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19. juni 2005
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The prospect of the avian or bird flu becoming a human pandemic is one that tends to get scarier the more you know about it. And thanks to the Chinese, it's worse than we thought:
Chinese farmers, acting with the approval and encouragement of government officials, have tried to suppress major bird flu outbreaks among chickens with an antiviral drug meant for humans, animal health experts said. International researchers now conclude that this is why the drug will no longer protect people in case of a worldwide bird flu epidemic.
China's use of the drug amantadine, which violated international livestock guidelines, was widespread years before China acknowledged any infection of its poultry, according to pharmaceutical company executives and veterinarians.
Just great.
Hat tip to MacRaven, who has some choice words for those responsible.
11:26:27 AM 
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It was something of surprise when Iran's Interior Ministry announced that along with Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president and corrupt clergy-friendly politician nicknamed "the shark" but now a born-again 'reformist', along with hard-line Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would go to the run-off election. Reformist and moderate (or what passes for that) third-place candidate Mehdi Karroubi is now openly charging fraud from the hardliners. And there was apparently a bit to be suspicious about.
An element of the bizarre in the events on Saturday came as Mr. Ahmadinejad announced that he would be in the runoff hours before the ministry issued its own results.
The government did not immediately respond to the charges of vote tampering, but the cloud had been hanging over the race since the early morning hours when the Interior Ministry found its results being publicly contradicted on state television by the Guardian Council, the panel controlled by hard-line clerics that has the ultimate say over all government actions and often clashes with the reform-controlled elected government. The council has, for example, the power to unilaterally reject the outcome of the election.
Initially, the Interior Ministry had Mr. Rafsanjani first, Mr. Karroubi, the former speaker of the Parliament, in second, and Mr. Ahmadinejad third. Half an hour later the Guardian Council, which is not supposed to be involved in counting ballots, said Mr. Ahmadinejad was in first place.
The regime failed to put a lid on the irregularities when Karroubi made the unprecedented move of going public with the accusations. And he was followed by another reformist candidate:
His charges gained some added currency on Saturday night when they were echoed by Dr. Mostafa Moin, the reform candidate who came in fifth after public opinion polls had shown him vying for second place. Dr. Moin said in a statement that military forces in the country joined together with some political organizations to rig the election and to promote a particular candidate, though he did not say which one.
Great disparity between opinion polls and official results. Where have we heard that one before? Oh, yes, Venezuela. Too bad Jimmy Carter is not in Iran to rubber-stamp this for the clergy.
4:57:24 AM
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Police in Victoria, Australia, has successfully trained police dogs to find talcum powder instread of cocaine:
An investigation is under way into how a cocaine sample, used for Victorian police sniffer dog training, was substituted with talcum powder.
An audit has revealed one sample contained a white talc-like substance.
The dogs will now need retraining.
In the meantime, be careful about trying to take talcum into Australia!
PS: I know it's a month-old story. But most of you probably hadn't heard it before now, either, and it was too funny to pass up.
4:45:19 AM
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Now this is welfare cheating.
Martin Crowson, 53, pocketed £17,000 in social security handouts claiming he was unfit to work because of a crippling knee injury.
But fraud inspectors discovered the father-of-one had used the cash to go on exotic family holidays.
During a search of his home in November 2004 they found three souvenir photographs of his recent trips.
One of the pictures showed him wrestling with a 10-foot alligator at a theme park in Orlando, Florida.
Hat tip A Welsh View. If you just love reading weird news from around the world, check out his latest huge weirdness roundup.
2:36:28 AM
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Pavel Litvinov has lived through a real Gulag.
Several days ago I received a telephone call from an old friend who is a longtime Amnesty International staffer. He asked me whether I, as a former Soviet "prisoner of conscience" adopted by Amnesty, would support the statement by Amnesty's executive director, Irene Khan, that the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba is the "gulag of our time."
"Don't you think that there's an enormous difference?" I asked him.
"Sure," he said, "but after all, it attracts attention to the problem of Guantanamo detainees."
Let's mourn the loss of what was once an important human rights organisation.
1:36:28 AM
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A National Guard Sergeant has become the first woman since World War II to receive the Silver Star Medal.
Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester of the 617th Military Police Company, a National Guard unit out of Richmond, Ky., received the Silver Star, along with two other members of her unit, Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein and Spc. Jason Mike, for their actions during an enemy ambush on their convoy. Other members of the unit also received awards.
Hester's squad was shadowing a supply convoy March 20 when anti-Iraqi fighters ambushed the convoy. The squad moved to the side of the road, flanking the insurgents and cutting off their escape route. Hester led her team through the "kill zone" and into a flanking position, where she assaulted a trench line with grenades and M203 grenade-launcher rounds. She and Nein, her squad leader, then cleared two trenches, at which time she killed three insurgents with her rifle.
When the fight was over, 27 insurgents were dead, six were wounded, and one was captured.
Notwithstanding Sgt. Hester's great courage and skill, it is hardly a secret that this award draws attention to a fact many in Pentagon and the administration would rather pass by in silence. In Iraq, terrorists tend to avoid firefights with well-prepared combat troops, where women are not allowed except in 'support' roles, and instead go for the 'softer' targets of, for example, supply convoys. Some politicians would rather Sgt. Hester was still managing a shop back home, or at least stayed out of the way and let the men handle the gory tasks.
The rescue and Sergeant Hester's role in repelling the assault gained news coverage as Congress debated proposals to limit women's positions in combat zones.
Personally, I think having the misogynous extremists killed and defeated by a squad lead by a woman soldier shows better than anything what values this war is about, and who will win it.
PS: The first woman to receive a Silver Star was Mary Louise Roberts Wilson, an RN who showed remarkable bravery tending for the wounded during the battle of Anzio, Italy, in WWII, where six fellow nurses were killed.
1:03:34 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.07.2005; 11:18:40.
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