A team wearing protective clothing prepares the body of a person suspected to have died of the Ebola virus for burial in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Sept. 28. CHRISTOPHER BLACK / WHO VIA REUTERS, FILE

(Reuters) - The Ebola virus is still spreading in West Africa, especially in Sierra Leone, and the number of known cases globally has now exceeded 20,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

The death toll from the outbreak, which has been mostly confined to West Africa, has risen to 7,905, the WHO said, following 317 fatalities recorded since it last issued figures on Dec. 24.

The number of known cases, including fatalities, totaled 20,206 at year-end, it said.

Sierra Leone accounted for 337 of 476 new laboratory-confirmed cases since Dec. 24. They included 149 in Freetown, the highest incidence in the capital in four weeks.

The urgent need for assistance in Sierra Leone prompted the United States Agency for International Development to airlift two ambulances to Freetown from Liberia’s capital Monrovia, once the worst Ebola hotspot, the United Nations said.

However, the number of cases in Sierra Leone over a three-week period has fallen below 1,000 for the first time since Sept. 28, suggesting the spread of the disease is slowing. In neighboring Guinea, the three-week total rose for a second week to 346, suggesting the epidemic is growing there.

Nine countries have now reported cases of Ebola. In Britain, a nurse was diagnosed with the virus this week upon her return from Sierra Leone. She is being treated with blood plasma from a survivor of the virus and an experimental antiviral drug, the London hospital treating her said on Wednesday

She had traveled from Sierra Leone to Glasgow via London and did not show symptoms during her journey, although she was “believed to have become febrile around the time of arrival to London”, the WHO said.

Ebola broke out for the first time in West Africa a year ago when a two-year-old boy died in southern Guinea on Dec. 28, but the so-called “index case” only came to light in March by which time the disease had spread widely.

Liberia lifted a curfew imposed to curb the spread of Ebola so that people could attend New Year’s Eve church services, as Medecins Sans Frontieres warned of growing complacency over the disease in the country.

The haemorrhagic fever, which causes vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding, is spread by contact with bodily fluids. It has no known cure but several major drug makers are developing vaccines already being tested in clinical trials.

The Ebola crisis in West Africa is likely to last until the end of 2015, according to Peter Piot, a London-based scientist who helped to discover the virus in 1976 in the former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles; Editing by Susan Fenton)

GRAPHICS: Mga biktima ng paputok sa QCGH

QUEZON CITY, Philippines – Umabot sa 25 ang bilang ng mga pasyenteng isinugod sa Quezon City General Hospital (QCGH) sa pagpapalit ng taon.

Simula hating-gabi ay halos magkakasunod na isinugod sa QCGH ang mga pasyenteng naaksidente dahil sa paputok, banggaan at gulo.

Ilang kabataan at katandaan ang nasugatan dahil sa mismong pagpapaputok, habang nadamay lang ang iba.

“Usually kasi ang mga bata, sila ang mahilig mag-experiment so yung gusto nila mga bago, try nila iba-iba pasabugin ng malakas,” pahayag ni Dr. Katherine Villanueva-Natividad, surgeon sa QCGH.

Bukod dito ay may mga isinugod din na biktima ng saksak, pambubugbog at vehicular accident.

Noong nakalipas na taon, pumalo din sa 25 ang bilang ng mga biktima ng paputok base sa tala ng QCGH.

Ayon sa pamunuan ng nasabing ospital, dapat ay laging paalalahanan ang mga bata maging ang mga matatanda na maging maingat sa lahat ng oras upang makaiwas sa trahedya. (Rosalie Coz / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)

GRAPHICS: DOH tally of Fireworks-Related injury as of January 01, 2015 morning

MANILA, Philippines – Hanggang nitong umaga ng January 01, 2015ay umabot na sa 351 ang naitalang fireworks-related injuries ng DOH-National Epidemiology Center.

Mas mababa ito ng 160 o 31% sa nakalipas na limang taon o sa average na 511 injuries kada taon.

Sinabi ni Acting Health Secretary Janette Garin na isa sa dahilan nito ay ang mga isinagawang fireworks display ng ilang public communities at pribadong organisasyon upang maiiwas ang maraming mamamayan sa paggamit ng paputok sa pagsalubong sa bagong taon.

Malaking bilang ng fireworks related injuries ay naitala sa National Capital Region (NCR) na may 168 o 48%, 52 dito ay sa Maynila, Pasig (23), Quezon City (21), Caloocan (12) at Navotas (12).

Nananatili namang piccolo ang may pinakamaraming nabiktima na umabot sa 166, sumunod ang kwitis (35), luces (21) at 5 star (12).

Bumababa din ang kaso ng mga tinamaan ng ligaw na bala.

