Monday, November 17, 2014

Bird flu is back: here's what you need to know

Vox.com


Ducks in cages are seen at a duck farm in Nafferton, northern England on Monday. The European Commission on Monday praised the action taken by Britain and the Netherlands to contain their respective cases of bird flu, saying all protocols had been followed. © Reuters/Phil Noble Ducks in cages are seen at a duck farm in Nafferton, northern England on Monday. The European Commission on Monday praised the action taken by Britain and the Netherlands to contain…
  1. European health officials have been killing off thousands of birds to contain outbreaks of bird flu in several countries that may or may not be related.
  2. Health officials are concerned because any time there's an outbreak in animals, there's the possibility that the virus could infect humans, leading to a flu pandemic.
  3. But you don't need to worry just yet: it seems the outbreaks don't involve H5N1, the bird-flu strain that is most dangerous for humans.

What's going on in Europe?

On Sunday November 16, a case of bird flu was found on a duck-breeding farm near Yorkshire, England.
Confirmation of the particular virus strain will come later this week, but officials so far said it's not the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain that can kill humans.
The news from England came just as Dutch officials announced that they had detected H5N8 bird flu at a poultry farm in the village of Hekendord. This strain is highly contagious and lethal to birds, but has never been found in humans.
Earlier this month, on November 4, the same H5N8 strain was found at a farm in northeastern Germany.
Now, scientists across Europe are collaborating to figure out how and whether these outbreaks are related.
The Dutch government has temporarily banned the transport of poultry and eggs and t he European Commission is expected to introduce other containment measures.

What is bird flu and how deadly is it?

Like humans, birds — from chickens to ducks and other wild poultry— get sick with the flu sometimes. When they do, bird flu virus can spread easily among them by way of respiratory secretions and feces, reaching epidemic proportions very quickly.
The reason experts worry so much about bird flu, however, is because it's an easily transmissible respiratory virus and some strains have managed to infect humans — with deadly outcomes.
Right now, bird flu has only rarely made people sick, and mostly involved very close contact with infected birds, and not human to human spread.
But there's the concern, whenever the virus surfaces,that it could makes the leap into humans and mutate to become more easily passed among people, leading to a pandemic. As the Guardian notes, "Pandemics have occurred every 20 to 30 years, but it has been almost 40 years since the last one happened."
Of all the bird flu strains, H5N1 is the one public-health experts worry about the most. It's believed to be the most dangerous form of bird flu, and it has caused serious outbreaks mostly among animals in Asia and the Middle East, as well as some 650 human cases since 2003.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most human cases of H5N1 virus have turned up in people who had direct contact with infected animals in Asia and 60 percent of those infected later died.

Should I be worried about the outbreaks in Europe?

Probably not. The outbreaks in Europe appear to involve strains of the virus that haven't been deadly in humans. The H5N8 strain in Germany has never infected humans, and health officials confirmed that the bird flu in England — while a form of H5 — is not the deadly H5N1 strain.
As well, officials have been working to contain spread, killing off birds that may have been infected, including some 6,000 ducks in England and, in the Netherlands, some 150,000 chickens.
Still, flu outbreaks can take health officials by surprise and there's still a lot we're learning about bird flu and how it spreads. What's more, the WHO has long warned that a pandemic could start off with just the scenario we're seeing now: infected birds on a farm. 

Modern slavery 'traps 35.8 million people'

