmithKline [NYSE: GSK] announced today it has begun shipping the first lots of 2012-2013 FluLaval® (Influenza virus vaccine) and Fluarix® (Influenza Virus Vaccine) to CDC distribution centers and U.S. healthcare providers. This follows approval of this season's GSK seasonal influenza vaccines by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

FLULAVAL is approved for use in adults (18 years of age and older) to help protect against influenza disease caused by the virus subtypes A and B contained in the vaccine. FLUARIX is approved for use in adults and also children (3 years of age and older).

"The three strains of influenza virus in the seasonal influenza vaccine can change from year-to-year based on estimates of the strains that will circulate in the upcoming season," said Dr. Leonard Friedland, VP and Head, Clinical/Medical Affairs, GSK North America Vaccine Development. "This is a key reason why the CDC recommends everyone six months of age and older gets an influenza vaccination every year. For the 2012-2013 influenza season, two of the three strains have been changed compared to last year's formulation." Read More

CDC: Increase seen in new swine flu strain

(CNN) -- Health officials have seen an uptick in cases of a new strain of swine flu in humans.

According to the latest flu report published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 people have been infected with a new strain of an influenza A (H3N2) swine flu virus in just the past three weeks. Twelve of them were infected in the last full week of July.

Among those 12 newest cases, the CDC says 10 people were infected in Ohio; Indiana and Hawaii have reported one case each as well.

According to the CDC, so far a total of 29 people have been infected with this new H3N2 strain: 12 in 2011, one earlier in 2012 and 16 in the past three weeks.

Nobody was hospitalized this year, and only three of the 12 cases last year required hospitalization. Nobody has died from this new flu. Read More

Legionnaires' disease kills Quebec City woman, 14 infected‎

QUEBEC — An elderly woman has died from Legionnaires’ disease during a Quebec City outbreak that has caused 14 other cases.

Authorities suspect the cause might be the air-conditioning system in a large public building — although they haven’t identified the building yet.

The regional public-health authority has sent a notice to the owners of all large buildings within a 1.5-kilometre area to clean their cooling towers.

It believes the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ developed in the stagnant water in one of those towers, connected to the air-conditioning system.

Legionnaires’ disease is contracted by breathing in small droplets of water contaminated with the Legionella bacteria. The symptoms are similar to those of flu, including coughs, fever and chills.

The disease is not contagious and cannot be transmitted from one person to another. It presents little or no risk to most people, although elderly people are more vulnerable.

Radio-Canada reports that the victim is an 88-year-old woman. Source

Possibly rabid beaver attacks 2 at Falls Lake‎, North Carolina

Image Credit: Steve Sbraccia for NBC-17

RALEIGH, N.C. --
A beaver recently attacked two people at Falls Lake, Wake County officials said. As a result, the pair are being treated for rabies.

"We had a beaver come into the designated swimming area,” said Park Superintendent Scott Kershner. “It bit at least one person and came at or bit aggressively against another one.”

Park staff moved quickly to assess the attack.

“One person was taken to the hospital and the others injuries were more minor and advised to just seek medical attention,” explained Kershner.

Meanwhile the beaver slipped back into the murky waters of Falls Lake.

Within 24 hours, there was a second incident which had all the characteristics associated with a rabid animal. Read More

100 evacuated from store after major gas leak‎, Scotland

A BUSY supermarket, doctor’s surgery and an industrial estate all had to be evacuated following a major gas leak in Musselburgh.

Tesco at Mall Avenue, Musselburgh Primary Care Centre and Inveresk Industrial Estate were emptied by emergency workers after a strong smell of gas was detected at 1pm yesterday.

The alert was caused after building contractors carrying out excavation work nearby damaged a pipe. Firefighters raced to the scene and police immediately erected a cordon closing off Bridge Street, Eskview and Mall Avenue.

The decision to close the industrial estate arose due to the wind blowing a large gas cloud in its direction. An 18-year-old Tesco worker suffered a panic attack, while over a hundred staff and customers fled the store. She said: “I was standing by the tills when everybody began to get a really strong smell of gas. It came from the building site next door. The bosses told everybody to evacuate the store, this is when I began to suffer a panic attack. I spent over an hour in the ambulance. I’m still feeling a little bit sick but getting better.”