Bunsod nito ay nagpasalamat ang DOH sa sa PNP at DILG sa kampanya nito kaugnay sa indiscriminate firing sa pagsalubong sa bagong taon.

“Stray bullets 73% lower malaki ang binababa. We would like to thank PNP and DILG for massive campaign,” pasasalamat ni Sec. Garin.

Sa kabila nito, bagama’t bumaba ang bilang ng mga nasugatan at naputukan ay tumaas naman ng 75% ang bilang ng mga kamay o daliring napinsala ngayong taon.

“We are attributing this in two factor nag-shift ang age ng users sa mga bata masyado ng bata ang gumagamit nito kaya madaling maputukan kasi mas maliit kamay mas malaki ang damage ginagawa sa mga daliri ng mga kabataan. Another factor nagkalat murang paputok na minsan magkakaibigan ay nagbibigay, they share the danger,” pahayag pa ni Garin.

Magpapatuloy ang assessment ng Department of Health National Epidemiology Center sa mga naputukan hanggang sa Enero 5, 2015. (JP Ramirez / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)

Isa sa mga natamaan ng bala na isinugod sa East Avenue Medical Center nitong hatinggabi  ng December 31, 2014. (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines – Pagsapit ng alas-12 ng hatinggabi ng papasok January 1 ay sunud-sunod na ang mga isinusugod sa East Avenue Medical Center.

Iba’t ibang kaso ng pasyente ang dala ng nagmamadaling ambulansya, taxi at tricycle na ibinababa sa emergency room ng ospital.

Nitong madaling araw ng Huwebes, isinugod sa ospital ang isang 18-taong gulang na babaeng nakilala sa pangalang Marilous Mezola, at isang 5 taong gulang na bata, residente ng Banaba, QC.

Isang 32 taong gulang na lalake na nagngangalang Jaime De Jesus Jr. ang kumpirmadong tinamaan ng ligaw na bala sa kanang kamay.

Batay sa kwento ng kaibigan nito na si Jesus Dimasuhid, galing sa labas ng bahay ang biktima at bigla na lang pumasok at sinabing may tama siya sa kamay.

“Dumudugo po talaga malakas ang dugo, pagdating nya tinali na niya ng tela kasi daw parang masakit daw dumudugo kaya sinugod na namin sya.”

Matatandaang noong pagpasok ng taong 2013 ay nasawi sa nasabing ospital ang batang si Stephani Nicole Ella matapos tamaan ng ligaw na bala sa ulo.

Samantala, nangngunguna pa rin sa mga paputok na ginamit ng mga biktima ng paputok ay ang ipinagbabawal na piccolo.

68 years old ang pinakamatandang naputukan ng kwitis, habang 2 taong gulang naman ang naputukan ng luces.

Wala namang naitalang naputulan ng daliri sa mga ito.

Nagpaalala naman ang Dr. Alfonso Nuñez, head ng Emergency Department Trauma-Center ng East Ave. Medical Center sa mga pasyenteng nagpipilit na umuwi sa kabila ng malubhang kalagayan.

Aniya, delikado sa pasyente ang agad na umuwi ng bahay dahil malaki ang posibilidad na nagkaroon ang mga ito ng mas malalang impeksyon na posibleng mauwi sa kamatayan kung mapabayaan.

“Ito yung bone saw para sa mga naputukan inaayos namin ito naman yung cutter kapag iti-tream namin yung buto ito yung gunagamit namin, ito naman pag iti-trim namin ung laman kung naputukan at nakalabas ung ibang laman na madumi o patay ito ang ginagamit namin na pang clean,” saad nito.

Samantala, marami rin ang mga naging biktima ng vehicular accident, at dalawa dito ay mga ata na 10-taong gulang pababa.

Nagtamo ang mga ito ng minor injury kaya agad namang napauwi sa kanilang bahay. (Grace Casin / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a New Year’s address in this January 1, 2015 photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang. CREDIT: REUTERS/KCNA

(Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he was open to a high-level summit with neighboring South Korea, days after a proposal from Seoul to resume dialogue.

“If South Korean authorities sincerely want to improve relations between North and South Korea through talks, we can resume stalled high-level meetings,” Kim said in a New Year’s address broadcast by state media on Thursday.

The address by Kim, who took power in the reclusive state after his father Kim Jong Il died in 2011, was his third televised New Year’s speech as leader of the country.

“If the atmosphere and environment is there, there is no reason not to hold a high-level summit (with South Korea),” Kim said, speaking in what appeared to be a pre-recorded message.

South Korea proposed on Monday to resume stalled inter-Korean talks with North Korea in January to cover issues including reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

The two Koreas have remained technically at war as the Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. Reunification of the Korean peninsula has been a stated priority for both governments.