AFP


Three freed women slaves hug their children after being rescued by authorities as they arrive in the town of Matli, northeast of Karachi, Pakistan, on September 13, 1998 © Provided by AFP Three freed women slaves hug their children after being rescued by authorities as they arrive in the town of Matli, northeast of Karachi, Pakistan, on September 13, 1998
Forced to pick cotton, grow cannabis, prostitute themselves, fight wars or clean up after the wealthy -- some 35.8 million people are currently trapped in modern-day slavery, a new report said Monday.
The 2014 Global Slavery Index (GSI), in its second annual report, said new methods showed some 20 percent more people were enslaved across the world than originally thought.
"There is an assumption that slavery is an issue from a bygone era. Or that it only exists in countries ravaged by war and poverty," said Andrew Forrest, chairman of the Australian-based Walk Free Foundation which produced the report.
The foundation's definition of modern slavery includes slavery-like practices such as debt bondage, forced marriage and the sale or exploitation of children, as well as human trafficking and forced labour.
The report, which covers 167 countries, said modern slavery contributed to the production of at least 122 goods from 58 countries.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates profits from this forced labour are $150 billion (120 billion euros) a year.
"From the Thai fisherman trawling fishmeal, to the Congolese boy mining diamonds, from the Uzbek child picking cotton, to the Indian girl stitching footballs... their forced labour is what we consume," read the report.
- Mauritania tops list -
The biggest offender, with the highest proportion of its population enslaved, remains the west African nation Mauritania, where slavery of black Moors by Berber Arabs is an entrenched part of society.
Mauritania has anti-slavery legislation but it is rarely enforced and a special tribunal set up in March has yet to prosecute any cases, the report said.
In second place was Uzbekistan where, every autumn, the government forces over one million people, including children, to harvest cotton.
Countries like Qatar in the Middle East were a major destination for men and women from Africa and Asia who are lured with promises of well-paid jobs only to find themselves exploited as domestic workers or in the construction industry.
The countries doing the most to combat the problem were the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States, Australia, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Georgia, and Austria.
- Austerity blamed -
Europe, while at the bottom of the list -- with Iceland and Ireland the best ranked -- has 566,000 people involved in forms of modern slavery, with people trafficked into Ireland to grow cannabis, or forced into begging in France.
"Trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation accounted for almost 70 percent of identified victims while trafficking for forced labour accounted for 19 percent," read the report.
"The global economic crisis and austerity measures of the EU have meant that increasing numbers of Bulgarians and Romanians migrate in search of highly paid jobs. Some of these workers can be tricked or coerced into situations of exploitation."
The highest numbers of modern slaves were found in India with an estimated 14.29 million enslaved.
However the Index said India had recently taken important steps to combat the problem, strengthening its criminal justice framework through legislative amendments and increasing the number of its Anti-Human Trafficking Police Units.
Africa faces some of the biggest challenges, the report said, with armed forces and rebel groups from Somalia to the Central African Republic using child soldiers to mineral-rich Zambia, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo forcing children and adults to "labour in dangerous mines."
Nigeria is a major source of human trafficking to Europe. In one example, Nigerian women get trapped in a cycle of debt bondage in the Italian sex industry.
"These findings show that modern slavery exists in every country. We are all responsible for the most appalling situations where modern slavery exists and the desperate misery it brings upon our fellow human beings," said Forrest.

Man pushed to his death under New York subway

AFP


People wait for the Subway on October 24, 2014 in New York City © Provided by AFP People wait for the Subway on October 24, 2014 in New York City
A 61-year-old man was killed Sunday in New York when he was pushed onto subway tracks by an unknown assailant, said police, who released a video of the suspect.
The incident took place in the Bronx, where the victim, identified as Wai Kuen Kwok, was waiting for the D train, at the 167th street stop, with his wife. The couple were headed to Chinatown, in lower Manhattan.
The suspect pushed the man from the platform just as a train arrived in the station, shortly before 9:00 am (1400 GMT), as his horrified wife watched helplessly.
The victim and his attacker did not appear to know each other and had not argued, witnesses said.
Police released a video of the suspected killer, who left the scene by bus. On the video, a man wearing a black jacket over a dark t-shirt gets off the bus, goes into a store, and emerges to smoke a cigarette as he ambles away.
A reward of $2,000 was offered for any information that could help the investigation.
Every year, dozens of people are killed by the subway in New York though accident or suicide.
However, this is first known incident of a person being pushed to his or her death on the tracks since December 2012, when two were killed in separate attacks.
On December 28, a woman pushed an Indian immigrant to his death in Queens.
Weeks earlier on December 3, a man was pushed from a stop in Manhattan during a fight with a deranged man.
A New York Post front page picture of the man on the tracks a split-second before he was killed by the oncoming train provoked public fury as to why no one helped him -- and why the tabloid newspaper published the photo.