Tesco shopper Craig Heaslip, 32, from Liberton, was filling his car with fuel when the call to evacuate was announced. Read More

Dysentery claims eight in Gorkha; 50 fall ill, Nepal

GORKHA: An outbreak of dysentery in the remotest and northmost VDC of Gorkha has claimed at least eight lives in the past two weeks. As many as 50 people have contracted the disease and condition of 21 is said to be critical.

Six of those succumbing to the disease were children, less than two years of age. The other two were identified as 65-year-old Chhyungdi Lama of Chhak and 64-year-old Phurbu Lama of Ghap in Prok VDC Ward No 7.

A police team from Larke Police Post has reached the outbreak-hit region to take stock of the situation. According to Inspector Gautam Mishra, the patients were complaining of headache, giddiness, stomachache and nausea.

"My mother was suffering from diarrhoea since Sunday morning, but she died in the evening," said Phurbu's son Dawa Lama.

Most of the residents of Chhak, Kwak and Ghap villages in Prok VDC have fallen ill since diarrhoea broke out in mid-July.

"The problem is we don't have health workers at local health facilities," said Tharpa Lama, an assistant at Namrung health post. "Even Larke Bazaar health post is sans health workers." Read More

9 Ohio swine flu cases confirmed, linked to fair

CINCINNATI (AP) — Health officials investigating illnesses linked to a southwest Ohio county fair confirmed a strain of swine flu in nine cases Thursday and said it matches the virus that infected several people recently at an Indiana fair.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed an H3N2 variant flu virus in nine of 10 suspected Ohio cases. Testing is pending in the tenth case. Symptoms of the virus infection include cough, sore throat, fever, body aches and possible nausea and diarrhea.

The 10 were among as many as 41 people — all but two of them children — who became sick with symptoms like those of swine flu and whose illnesses were linked to the Butler County Fair, which ended last weekend. No hospitalizations have been reported.

Ohio Department of Health spokesman Robert Jennings said it is possible more people may be tested as local health officials gather more information.

In 2009, the World Health Organization declared the H1N1 strain of swine flu the first global flu pandemic in 40 years. Investigation showed the H1N1 was lethal mostly to those with complicating circumstances. It is now considered a seasonal flu and included in the flu vaccine. People have rarely contracted the flu from pigs in recent years. Read More

Haunted pizzeria caught on camera

Security camera footage from a pizza restaurant in Louisiana in the U.S. purports to show the existence of ghosts. Lori Evans, an employee of Stocky’s Pizza in Haughton, Louisiana, discovered that objects were not in the place she left them the night before.

She said: “When I came in the next morning, I found both of these ice scoops across the room over on the floor, the Tabasco sauce hidden behind the back, out there (on the kitchen floor).”

When she checked the security camera, she saw objects moving in a strange manner. She saw the ice scoop standing up and then crashing to the floor at 6 a.m. when nobody was in the kitchen.

The fallen objects had been in secure places, such as the top of a microwave and on a flat rubber mat.

The phenomenon has been happening for weeks. When Evans was asked about the cause, she answered, “Something out of this world.” Source Korea Herald

Zevulun Orlev: Jewish Home MK calls for a Third Temple in Jerusalem

MK Zevulun Orlev of the Jewish Home party has called for massive reforms, including new Basic Laws, in order to establish a Third Temple in Jerusalem.

In an article published in advance of the fast of Tisha B’Av in the weekly Hebrew journal Olam Katan, entitled “Internal and Legislative Reform,” Orlev wrote that the Temple must be rebuilt in Jerusalem and that “fundamental changes” to Israeli society and government were necessary in order to realize the success of the project.

Besides spiritual reform and the creation of a cadre of religious experts capable of running the Temple, Orlev argued that the government — “assuming the government will choose to be democratic” — must turn back dissent surrounding the project.

“It will be necessary to defeat no-confidence motions, to overcome the hostile, left-wing, secular media, and to ignore eye-rolling economists who will say it’s a waste of public funds,” he wrote.

To forestall appeals to the High Court of Justice, Orlev advocated the legislation of a new Basic Law that would guarantee funding and manpower and protect the Third Temple from prosecution.