A South Korean government statement later in the day said if North Korea was “sincere” about improved relations, it should accept Seoul’s earlier proposal for dialogue “as soon as possible”.

North Korea has in the past signaled intent to improve relations with the South, but subsequent provocations from the North or U.S.-South Korean military exercises have stalled progress.

“Annual large-scale (U.S.-South Korean) war exercises are a source of heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula and increase the threat of nuclear war,” Kim said in the speech.

Standing in a wood-panelled room in front of a red flag bearing the crest of the ruling Workers’ Party, Kim spoke for about 30 minutes to an off-camera audience, and appeared to be reading from a script.

He outlined the intentions of his government to further develop a series of special economic and tourism zones this year, including the Kumgang Mountain resort which was open until it closed after the shooting of a South Korean tourist in 2008.

North Korean policy-setting was previously only communicated in a New Year’s editorial published annually in state newspapers. Kim Jong Un, however, has turned to using public speeches to deliver his message, in a different propaganda style from his father whose voice was only broadcast once on state television.

(Writing by James Pearson; Editing by Kim Coghill and Ryan Woo)

Si Ginang Evelyn Suan, tiyahin ng biktima na nagpaunlak habang nagbibigay ng pahayag sa media ukol sa kanyang pamangkin na si Maybelle Juanitas na biktima ng ligaw na bala. (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines – Kasalukuyang naka-confine at sumasailalim sa operasyon sa East Avenue Medical Center ang 13 taong gulang na si Maybelle Juanitas matapos tamaan ng ligaw na bala sa ulo.

Ayon sa tiyahin ng biktima na si Evelyn Suan, nasa labas ng kanilang bahay ang bata kasama ang kanyang mga kaibigan nang bigla na lamang itong bumagsak.

Nagawa pa umanong makatayo at makapasok ng bahay ang bata ngunit nakaramdam na ito ng pagkahilo at pagsusuka.

Agad namang isinugod sa ospital ng Tala ang biktima kagabi ng alas-11, at inilipat sa East Avenue Medical Center ala-7 ng umaga ngayong Huwebes upang ma-CT scan.

Halos maiyak naman ang tiyahin ng biktima dahil sa galit lalo pa’t nagbabakasyon lamang ang pamangkin nito sa kanilang lugar sa Brgy. San Jose, Tala sa Caloocan upang magdiwang ng bagong taon.

“Galit talaga ako sa nagpaputok ng baril, sana makonsensya naman siya at lumabas na, kasi walang alam yung bata eh,” saad ni Evelyn, tiyahin ng biktima.

Nananawagan din ang mga kaanak ni Maybelle na mahuli ang mga may sala at matigil na ang pagpapaputok ng baril.

Samantala, sa ulat ng Department of Health, mula sa 11 kaso ng stray bullets noong 2013 ay bumaba ito ngayong 2014 sa apat na kaso.

Ayon kay Acting Health Secretary Janette Garin, malaki ang naitulong ng kampanya ng Philippine National Police at DILG. (Earl Camillo / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)

Isa sa mga tinulungan ng UNTV News and Rescue Team Cebu sa naganap na sunog nitong Miyerkules. (UNTV News)

CEBU, Philippines – Agad nirespondehan ng UNTV News and Rescue Team ang nangyaring sunog sa Katipunan, Cebu, pasado ala-7 kagabi, Miyerkules.

Pito ang naitalang nasugatan sa insidente.

Nagtamo ng mga sugat at gasgas ang mga biktima matapos magtakbuhan at mahiwa ng yero ang kanilang mga paa.

Agad na nilapatan ng pangunang lunas ng grupo ang mga biktima at kinuhanan ng blood pressure.

Patuloy namang iniimbestigahan ng mga awtoridad ang nangyaring sunog kung ano ang dahilan at kung saan nagsimula ang sunog. (UNTV News)

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) reacts on the sidelines against the Atlanta Hawks in the second quarter at Philips Arena. Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

(Reuters) - Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James is expected to out of action for two weeks while he receives treatment for a strained left knee and lower back pain, the National Basketball Association (NBA) team said on Thursday.

James, 30, was evaluated on Wednesday at the Cleveland Clinic where he had a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam and radiograph tests.

The team said on its website that the four-time NBA most valuable player will be treated with anti-inflammatories, rehabilitation, training room treatments and rest.

James is averaging a team-high 25.2 points per game for the Cavaliers who have the fifth best record in the Eastern Conference at 18-14.

(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto; Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)

Sierra Leone’s incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma waves to supporters after voting in the capital Freetown November 17, 2012. CREDIT: REUTERS/JOE PENNEY

(Reuters) - Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma asked the country to begin a week of fasting and prayers on Thursday to end the Ebola virus that has killed more than 2,700 of his countrymen.