American questioned for shipping human body parts

Associated Press

Thai police officer shows a picture of a tattooed human skin which was found in a package of a U.S. tourist, during a press conference at Bangpongpang police station in Bangkok,Thailand. Monday, Nov. 17, 2014. A shipping company in Bangkok put a trio of packages bound for the United States through a routine X-ray and made a startling discovery — inside were a variety of preserved human parts, including an infant's head, a baby's foot sliced into three sections and a tiny heart. © AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit Thai police officer shows a picture of a tattooed human skin which was found in a package of a U.S. tourist, during a press conference at Bangpongpang police station in Bangkok,Thailand. Monday, Nov. 17, 2014. A shipping company in… BANGKOK — A parcel delivery company in Bangkok put three packages bound for the United States through a routine X-ray and made a startling discovery: preserved human parts, including an infant's head, a baby's foot and an adult heart.
The body parts were stolen from the medical museums of one of Bangkok's biggest hospitals, its administrators said Monday.
Police Col. Chumpol Poompuang said the sender was a 31-year-old American tourist, Ryan McPherson, who told them he had he found the items at a Bangkok night market. Police tracked down McPherson after being alerted by the shipper, DHL.
"He said he thought the body parts were bizarre and wanted to send them to his friends in the U.S.," Chumpol said, adding that the man was questioned along with an American friend for several hours and released without charges.
It apparently was not the first brush with notoriety for McPherson and his friend, identified by police as Daniel Tanner, 33. Photos of the two talking with police on Sunday closely resemble men by the same names and ages who were producers over a decade ago of a video series featuring homeless people brawling and performing dangerous stunts after being paid by the filmmakers, who were based in Las Vegas.
They claimed sales of about 300,000 copies at $20 each, though their "Bumfights" videos were banned in several communities and generally shunned by retailers after criticism that the films' subjects were being exploited.
McPherson and Tanner exited Thailand into neighboring Cambodia on Sunday, and could not be contacted for comment.
The three packages seized in Bangkok, which contained five body pieces, were labeled as toys, police said. They were being sent to Las Vegas, including one parcel that the man had addressed to himself. Police said they were contacting the FBI to get information about the would-be recipients of the items.
Clinical Professor Udom Kachintorn, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital, told reporters that the five human body parts were stolen from the hospital's museums. Two of them belonged to the department of anatomy and the other three to the department of forensic medicine.
He said the two Americans visited the museum last Thursday but that closed circuit television video did not show them taking any items away.
Police Col. Chumpol had initially said a baby's heart and intestines were among the body parts. But police at a news conference Monday said the heart, which had been stabbed, was from an adult and there were no preserved intestines.
Police Lt. Gen. Ruangsak Jarit-ake displayed graphic pictures of the five body parts and told reporters that the parts had been preserved separately in formaldehyde inside sealed acrylic or plastic boxes. Two of the parts were pieces of tattooed adult skin — one with a jumping tiger and the other bearing an ancient Asian script. One of the pictures showed the baby's foot had been sliced into three sections.
"DHL has a policy of prohibited items, which include human body parts. To the best of our knowledge, we have never experienced a similar case before," said Chananyarak Phetcharat, DHL Express Thailand-Indochina's Managing Director.
According to DHL, the parcels were declared as "Puzzle-unlimited collectors ED", "Steamer Cap" and "Antique Train Collector E."
In some Thai cults, preserved fetuses or spiritual tattoos are believed to give the owners good fortune or protection from evil. They can also be used to practice black magic.
In 2012, a British citizen was arrested with six roasted fetuses covered in gold leaf after a tip-off that infant bodies were being sold through a website offering black magic service.
The district attorney's office in San Diego, California, in 2002 filed felony charges including battery against McPherson and Tanner and two others in connection with production of the "Bumfights" videos. A judge reduced the counts to misdemeanors and the four pleaded guilty in 2003 to arranging a fight without a permit. They were fined $500 each and ordered to perform community service at a homeless shelter, but McPherson and one colleague were sentenced to 180 days in jail in 2005 for failing to complete their community service.
___
Associated Press writer Jocelyn Gecker contributed to this report.
Thai police officers show pictures of a tattooed human skin during a press conference at Bangpongpang police station in Bangkok,Thailand, Monday, Nov. 17, 2014. A shipping company in Bangkok put a trio of packages bound for the United States through a routine X-ray and made a startling discovery — inside were a variety of preserved human parts, including an infant's head, a baby's foot sliced into three sections and a tiny heart. © AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit Thai police officers show pictures of a tattooed human skin during a press conference at Bangpongpang police station in Bangkok,Thailand, Monday, Nov. 17, 2014. 