“The law will also protect the [Third Temple] project from accusations of discrimination, inequality of women in the Temple service, and animal cruelty in the offering of sacrifices,” Orlev continued.

Orlev acknowledged that to remove the ”religious and political impediment” to his plan, namely the presence of the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock atop the Temple Mount, would mean that the “billion-strong Muslim world would surely launch a world war.” However, he added, “everything political is temporary and there is no stability,” and ”Of late we’re witnessed dramatic political changed that have occurred in many Arab countries.” more

US to oppose plans for UN control of the internet

The US has confirmed it will resist efforts by China, Russia and their allies to put the internet under the control of the United Nations.

The confirmation came in a statement issued by the US Department of State on US proposals to be submitted to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in December.

The WCIT, convened by the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU), will review and potentially revise the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs) set in 1988.

As part of that review, some ITU members are seeking to establish for the first time ITU dominion over important functions of multi-stakeholder internet governance entities such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).

"The US is concerned that proposals by some other governments could lead to greater regulatory burdens being placed on the international telecom sector, or perhaps even extended to the internet sector - a result the US would oppose," the US statement said. Read More

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Carole Waugh Murder: Body Confirmed As Oil Executive

A body found in a lock-up garage in New Malden, southwest London, has been formally identified as missing oil executive Carole Waugh.

Police have also confirmed that a post-mortem examination found that Ms Waugh had suffered a single stab wound. Further tests will take place to establish the exact cause of death.

The body was discovered in a blue Volkswagen Golf in a lock-up garage in Lime Court at 7pm on Thursday. Sky sources said the body was in the boot of the vehicle.

Ms Waugh, 50, an oil executive originally from Durham, had not been seen since mid-April.

Earlier this week, a 47-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of kidnap and conspiracy to defraud and subsequently on suspicion of murder. The suspect is in custody at a police station in south London.

Police are appealing for information about the car the body was found in. Read More

4.6 Magnitude Earthquake ATACAMA, CHILE - 3rd August 2012

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake has struck ATACAMA, CHILE at a depth of 61.7 km (38.3 miles), the quake hit at 20:48:02 UTC Friday 3rd August 2012
The epicenter was 174 km (108 miles) NNE from Copiapo, Chile
No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

4.6 Magnitude Earthquake BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - 3rd August 2012

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake has struck BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINABOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), the quake hit at 19:57:26 UTC Friday 3rd August 2012
The epicenter was 13 km (8 miles) Southwest of Glamoc, Bosnia and Herzegovina
No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

4.6 Magnitude Earthquake ALASKA PENINSULA - 3rd August 2012

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake has struck the ALASKA PENINSULA at a depth of 13.8 km (8.6 miles), the quake hit at 19:02:56 UTC Friday 3rd August 2012
The epicenter was 45 km (28 miles) SSW of from Ugashik, Alaska
No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

Two cyclones strike Chinese coast

Hong Kong (CNN) -- Two tropical cyclones have made landfall in eastern China, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from coastal areas as the Philippines and Taiwan assess the damage that one of the storms left in its wake.

Tropical Storm Saola plowed into the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian on Friday morning, after the torrential rain and strong wind it brought to parts of the Philippines and Taiwan had left more than 40 people dead.

Saola arrived hours after Typhoon Damrey had reached the Chinese coast farther north in Jiangsu Province. The last time two powerful storms struck China in such quick succession was in 2006, according to CNNI Meteorologist Jennifer Delgado. Read More

'Ebola prisoner' escapes from hospital, Uganda

Kagadi, Uganda (CNN) -- One of five prisoners receiving treatment for a suspected case of Ebola virus in Uganda escaped overnight Friday from the hospital at the center of the outbreak, a health official said.

"Should his results come back and he is positive, that causes us a lot of worry. So right now, we have resolved that the remaining prisoners will be cuffed on the beds for fear that they might also escape," said Dr. Jackson Amune, commissioner at the Ministry of Health.

The inmates from Kibaale prison are among 30 people at Kagadi hospital with suspected cases of the virus. Two additional patients have confirmed cases, according to Doctors Without Borders.

The prisoners have been showing Ebola-like symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea and fever, Dr. Dan Kyamanywa said Thursday. Read More