The worst outbreak on record of the virus is still spreading in West Africa, especially in Sierra Leone, and the number of known cases globally has exceeded 20,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

In a New Year’s Day broadcast, Koroma said the seven days of prayers and fasting would begin immediately. “Today I ask all to commit our actions to the grace, mercy and protection of God Almighty,” he said.

The death toll from the outbreak, which has been mostly confined to West Africa, has risen to 7,905, the WHO said, following 317 fatalities recorded since it last issued figures on Dec. 24.

Sierra Leone is the worst-hit country in West Africa with more than 9,000 Ebola cases and the number of infections continue to grow. It accounted for 337 of 476 new laboratory-confirmed cases since Dec. 24.

Koroma also said schools – which have been shut since July to curb the spread of the virus – would reopen soon.

“The ministry of education is putting in place modalities to reopen schools and colleges in the shortest possible time,” Koroma said, without giving a specific date.

Many schools are being used as Ebola holding centers, raising questions as to how soon they will be able to reopen.

Koroma urged people not to touch the sick or corpses and not to disobey quarantine orders.

“I know what we are being asked to do is very difficult; we are a people that have built our humanity on hugging each other, on shaking hands, on caring for the sick and showing communal empathy by participating in funeral activities,” he said.

“But today the Ebola devil of illness and death hides in the innocent clothing of our culture to get us,” he said.

(Reporting by Umaru Fofana; Writing by Bate Felix; editing by Susan Thomas)

A friend of a victim covers his face as he waits outside a hospital where injured people of a stampede incident are treated, in Shanghai January 1, 2015. CREDIT: REUTERS/ALY SONG

(Reuters) - Chinese state media and the public criticized the government and police on Friday for failing to prevent a New Year’s Eve stampede in Shanghai that killed 36 people and dented the city’s image as modern China’s global financial hub.

Apart from Hong Kong, which is run as a separate territory, Shanghai is China’s most international and cosmopolitan city, a glitzy home to global companies with ambitions to become a world financial center by 2020.

The official Xinhua news agency said the government could not shake responsibility for what happened. It asked why there were apparently so few police on duty for the tens of thousands thronging Shanghai’s famous waterfront, known as the Bund.

“It was a lack of vigilance from the government, a sloppiness,” the news agency wrote.

Xinhua noted that the crush happened not far from a much trumpeted new free trade zone described as the “pride of the country”.

“The disaster, which happened in China’s financial hub of Shanghai, served as a wake-up call that the world’s second-largest economy is still a developing country which has fragile social management,” it said in an English-language commentary.

Shanghai people echoed those complaints.

“There was not enough policing and planning. It is really sad to see a stampede happen in a big city like Shanghai,” said resident Tang Lifeng, 38.

The site of the stampede was cordoned off on Friday, with grieving relatives holding a candlelight memorial. Most victims were students in their 20s.

City officials said one Taiwanese was among the dead. Of the 47 injured, 13 were in critical condition, they said.

The waterfront has become a New Year countdown site in recent years after authorities brought in performances such as 3D light shows and fireworks. Celebrations in 2013 drew more than 300,000 revelers.

Police have given few answers, saying an investigation is going on. On Thursday, they did not allow foreign media into a briefing, underscoring concern about negative coverage.

They have dismissed reports that a rush to pick up coupons thrown from a bar overlooking the Bund was the cause, with focus shifting to overcrowding on a raised viewing area.

The stampede has prompted unflattering comparisons with India, where stampedes are relatively common, another rapidly developing country and rival that many Chinese feel superior to.

“I originally thought that stampedes like this could only happen to Indians on pilgrimages,” Cheng Daolin, a manager at a Chinese engineering company, wrote on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter.

“In the space of one night, China has become like India, and Shanghai has become like Mumbai,” wrote another Weibo user.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

Volunteers carry bodies in a centre run by Medecins Sans Frontieres for Ebola patients in Kailahun July 18, 2014. CREDIT: REUTERS/WHO/TARIK JASAREVIC/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS/FILES

(Reuters) - The world can stamp out the Ebola outbreak in West Africa by the end of the year but months of tough work remain, the outgoing chief of the United Nations’ anti-Ebola mission said on Friday.

The outbreak, first identified in Guinea’s remote southeast in early 2014, has struck six West African nations, with Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia bearing the brunt of the 20,000 infections and nearly 8,000 dead.

Faced with criticism the world was not doing enough, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon set up the U.N. Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) mission in September to coordinate global efforts.

“We have not come anywhere close to ending the crisis. We’ve done a lot in 90 days in a very successful response but we have a long and difficult way to go,” Anthony Banbury told reporters in Accra, where the U.N. mission is based.