Friday, November 14, 2014

Rat poison linked to India sterilisation deaths, with death toll expected to rise

The Guardian

Health officials investigating more than the deaths of 13 women who died after attending government-run family planning camps in eastern India now believe that they were killed by medicine contaminated with rat poison.
All antibiotics bought from Mahawar Pharmaceuticals, a factory in the the eastern city of Raipur, the state capital, have now been withdrawn, the Press Trust of India reported.
Quantities of zinc phosphide, a component of rat poison, was found at the factory, where antibiotics distributed at the two camps on Saturday and Monday, were made earlier this week.
“We have seen some toxin reaction in some patients, not infection. Renal failure, falling blood pressure, in all cases issued with this drug. What they were given was not antibiotic but a toxin,” said Dr Ashutosh Tiwari, secretary of the local branch of the Indian Medical Association in Bilaspur, where the deaths have occurred..
The results of tests on pills given to women and on the viscera of the casualties are still awaited, for final confirmation of the presence of the poison in the drugs.
Around 20 women who attended the camp remain in intensive care and the death toll is expected to rise.
More possible victims of the contaminated antibiotics arrived at hospitals from villages in Bilaspur district, about 100 km (60 miles) from Raipur, on Thursday and Friday, some clutching medicine strips from Mahawar and complaining of vomiting, dizziness and swelling.
At least one of the strips of antibiotic was from the same batch as those handed out at the mass sterilisation held on Saturday in the same district in Chhattisgarh state, one of India’s poorest.
Tiwari said two other patients, both male, had died of total renal shutdown after taking antibiotics from the same batch. They had been prescribed the drugs by local practitioners for minor problems.
“There was something in it which we use to kill rats in India. It is this that caused the mortality,” said Tiwari, who has been briefed on the results of the ongoing official inquiry, told the Guardian.
Police say they entered the Mahawar factory on Wednesday with the help of a security guard, but at first found nothing wrong. Drug inspectors returned the next day and shut it down.
Speaking in police custody, Ramesh Mahawar, managing director of Mahawar Pharmaceuticals, said he was innocent.
“The situation has been twisted in a wrong manner. We are just being harassed,” said Mahawar, who has been making drugs for 35 years.
The focus has now shifted away from the appalling conditions at the camp where veteran gynaecologist Dr R K Gupta conducted one tubectomy every two minutes in a two-hour sterilisation drive in a dirty room in a disused hospital.
The deaths in Chhattisgarh have drawn attention to India’s mass-sterilisation programme, as well as weak quality-control standards for drugs procured by state governments.
“States procure medicine through a tender and the manufacturers that bid the lowest quote win the order to supply, regardless of their manufacturing process or distribution systems,” said Bejon Kumar Misra, head of Partnership for Safe Medicines India, a non-governmental organisation.
But G N Singh, the drugs controller general of India, said quality and safety came before price in the tender process.
“If the drugs are found to be substandard, we will suspend the license of the manufacturer,” he said.
Corruption is rife in a sector long seen as a problem by health experts and campaigners.
India is the world’s top steriliser of women, and efforts to rein in population growth have been described as the most draconian after China. Indian birth rates fell in recent decades, but population growth is still among the world’s fastest.
Sterilisation is popular because it is cheap and effective, and sidesteps cultural resistance and problems with distribution of other types of contraception in rural areas.
Deaths due to sterilisation are not new in India, where more than 4 million of the operations were performed in 2013-14, according to the government.
Between 2009 and 2012 the government paid compensation for 568 deaths resulting from sterilisation, the health ministry said in an answer to a parliamentary question two years ago. A total of 1,434 people died from such procedures in India between 2003 and 2012.
Experts said on Thursday the true figure was much higher.
“Not all are reported, not all get compensation. Then there are those who suffer complications or side-effects, often due to infection. There is no data on them at all,” said Sonam Sharma, at the New Delhi-based Population Foundation of India.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Final poppy planted to remember British WWI dead

