Bird flu has been detected in northern Cyprus, according to the European Commission. Tests on dead birds showed they were carrying the lethal H5N1 strain, the Brussels body said yesterday.

Source: Financial Times

Two more bird flu outbreaks have occurred. Guess where?

China on Friday reported two new outbreaks of bird flu among its vast poultry flocks, even as it released dozens of farmers and villagers from medical observation with clean bills of health.

The latest poultry outbreaks were hundreds of miles apart - in the northern province of Shanxi and the far northwestern region of Xinjiang, the official Xinhua News Agency said. All poultry on nearby farms were killed as a precaution.

China has reported 15 outbreaks of bird flu in poultry since Oct. 19 and has promised tough control measures to prevent human infections.

The country confirmed its first human cases of bird flu on Wednesday - a woman who died and a boy who recovered. The boy’s sister, who died, is a suspected case. But dozens of people who had contact with the three patients showed no signs of the disease, Xinhua said.

“In 2003, we triumphed over SARS,” Premier Wen Jiabao was quoted as saying on state television, referring to another deadly disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome. “It shows that we will triumph over bird flu as well.”

–Famous last words?

Source

–I really want to visit China sometime soon. I hope bird flu doesn’t get out of hand/mutate, but not for my own selfish reasons of wanting to travel there.

bird flu, china, sars, health, poultry, disease

Update: 57 people were killed, 600 injured in the simulataneous bombings at the Radisson Hotel, Grand Hyatt, and Days Inn in Amman Jordan.

Reuters has a map and more text.

Source

This dude drove by the scene at both hotels.

terrorism, amman, jordan

A parrot in quarantine was found to have Avian Bird Flu which came from South America and died in quarantine.

Cats used to detect Bird Flu

My cat will save me

So is the H5N1 Avian Bird Flu real or just a media hoax ala Y2K?

Mr. Pink thinks so.

Mr. Pink’s Prediction

Bloggers around the net think the blogosphere will have to take part in helping prevent the pandemic from happening by educating the public and keeping communication lines open and free. Bloggers can do this safely from the comfort of their homes thus keeping you (assuming you are reading said blogs in your chair in front of your computer) out of harms way. Just wait till you need to purchase toilet paper.

A slightly smaller crisis, but not less important, will be when the entire blogger community and the readers on the net finally unstick their butts from their computer chairs and get up at the same time to purchase toilet paper at the store. Can you imagine the long “bread lines,” except this will be for TP.

Some bloggers are predicting that a major economic crisis will happen if the bird flu materializes, setting us back to the stone age. If this is true, we will all be wiping our asses with leaves.

bird flu, bird flu hoax, media hoax, toilet paper, bloggers, H5N1

I just read an excellent post on why a Bird Flu Pandemic will kill newspapers.

Xarker says:

In the midst of a pandemic, you’re going to turn to the web — and increasingly to topic-expert bloggers, not journalists — for the important information. Newspapers? Hell, who wants to pick up a potentially germ-covered physical object that some stranger just threw at your porch?

Xark is making several predictions in this post. Here is another one.

Once the pandemic comes to call, once the schools shut down and the travel restrictions pop up and the stores close and the recession begins, you’re going to see the same people who can’t be bothered to read about “some flu in Asia” today transformed into H5N1 experts.

So why is the Bird Flu Pandemic now hitting the news with intense fury?
Bird Flu samples found in Romanian Duck turd
Indonesian teenager cleared of bird flu dies
Australia Giving 10million to Jakarta

Kevin Sites better stay away from the Bird Flu zones.

USAToday has something to say on this:

Katrina hit just days after Bush finished John M. Barry’s The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History during his August vacation on his ranch, White House spokesman Scott McClellan says.

Apparently motivated by the frightening tale of the 1918 epidemic, which killed an estimated 150,000 people in the USA and 50 million worldwide, Bush said last week that the military might be needed to enforce quarantines.

Sounds like it was homework assigned by Mr Cheney :).

Scientific reports released on the heels of Bush’s statement increased the nation’s anxiety. In one, Jeffery Taubenberger of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and his team said in the journal Nature that the 1918 pandemic began when the virus leapt from birds to humans, a scenario that mirrors what is happening in Asia today.

In a bid to contain the current epidemic, officials in Southeast Asia have slaughtered 140 million birds. That has not stopped the virus from spreading.

Bush met last week with the chief executives of four vaccine companies to determine how he can help them boost production enough to safeguard the population. The State Department on Friday convened a meeting of health officials from 80 countries to map out plans to arrest the flu’s spread.

The predictions for disaster of A/H5N1 are very dire. The death rate for the bird flu mutation that has jumped to humans is 50%. 117 infected worldwide with 60 deaths.

Its like a legitimate version of podcasting journalism taken to an extreme level.

Mission:

To cover every armed conflict* in the world within one year, and in doing so to provide a clear idea of the combatants, victims, causes, and costs of each of these struggles - and their global impact. With honest, thoughtful reporting we’ll strive to establish Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone as a forum for information and involvement. Users will not only learn about the scope of world conflict, but will find ways to be part of the solutions- through dialogue, debate, and avenues for action.