“It’s going to go on for not just weeks but some months more. But I believe we will do it in 2015 and we’re going to do it by working very closely not just with governments of the countries but the communities,” he said.

Banbury will be replaced by veteran humanitarian official Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania on Saturday.

A spike of cases in Sierra Leone meant UNMEER missed its target of ensuring that by early December 70 percent of all Ebola patients were being treated in isolation units and 70 percent of all those who died from Ebola were buried properly.

Banbury said there were now enough functioning treatment centers in the region.

The target of 100 percent safe burials by end of January 2015 was on track now that there were some 254 safe burial teams operating in the affected countries.

Six other countries, including Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, the United States, Spain and Britain, have reported cases imported from the worst affected countries.

Last week, a nurse was diagnosed with the virus in Britain upon her return from Sierra Leone. She is being treated with blood plasma from a survivor of the virus and an experimental antiviral drug, according to the London hospital treating her.

(Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Editing by David Lewis and Robin Pomeroy)

A customer takes a bottle of vodka from a shelf at a Russian supermarket in Benidorm, November 26, 2012. CREDIT: REUTERS/HEINO KALIS

(Reuters) - A quarter of all Russian men die before they reach their mid-fifties and their passion for alcohol – particularly vodka – is largely to blame, according to research published on Friday.

A study of more than 150,000 people found extraordinarily high premature death rates among male Russians, some of whom reported drinking three or more bottles a week of the potent clear spirit.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, deaths among heavy drinkers were mainly due to alcohol poisoning, accidents, violence and suicide, as well as diseases such as throat and liver cancer, tuberculosis, pneumonia, pancreatitis and liver disease.

“Russian death rates have fluctuated wildly over the past 30 years as alcohol restrictions and social stability varied under presidents Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin, and the main thing driving these wild fluctuations..was vodka,” said Richard Peto of Britain’s Oxford University, who worked on the study.

The researchers, including David Zaridze from the Russian Cancer Research Centre in Moscow, noted that whereas British death rates between age 15 and 54 have been falling steadily since 1980, mainly because so many people there have stopped smoking, Russian death rates in this age range have fluctuated sharply – often approximately in line with alcohol consumption.

Under Mikhail Gorbachev’s 1985 alcohol restrictions, alcohol consumption fell by around 25 percent – and so did the death rates, they said. And when communism in Russia collapsed, alcohol consumption went up steeply, as did death rates.

More recently, since Russian alcohol policy reforms were introduced in 2006, consumption of spirits has fallen by about a third and so has the risk of death before age 55, the researchers said – although that risk is “still substantial”.

For this study, published in the Lancet medical journal, researchers asked 151,000 people how much vodka they drank, and whether they smoked, then monitored them for up to a decade.

Around 8,000 of them died during that time, and the results showed much higher risks of death in men who smoked and who also drank three or more half-liter bottles of vodka a week than in men who smoked and drank less than one bottle a week.

Zaridze described the relationship between vodka and deaths as a “health crisis” for Russia, but stressed it could also be turned around if people were to drink more moderately.

“The significant decline in Russian mortality rates following the introduction of moderate alcohol controls in 2006 demonstrates the reversibility,” he said.

“People who drink spirits in hazardous ways greatly reduce their risk of premature death as soon as they stop.”

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

FILE PHOTO: Red-eared slider turtle (Reuters / Bab)

 (Reuters Health) - One in four children younger than age five who were infected with Salmonella got the disease from a pet reptile in a recent UK study.

The children with reptile-associated infections were significantly younger than other kids with Salmonella infections, more likely to be hospitalized and more likely to have invasive infections that affected the blood or brain.

“In a household with both toddlers (or young infants) and reptile pets, there is good reason to exercise reasonable caution,” Dr. Daniel Murphy of Royal Cornwall Hospital in England told Reuters Health by email.

Salmonella is a type of bacterium most often linked with food poisoning, and generally causes symptoms such as nausea and vomiting. However, noted Murphy, who led the new study, more serious cases can cause blood poisoning, meningitis and bone infection.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1.2 million Americans are infected with Salmonella every year.

People with compromised immune systems, as well as young children and infants are the most susceptible to infection, according to Dr. Christoph Berger of the University Children’s Hospital Zurich in Switzerland, who was not involved in the study.

Murphy and another researcher used data on Salmonella infections in children under five years old in the South West area of the UK from 2010 to 2013.

They examined the records to determine whether the infected child had been exposed to reptiles like lizards or snakes and whether he or she had been hospitalized for the infection.

Of the 175 cases examined, 48 children had been exposed to reptiles. Among those with reptile exposure, about half were hospitalized – compared to less than one fifth of the children without reptile exposure.

The median age of kids with Salmonella cases linked to reptiles was six months old, compared to about one year among kids not exposed to reptiles.