AFP
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A teenage army cadet on Tuesday planted the last of 888,246 ceramic poppies at the Tower of London, representing every UK forces World War I fatality, as Britain marked Armistice Day.
A century on from the start of the 1914-1918 Great War, people around Britain stood for the traditional two-minute silence remembering all those who have given their lives in conflict.
Cadet Harry Hayes, 13, was watched by a crowd of thousands at the Tower of London as he completed the poppy installation "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red".
The vast artwork, filling the moat surrounding the 11th-century fortress with a blood-red tide, has captured the public imagination and become the focal point for World War I centenary commemorations.
An estimated five million people have been to the castle to see the poppies -- the symbol of remembrance -- and in recent days, the floodlights have been kept on so people can visit through the night.
"We always hoped the installation would capture the public imagination yet we could not predict the level of support we have received," said former army chief General Richard Dannatt, now the Constable of the Tower of London.
The poppies have all been sold in aid of veterans' charities.
They were to be removed from Wednesday but a section will now remain until the end of November to allow more people to see them.
The 888,246 figure counts all the identified graves and dead commemorated on memorials in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's care, who were serving in the United Kingdom forces.
The figure therefore includes troops from British empire colonies, but does not include those from the separate forces of Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa.
Hayes said he was nervous as he installed the final poppy.
"It is an amazing honour," he told Sky News television.
The two-minute silence at 11:00 am (1100 GMT) marked the end of World War I at the same time on November 11, 1918.
Prime Minister David Cameron paid his respects at the Cenotaph, along with hundreds of civil servants from the surrounding ministries.
Thousands more people massed in the nearby Trafalgar Square, where poppies were dropped into the fountains.
Inside London's Westminster Abbey, clergy gathered round the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, a body brought back from the Western Front and buried among the kings in 1920.
Outside St Paul's Cathedral, hundreds of city workers stood together in silence as the dean led a service of prayer from the steps. Traffic came to a standstill as the bells chimed 11.
The England football team, training at their St George's Park base in Burton, central England, were joined by members of the armed forces in marking the silence on the main pitch.