How they are going to do it:

Veteran war correspondent Kevin Sites will travel solo to these conflict zones, aided by a U.S.-based “mission control” team: Producer Robert Padavick (NBC News, CNN) and Researcher Lisa Liu (Radio Free Asia, International Medical Corps).

Using the latest technology, including high-definition digital cameras and satellite modems, Kevin will deliver stories via a five-fingered multimedia platform of text, photography, video, audio, and interactive chat.

I guess they’ll be using the Yahoo Messenger with Voice when they can. I can’t say enough how cool I think this project is. Big applause for Yahoo for putting this together and basically making big news networks look a little bit smaller.

Yahoo Hot Zone

The FBI has warned New York officials of a specific terrorist threat to New York and/or its subway.

I don’t think anyone called it, but the stock market has been selling off hard the last two days and it may be related.

New York City’s subway system was put under heightened alert Thursday after officials received information from the FBI about a “specific threat,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

A well-placed U.S. military official told CNN on Thursday that the same intelligence also led to a raid against suspected al Qaeda operatives in Iraq.

There were indications that a terrorist attack on New York’s subway system is possible “in the coming days,” said New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Source

Harriett Miers was nominated the next Supreme Court Judge to replace Sandra Day O’Connor around 8:30 am this morning.

Some tidbits:
Born in Dallas, Texas (shocker)
Graduated from Southern Methodist University and went to law school there.

Experience:
2004-present, White House counsel
2003-2004, White House deputy chief of staff for policy
2001-2003, White House staff secretary

Apparently Democrats are “happy” with the decision so far, because Bush’s right wing base was demanding a nomination that would cater to their beliefs. It is unclear so far if Miers, will ride the same path as the right wing, that might be due to her lack of experience in being a judge (ie none).

However, we can assume that since she agress with the President on law and policy, went to a religious school(?), that she will probably have views that are good for the right base. Another slap on the back for the good ole boys Republican politics.

Jonathan Turley, an NBC analyst and law professor at George Washington University said:

Miers’ resume is not as impressive as some of her predecessors nominated from non-judiciary positions.

There have been people who have gone to the court who have not been judges. The difference is that William Rehnquist (the last such justice to be nominated without having been a judge) had served in various high-level positions within the administration

Someone like Abe Fortus, who was the personal attorney to President Johnson had handled an election dispute for Johnson, was one of the most renowned lawyers of his age and had taught at Yale Law School.

When you look at people like that - even thought they hadn’t been on the bench - they were without question on everyone’s top list. They were highly qualified.

You don’t want to be cruel, but these are frank times. We have to be frank over whether this is the person who should be on the court. No one that I know of would have put Harriet Miers on any list for the Court. She just doesn’t have the resume to justify such a decision. Being on the Texas Lottery Commission or the Dallas City Council are not the things you look to for a Supreme Court Justice nominee.

Source

Hispanics are pissed off with the decision too. If you are Hispanic and voted for Bush, are you pissed off or don’t care?

Harriet Miers, President Bush, Supreme Court

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and conservative leader Angela Merkel said they would talk to each other on forming a new government after Sunday’s election stalemate, but each insisted on leading it.

Merkel, still looking subdued and shocked after an unexpectedly poor showing in the vote, struck a conciliatory tone in promising to talk with all parties except the far-left Left Party.

“We don’t have a preference,” she told reporters, insisting however that her Christian Democrats (CDU) and their sister Christian Social Union (CSU) had come out on top in the vote, giving her the right to replace Schroeder as chancellor.

Schroeder’s Social Democrats (SPD), energised by a result that put them just a percentage point behind Merkel’s party despite forecasts of a blow-out, continued to sound defiant.

“It is clear that Germans do not want Mrs Merkel as their chancellor,” SPD chief Franz Muentefering told a news briefing. “We have a responsibility to make clear that we want to rule with Mr Schroeder as chancellor and implement much of that which we have undertaken to do.”

The likeliest outcome to Germany’s most inconclusive election in the post-war era remains a “grand coalition” of the CDU/CSU and SPD.

OCTOBER DEADLINE

But divergences between the parties — not only about who should lead but also over CDU pledges to free up the labour market and its opposition to Turkey joining the European Union — could prevent any accord before an October 18 deadline for the new parliament to sit.

The weeks leading up to that date will be characterised by much grandstanding and hard-nosed politics, as the SPD, CDU/CSU and their potential partners, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens, manoeuvre to get the most out of the talks.

Both the Greens and the FDP, which with nearly 10 percent did far better than anticipated, will now be wooed by rival camps, although leaders from both parties vowed on Monday not to be lured into a three-way coalition.

In the meantime, the uncertainty weighed heavily on financial markets, which before the election had hoped for a clean sweep by Merkel’s conservatives and the FDP — a grouping that had vowed deep economic reforms.

Who did you vote for?