The researchers write in Archives of Diseases in Childhood that there are multiple strains of Salmonella bacteria and the ones associated with reptiles tend to be different from those seen in food poisoning, which may explain the more severe symptoms seen in reptile-associated cases.

Eight of the 48 children with infections linked to reptiles had blood infections, meningitis or colitis. In comparison, only four of 127 cases not associated with reptiles had such serious infections.

Salmonella is transferred from pets to humans when a reptile excretes the bacteria out of its gut, Murphy said. This is especially dangerous for young toddlers, who may be in an “oral exploration phase” and are more likely to ingest the bacteria, he said.

Berger recommended hand washing after any contact with turtles and other reptiles, but also noted that for children under one year, “there is a high risk for indirect transmission and disease caused by Salmonella (even if the baby has no direct contact with the reptile.)”

Murphy and his coauthor caution that as indoor reptiles become more popular as pets, more children are likely to be hospitalized with Salmonella infections and doctors need to be aware of this risk.

Murphy recommends that parents of young children with indoor reptile pets should consider restricting the reptile’s access to the same spaces the child uses.

Parents of young children looking to get a reptile “should consider holding off on that until the child is past the oral exploration stage, stopped crawling and old enough to wash their own hands,” he said.

SOURCE: bmj.co/1tBKYmd Archives of Diseases in Childhood, online December 22, 2014.

FILE PHOTO: Mga bagong licence plate (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines — Available na simula ngayong araw ng Lunes – Enero 05, sa mga motorista ang bagong license plates para mapalitan ang mga lumang plaka sa ilalim ng plate standardization program.

Ayon kay DOTCH Secretary Emilio “Jun” Abaya, napapanahon nang i-phase out ang mga lumang plaka at gamitin ang security feature-packed license plates.

Maaari nila itong makuha kapag nag-renew ng vehicle registration ngayong taon.

Ang nasabing plate standardization program ay sinimulan noong 2014 at inaasahang matatapos hanggang 2017.

Naniniwala ang mga otoridad na sa pamamagitan nito ay mareresolba ang problema sa tanggal plaka at plate switching na kalimitang ginagawa ng mga kriminal. (UNTV News)

An Indonesian Navy seaboat (R) picks up items retrieved from the Republic of Singapore Navy vessel RSS Valour in this handout photo provided by Singapore’s Ministry of Defence, released to Reuters January 4, 2015. REUTERS/Singapore Ministry of Defence/Handout via Reuters

(Reuters) - Bad weather forced divers trying to identify sunken wreckage from a crashed AirAsia passenger jet to abort their mission on Sunday and Indonesian officials said they had not yet picked up any signals from the lost plane’s “black box”.

Indonesia’s meteorological agency has said seasonal tropical storms probably contributed to last Sunday’s crash and the weather has persistently hampered efforts to recover bodies and find the cockpit voice and flight data recorders that may explain why the Airbus A320-200 plunged into the sea.

“Conditions did not allow diving operations,” the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, told a news conference in Jakarta. “Our priority is to dive in the location we suspect parts of the plane to be.”

Flight QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea about 40 minutes after taking off last Sunday from Indonesia’s second-largest city Surabaya en route for Singapore. There were no survivors.

The main focus of the search is about 90 nautical miles off the coast of Borneo island, where five large objects believed to be parts of the plane — the largest about 18 meters (59 feet) long — have been pinpointed by ships using sonar.

“Based on past experience, the black box is not far from the plane debris we have found,” Soelistyo said. But he added that none of the searching ships had detected any “pings”, the locator signals the black box should transmit after a crash.

Until investigators can examine the black box recorders the cause of the crash remains a mystery, but the area is known for intense seasonal storms. BMKG, Indonesia’s meteorological agency, has said bad weather may have caused ice to form on the aircraft’s engines.

“The flight document provided by the BMKG office shows fairly worrying weather conditions for the aircraft at cruising level on the chosen route,” the agency said in a report.

BAD WEATHER

Both flight recorders are located near the tail of the Airbus, but it was unclear whether that part of the aircraft was among the debris found on the seabed.

“Based on the finding of pieces of debris it looks like the body of the aircraft split or cracked and was separated from its tail,” said Air Force Lt Col Johnson Supriyadi, a search and rescue official co-ordinating the operation from the southern Borneo town of Pangkalan Bun.

The suspected wreckage is lying in water around 30 meters deep, which experts say should make it relatively straightforward to recover.

Nine ships from four countries have converged on the area, with teams of divers including seven Russian experts standing ready, but strong winds and four-meter high waves have kept progress agonizingly slow.

“There’s a storm … Earlier, four divers were transferred to (Indonesian navy ship) KRI Banda Aceh but they canceled the diving because the sea currents were too strong,” said a Reuters photographer on board one vessel.