U.S. and China Reach Deal on Climate Change in Secret Talks

The New York Times
President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China were greeted by children during a ceremony inside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday. © Feng Li/Getty Images President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China were greeted by children during a ceremony inside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday.
BEIJING — China and the United States made common cause on Wednesday against the threat of climate change, staking out an ambitious joint plan to curb carbon emissions as a way to spur nations around the world to make their own cuts in greenhouse gases.
The landmark agreement, jointly announced here by President Obama and President Xi Jinping, includes new targets for carbon emissions reductions by the United States and a first-ever commitment by China to stop its emissions from growing by 2030.
Administration officials said the agreement, which was worked out secretly between the United States and China over nine months and included a letter from Mr. Obama to Mr. Xi proposing a joint approach, could galvanize efforts to negotiate a new global climate agreement by 2015.
It was the signature achievement of an unexpectedly productive two days of meetings between the leaders. Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi also agreed to a military accord designed to avert clashes between Chinese and American planes and warships in the tense waters off the Chinese coast, as well as an understanding to cut tariffs for technology products.
A climate deal between China and the United States, the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 carbon polluters, is viewed as essential to concluding a new global accord. Unless Beijing and Washington can resolve their differences, climate experts say, few other countries will agree to mandatory cuts in emissions, and any meaningful worldwide pact will be likely to founder.
“The United States and China have often been seen as antagonists,” said a senior official, speaking in advance of Mr. Obama’s remarks. “We hope that this announcement can usher in a new day in which China and the U.S. can act much more as partners.”
As part of the agreement, Mr. Obama announced that the United States would emit 26 percent to 28 percent less carbon in 2025 than it did in 2005. That is double the pace of reduction it targeted for the period from 2005 to 2020.
China’s pledge to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030, if not sooner, is even more remarkable. To reach that goal, Mr. Xi pledged that so-called clean energy sources, like solar power and windmills, would account for 20 percent of China’s total energy production by 2030.
Administration officials acknowledged that Mr. Obama could face opposition to his plans from a Republican-controlled Congress. While the agreement with China needs no congressional ratification, lawmakers could try to roll back Mr. Obama’s initiatives, undermining the United States’ ability to meet the new reduction targets.
Still, Mr. Obama’s visit, which came days after a setback in the midterm elections, allowed him to reclaim some of the momentum he lost at home. As the campaign was turning against the Democrats last month, Mr. Obama quietly dispatched John Podesta, a senior adviser who oversees climate policy, to Beijing to try to finalize a deal.
For all the talk of collaboration, the United States and China also displayed why they are still fierce rivals for global economic primacy, promoting competing free-trade blocs for the Asian region even as they reached climate and security deals.
The maneuvering came during a conference of Pacific Rim economies held in Beijing that has showcased China’s growing dominance in Asia, but also the determination of the United States, riding a resurgent economy, to reclaim its historical role as a Pacific power.
Adding to the historic nature of the visit, Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi were scheduled to give a joint news conference on Wednesday that will include questions from reporters — a rare concession by the Chinese leader to a visiting American president.
On Tuesday evening, Mr. Xi invited Mr. Obama to dinner at his official residence, telling his guest he hoped they had laid the foundation for a collaborative relationship — or, as he more metaphorically put it, “A pool begins with many drops of water.”
Greeting Mr. Obama at the gate of the walled leadership compound next to the Forbidden City, Mr. Xi squired him across a brightly lighted stone bridge and into the residence. Mr. Obama told the Chinese president that he wanted to take the relationship “to a new level.”
“When the U.S. and China are able to work together effectively,” he added, “the whole world benefits.”
But as the world witnessed this week, it is more complicated than that. Mr. Xi won approval Tuesday from the 21 countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to study the creation of a China-led free-trade zone that would be an alternative to Mr. Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trading bloc that excludes China.
On Monday, Mr. Obama met with members of that group here and claimed progress in negotiating the partnership, a centerpiece of his strategic shift to Asia.
Negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership are much further along than those for the nascent Chinese plan, known as the Free Trade Area of Asia Pacific, and some analysts said the approval by the Pacific Rim nations of a two-year study was mainly a gesture to the Chinese hosts to give them something to announce at the meeting.
For all the jockeying, the biggest trade headline was a breakthrough in negotiations with China to eliminate tariffs on information technology products, from video-game consoles and computer software to medical equipment and semiconductors.
The understanding, American officials said, opens the door to expanding a World Trade Organization agreement on these products, assuming other countries can be persuaded to accept the same terms. With China on board, officials predicted a broader deal would be reached swiftly.
“We’re going to take what’s been achieved here in Beijing back to Geneva to work with our W.T.O. partners,” said Michael B. Froman, the United States trade representative. “While we don’t take anything for granted, we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to work quickly” to conclude an expansion of the agreement, known as the Information Technology Agreement.
On Wednesday morning, Mr. Xi formally welcomed Mr. Obama at a ceremony in the Great Hall of the People; they later toasted each other at a state banquet.
Administration officials said Mr. Obama had pressed Mr. Xi to resume a United States-China working group on cybersecurity issues, which abruptly stopped its discussions after the United States charged several Chinese military officers with hacking.
“We did see a chill in the cyber dialogue,” said Benjamin J. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser. “We do believe it’s better if there’s a mechanism for dialogue.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Obama credited APEC with originating the work on reducing tariffs, saying, “The United States and China have reached an understanding that we hope will contribute to a rapid conclusion of the broader negotiations in Geneva.”
Talks with China over expanding the 1997 accord on information technology broke down last year over the scope of the products covered by the agreement. But after intensive negotiations leading up to Mr. Obama’s visit, Mr. Froman said, the Americans and the Chinese agreed Monday evening to eliminate more than 200 categories of tariffs.
While the United States still exports many high-technology goods, China is the world’s dominant exporter of electronics and has much to gain from an elimination of tariffs. Taiwan, South Korea and Japan increasingly find themselves supplying China’s huge electronics industry, deepening their dependence on decisions made in Beijing.
The administration estimated that expanding the Information Technology Agreement would create up to 60,000 jobs in the United States by eliminating tariffs on goods that generate $1 trillion in sales a year. About $100 billion of those products are American-made. The administration faces a longer path on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, including whether Mr. Obama will obtain fast-track trade authority from Congress. That could make it easier for the United States to extract concessions from other countries, since they would have more confidence that the treaty would be ratified by Congress.
While Mr. Froman conceded that sticking points remained, he said, “It’s become clearer and clearer what the landing zones are.” He said that Mr. Obama would seek fast-track authority, but that the best way for him to win congressional passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership would be to negotiate the best deal.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Transformational Leader, Dr. Myles Munroe Killed In Bahamas Plane Crash