Second Sergeant Akhyar of the search and rescue agency described what it was like being winched onto the deck of a ship to collect bodies in such conditions.

“The wind makes you spin and I’m quite light, so I get blown left and right, swinging,” he said.

BODIES MAY BE IN FUSELAGE

Thirty-four bodies of the mostly Indonesian passengers and crew have so far been recovered, including some still strapped in their seats. Many more may be still trapped in the fuselage of the aircraft.

“This big part of the plane, we still have hope that victims are still inside the body of the plane,” said Soelistiyo, adding that he was referring to one of the five objects found.

The crash was the first fatal accident suffered by the AirAsia budget group, whose Indonesian affiliate flies from at least 15 destinations across the sprawling archipelago.

The airline has come under pressure from Indonesian authorities, who have suspended its Surabaya to Singapore operations saying the carrier only had a license to fly the route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Indonesia AirAsia said it would co-operate with the transport ministry while it investigates the license.

A joint statement from Singapore’s civil aviation authority (CAAS) and Changi Airport Group said that AirAsia had the necessary approvals to operate a daily flight between Surabaya and Singapore.

(Additional reporting by Beawiharta ABOARD KN PURWOREJO, Nilufar Rizki, Adriana Nina Kusuma, Chris Nusatya, Cindy Silviana, Kanupriya Kapoor, Michael Taylor, Charlotte Greenfield and Nicholas Owen in JAKARTA, and Anshuman Daga in SINGAPORE; Writing by Alex Richardson; Editing by Michael Perry, Kim Coghill and Gareth Jones)

Ang pagprotesta ng iba’t-ibang grupo sa harapan ng Korte Suprema upang hilinging ipatigil ang ipinatutupad na MRT-LRT fare hike. (PHOTOVILLE International)

MANILA, Philippines — Bilang pagtutol ng sa pagtaas ng pamasahe sa MRT, LRT1 at LRT2, sama samang nagkilos-protesta ilang mga militanteng grupo at naghain ng petition sa Korte Suprema ng temporary restraining order para mapatigil ito.

Alas-7 pa lang ng umaga, nagtipon na ang mga miltanteng grupo sa ilalim ng Recto Station sa LRT 2.

Ang sigaw ng grupo hindi makatarungan ang pagtaas mahigit isang daang porsyento sa pamasahe sa MRT, LRT 1 at LRT 2.

Sa ngayon kasi, ang dating 15 pesos na pamasahe sa MRT mula North Avenue Station hanggang Taft Avenue,  28 pesos na ngayon. Para makarating naman mula recto hanggang Santolan Sakay ang LRT 2 aabot na sa 25 pesos ang pamasahe. Habang trenta pesos mula baclaran hanggang Roosevelt Avenue kung sakay ka naman ng LRT 1

Ang taas pasahe na ito, malaking pasanin sa mahigit 1.3 million commuters lalo na’t tumataas din ang presyo ng bilihin.

Kaya naman, bitbit ang kanilang mga placard at tarpaulin, nananawagan ang mga grupo na, bawiin ng Department of Transportation and Communication ang mandato sa dagdag pasahe.

Nag-martsa ang mga grupo hanggang Korte Suprema at naghain ng petition for issuance of temporary restraining order para ipatigil ang taas pasahe.

Ayon sa Secretary General ng Bagong Alyansang Makabayan na si Renato Reyes, Illegal ang fare increase at wala umano kapangyarihan si DOTC Sec. Abaya na itaas ang pasahe sa mga tren gayong hindi ito sumailalim sa public hearing. (JOYCE BALANCIO / UNTV News)

Pauline Cafferkey was transferred on to a Hercules transport plane at Glasgow Airport in Scotland on 30 December.(Reuters/Stringer)

British nurse na may Ebola, nasa kritikal na kondisyon

Nasa kritikal na kondisyon ang isang British nurse na tinamaan ng sakit na Ebola.

Ang nurse na kinilalang si Pauline Cafferkey ay ginagamot sa Royal Free Hospital sa Great Britain.

Si Cafferkey ang kauna-unahang na-diagnose na may sakit na Ebola sa naturang bansa.

Ngayon ay nasa specially designed tent ang 39-anyos na nurse upang makontrol at maiwasan ang panganib na dala ng nakamamatay na virus.

Sa tala ng World Health Organization (WHO), umaabot na sa halos 8,000 tao ang namatay dahil sa Ebola, habang nalagpasan na nito ang 20,000 na nahawaan ng sakit sa Sierra Leone, Liberia, at Guinea.