Forbes
Dr. Myles Munro and Mrs. Ruth Ann Munroe © Provided by Forbes Dr. Myles Munro and Mrs. Ruth Ann Munroe
Prolific best selling author and internationally renowned preacher and business coach, Dr. Myles Munroe of Bahamas Faith Ministries International and his wife Mrs. Ruth Ann Munroe, died in a plane crash earlier today in the Bahamas. According to The Associated Press, the plane, a Lear 36 executive jet, reportedly struck a crane at the Grand Bahama Ship Yard, exploding on impact and crashing into the ground near a junkyard area.
The Bahamas Ministry of Transport and Aviation reported that the Lear 36 executive jet departed the Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) in Nassau, Bahamas at 4:07PM for the Grand Bahama International Airport,  a privately owned international airport in Freeport, Bahamas with nine people on board.
The plane crashed while making an approach for landing at Grand Bahama International Airport at 5.10pm, the Ministry of Transport and Aviation said. The crash killed all nine people on board the private jet. The identities of the other people on board have not yet been confirmed. The cause of the crash was not immediately determined, though there had been heavy rain across the region. A full investigation is expected to begin on Monday.
The crash occurred as people were gathering in Grand Bahama for Dr. Munroe’s 2014 Global Leadership Forum which starts tomorrow, November, 10. Former mayor of Atlanta and former U.S Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young scheduled to speak at the popular leadership forum, released the following statement through his foundation: “Ambassador Young expresses his deep sadness over the tragic death of his friends Dr. Myles and Mrs. Ruth Munroe. He offers condolences to the Munroe family and the families of the other souls who lost their lives as a result of this shocking plane crash.”
Africa’s richest woman and oil mogul, Mrs. Folorunso Alakija is also expected to speak at the leadership forum.
Known for his work and teachings on leadership, purpose and maximizing your potential, vision, individual and national transformation, Dr. Munroe was the senior pastor of Bahamas Faith Ministries International Fellowship, where his wife, Ruth Ann, served as co-senior pastor. They leave behind two children, daughter, Charisa and son, Chairo (Myles Jr.) Munroe.
Dr. Munroe died living out his purpose in life; spreading the gospel of Christ.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

As China Deploys Nuclear Submarines, U.S. P-8 Poseidon Jets Snoop on Them


The P-8 Poseidon is one of the U.S. military’s most advanced surveillance aircrafts. It’s been deployed to Okinawa, Japan for one main reason: to monitor China’s growing submarine fleet.
OKINAWA, Japan—Swooping down to 500 feet over the western Pacific, Cmdr. Bill Pennington pilots his U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft toward an unidentified vessel off southern Japan.
In the back of the plane, a heavily modified Boeing 737, the crew homes in on the vessel using a barrage of surveillance equipment, including radar, GPS and infrared cameras.
Further down the fuselage stand rows of tube-shaped sonar buoys that the crew can catapult into the sea and that float for up to eight hours as they track objects underwater.
This is a dummy run: Today’s target is a Singaporean container ship, and the P-8 roars by without dropping the buoys. But the aircraft is designed to hunt a far more elusive, and potentially dangerous, quarry: Chinese submarines.

Soldiers stand on guard next to a Chinese navy nuclear-missile submarine at the Qingdao base in eastern China. 