Bumagsak na AirAsia plane, walang lisensya na lumipad sa rutang Surabaya-Singapore sa araw ng linggo

Inihayag na ng Indonesian authorities na wala pa lang lisensiya ang AirAsia na bumiyahe sa Surabaya-Singapore rout tuwing araw ng linggo.

Magugunitang araw ng linggo nang bumagsak ang AirAsia sa karagatang sakop ng Indonesia.

Ayon sa ministry of transport ng Indonesia, ang nasabing airline ay pinapayagan lamang na bumiyahe ng apat na beses sa loob ng isang linggo, hindi kasama ang araw ng linggo.

Maliban rito, iimbestigahan din ng Indonesia ang iba pang airlines na nag-o-operate sa nasabing bansa para siguruhing sumusunod ang mga ito sa license agreements.

Sinabi naman ng Indonesia AirAsia CEO na si Sunu Widyatmoko na makikipag-ugnayan sila sa mga awtoridad habang nagpapatuloy ang imbestigasyon.

Hindi na rin sila maglalabas ng anumang impormasyon hanggang hindi pa tapos ang isinasagawang imbestigasyon sa insidente.

Sa ngayon ay aabot na sa 34 ang bilang ng mga bangkay na na-recover sa bumagsak na AirAsia flight QZ8501.

2 nawawala, mahigit 30 bahay tinupok ng apoy sa pananalasa ng bushfire sa South Australia

Dalawa ang nawawala at mahigit 30 bahay na ang tinupok ng bushfire sa South Australia.

Tatlong araw nang inaapula ng mahigit 500 fire-fighters ang bushfire na umabot na sa Adelaide Hills.

Daan-daang pamilya na ang lumikas ng kanilang tahanan at ang ilan ay sapilitan nang pinaalis ng mga awtoridad kahit walang dalang kagamitan. (UNTV News)

Ang bagong fare rate ng MRT at LRT na pinasimulang ipatupad nitong Linggo, January 04, 2015. (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines – Sinimulan nang ipatupad nitong Linggo ng Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) ang P11.00 base fare at pisong dagdag pasahe sa bawat kilometro ng biyahe ng MRT at LRT.

Iba’t iba ang naging reaksyon ng mga commuter sa bagong fare increase.

Marami sa mga regular na pasahero ng MRT at LRT ang nabigatan sa laki ng itinaas ng pamasahe.
Ayon sa kanila, malaki ang epekto nito sa kanilang mga budget.

Para kay Joyce Salvador,”Sobra yung pataas. Hindi po dapat ganoon kataas.”

Hinain naman ni Ginang Maria Sandra, “Masyadong malaki (epekto ng pagtaas ng pamasahe sa MRT-LRT) para sa katulad naming walang trabaho.”

Mula sa dating P15.00, umakyat na ngayon sa P28.00 ang pasahe sa MRT mula North Avenue hanggang Taft Avenue Stations.

Umakyat naman sa P30.00, mula sa dating P20.00 ang singil sa LRT-1 na biyaheng Baclaran to Roosevelt, habang P25.00 naman ang bayad mula Recto hanggang Santolan stations ng LRT-2.
Bagama’t malaki ang itinaas ng pamasahe, mas pinipili pa rin ng ilan nating mga kababayan na sumakay ng MRT at LRT upang makaiwas sa masikip na daloy ng trapiko.

Samantala, umaasa naman ang ilan na kasunod ng dagdag pasahe ay magkaroon na ng mas maayos na serbisyo at mga pasilidad ang LRT at MRT.

Ani Faiz Algrabre, “Inaasahan namin improvement. So, di pa natin makikita ngayon dahil kung tutuusin ngayon palang nagtaaas eh. We’ll never know a month or two kung makikita natin may improvement sa service nila.”

Gayun din naman si Ginoong Flor Valencia,”Sana pagandahin yung serbisyo nila.” (Earl Camilo / Ruth Navales, UNTV News)

COURTESY: Screenshot from the website of Packaging Institute of the Philippines.

MANILA, Philippines – Itinalaga si Engineer Roman Buenafe bilang bagong General Manager ng MRT Line 3.

Ayon kay DOTC Secretary Emilio “Jun”  Abaya, ikinalugod niya ang pangtanggap ni Buenafe sa posisyon dahil karamihan sa mga nauna niyang inalok ay tumanggi.

Graduate si Buenafe ng Mechanical Engineering sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas.

Samantala, babalik naman sa dating puwesto si Renato San Jose bilang head ng operations ng MRT 3.

Inamin naman ni Secretary Abaya na walang karanasan si Buenafe sa pamamalakad sa MRT.

“Wala, kasi rarely would you find people, rarely would you find someone would be willing to take oath as MRT3 GM considering all thenattention and the criticism, in fact it was courageous of him to join me in DOTC,” ani Abaya. (UNTV News)