Okinawa is integral to that strategy because it flanks the East China Sea site of a bitter territorial dispute between China and Japan. And it houses the closest U.S. base to the South China Sea, where China’s maritime claims overlap with those of the Philippines, another U.S. ally.
Okinawa also sits next to one of the main chokepoints, the Miyako Strait, that U.S. officials say Chinese subs have used in recent years to enter the Pacific. “If we have history, if there’s a trend of them getting from point A to point B, then we’ll exploit that,” says Cmdr. Pennington. He calls the P-8 a “game-changer,” despite some criticism in the U.S. of the $34 billion the Pentagon is spending on developing and buying the planes.
The jet is designed to replace the old propeller-driven P-3 Orions in Okinawa that were built to hunt Soviet subs and have been flying since the 1960s. The P-8 can drop and monitor up to 64 “sonobuoys,” twice the P-3’s capacity.
A U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon flies over the Western Pacific, one of six deployed to Okinawa to help anti-submarine forces in the area.A U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon flies over the Western Pacific, one of six deployed to Okinawa to help anti-submarine forces in the area. Dominic Nahr/Magnum for The Wall  The new aircraft can also reach a target up to 1,200 nautical miles away—about 300 miles further than the P-3—and remain on station for four hours before flying home.  “That allows us to get to the southern parts of the South China Sea. We do that quite often,” says Capt. Mike Parker, Commander of the U.S. Navy’s Task Force 72, which conducts marine reconnaissance in Asia. “We want to be able to locate those submarines and if needs be, let them know that we know where they are.”  The P-8s’ operations can bring them into confrontation with Chinese forces. In August, the Pentagon said a Chinese jet fighter had flown dangerously close to a U.S. P-8 during an interception near Hainan island, site of one of China’s submarine bases. China’s defense ministry publicly said its pilot flew safely and demanded that the U.S. cease surveillance operations near its base.  But the U.S., which says those operations are in international airspace, is taking steps to allow the P-8s even more time over the South China Sea, by negotiating agreements with surrounding countries to use their airfields as launchpads for sub-hunting flights, say people familiar with those discussions.  The P-8’s additional range—and the importance of such regional launchpads—were both clearly demonstrated when the aircraft joined the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 earlier this year.  As during that search, the U.S. also envisions working more closely with other countries in the region that are upgrading their anti-sub aircraft fleets. The plan is for the P-8s to work in conjunction with Triton aerial drones, the first of which is expected to be deployed to the Pacific island of Guam in 2017, according to senior U.S. Navy officers.  The P-8's crew can catapult tube-shaped sonar buoys from the jet that then float as they listen for submarines underwater. ENLARGEThe P-8's crew can catapult tube-shaped sonar buoys from the jet that then float as they listen for submarines underwater. Dominic Nahr/Magnum for The Wall Street Journal.  Yet, for all their extra speed, range and sonar buoys, the P-8s rely on the basic sub-hunting techniques of the Cold War. Part science and part instinct, undersea warfare is rooted in the complex physics of the ocean.  Neither satellites nor radar can detect objects underwater. The most effective way to find a sub is still by using sonar equipment to listen for its engine, or to bounce sound signals—or “pings”—off its metallic body.  Submariners avoid detection by keeping their engines quiet, avoiding outgoing communications and remaining below the “thermal layer”—between warmer water near the surface and colder water below—that deflects sonar pings.  The P-8s also work with satellites that monitor submarine bases, with undersea microphones that listen for passing subs and with surface ships that tow large arrays of sonar equipment. Once over a potential target, the P-8 drops its sonar buoys in a grid, then circles overhead gathering the data that they transmit.  Those data are displayed on a screen in the back of the plane and analyzed by specialists like Naval Aircrewman Operator 1st Class Robert Pillars, who is trained to recognize the acoustic signature of a Chinese sub.  “If there’s a submarine there and it’s within range of a sonobuoy, I’ll find it,” he says, standing in the back of the P-8 after its sortie. “It’s kind of an art because you can go after the same boat twice and it’ll sound different both times. It’s about training and instinct.”  Until recently, finding Chinese subs was relatively easy. Many were old diesel models, which spotters could find when they surfaced every few hours to “snorkel”—run the engines that charge their electric batteries. The reactors on China’s early nuclear subs were even noisier, say Western naval officers.  In recent years, however, China has made advances in quieting its diesel subs, many of which use technology that lets them run their engines for long periods on liquid oxygen without surfacing for air, say Chinese and Western military experts.  In 2006, U.S. officials were stunned when a Chinese diesel-powered Song-class sub surfaced within torpedo range of a U.S. aircraft carrier, the Kitty Hawk, without being detected in advance, say U.S. officers briefed on the incident.  “China’s now got some very quiet subs, and that makes our job more challenging,” says Capt. Parker. “If you’re not very good, you won’t find them.”  Since the Kitty Hawk incident, the U.S. has stepped up anti-sub patrols. But China has also deployed large numbers of ships, aircraft and missiles that appear to be designed to prevent U.S. forces from monitoring waters near its coast, say Chinese and Western military experts.  In 2009, five Chinese ships surrounded the USNS Impeccable—one of the U.S. Navy’s most advanced anti-sub ships—in international waters near a submarine base on Hainan.  Last November, China suddenly established an air-defense identification zone over the East China Sea and warned of unspecified “defensive measures” against aircraft that entered without identifying themselves in advance.  Many U.S. officials now fear that China may declare another zone over the South China Sea—although Beijing has said repeatedly in recent months that it has no such plans. China’s ultimate goal, those officials believe, is to turn the South China Sea into a safe haven for its subs much like the bastions from which Soviet subs operated in the Cold War.  If Chinese aircraft and surface ships can keep U.S. anti-submarine forces at bay, that would let China’s subs patrol safely near its shores and slip unnoticed into the deeper waters of the Pacific.  “That would be like the Cold War,” says Capt. Parker. “It’s what the Soviets used to do.”