washington jan afp
scientists have succeeded in tracking the patient to patient transmission of the
multi drug resistant mrsa bacteria which they hope will allow for better
control and prevention of the dreaded superbug
for the first time researchers have determined how mrsa spreads from one person
to another particularly in hospitals the setting where the bacteria often
proliferates
the ability to track strains in this way will enable researchers to understand
how strains can spread so rapidly and should lead to novel infection control
strategies not only for mrsa but also for other emerging superbugs said
statement from the wellcome trust sanger institute in britain which conducted
the study in cooperation with the university of bath
scientists used sophisticated dna sequencing technologies to compare individual
mrsa samples from patients to precisely show how closely related they were
genetically
the study was able to identify incremental changes in the genetic code and to
identify differences between even the most closely related of mrsa specimens
the super bug resistance to treatment has created major health challenge
particularly in the hospital setting where it often proliferates
stephen bentley the senior author on the paper said the study allows
researchers and public health officials to determine how infections spread from
person to person from hospital to hospital from country to country
the study took one set of samples taken from people across the globe who
became infected with mrsa between and
second set of samples came from single hospital in northeast thailand and
consists of probes from patients who had developed mrsa infection within
seven months of each other all possibly linked by person to person
transmission
the team sequenced the entire genomes of all the samples using cutting edge dna
sequencing technology which was able to reveal minute genetic changes and
showed that no two infections were caused by entirely identical bacteria
having identified the subtle genetic differences the researchers divided the
thai hospital samples into two groups and found five that were extremely
similar
this group of five related mrsa strains caused infections in patients who were
resident in intensive care units in adjacent blocks of the hospital explains
ed feil from the department of biology and biochemistry at the university of
bath and one of the main authors on the study
bacteria from patients housed in other parts of the hospital were much less
similar he said
to better understand better the evolution and spread of mrsa over several
decades and large geographic distances the team also looked at samples from
hospitals in north and south america europe australia and asia collected over
period of more than two decades
mrsa methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus is type of staph skin
infection that usually starts as an outbreak of small red bumps that can quickly
turn into deep painful abscesses requiring surgical draining
while the bacteria sometimes remains confined to the skin it can also penetrate
the body causing potentially life threatening infections in the bones joints
surgical wounds heart or lungs
mrsa shot to prominence in recent years as many people catch the bug while being
treated in hospitals leading to health officials to ban doctor from wearing
their traditional white coats in favor of plastic aprons in bid to reduce the
risks of transmission
in the united states mrsa is the cause of more than percent of all hospital
infections according to the centers for disease control and preventions mrsa
in infected people and killed in the united states
sacked french workers lock up bosses at swedish firm
fraisses france jan afp
french workers facing job losses from the closure of swedish owned metals
plant were holding four managers captive on thursday to press demands for better
severance pay
the factory director human resources director and two other bosses at the
akers plant in central france were detained wednesday by workers angry over the
shutdown and loss of jobs
after spending the night in factory meeting room the managers tried thursday
to persuade the angry workers to let them go
there is no other solution than to let us out the company directors have
stripped us of our mandate to negotiate said factory director laurent
dousselin
court in nearby saint etienne ordered the immediate release of the four men
but justice official who turned up at the factory to meet with them was
blocked from entering
no one has the right to treat us like trash and get rid of us with just
euros dollars said one worker at the site in fraisses southwest of
lyon
union officials said they were demanding lay off package of euros for
each worker but the managers said the swedish headquarters were refusing to
negotiate while the bosses were being held
french industry minister christian estrosi backed akers saying there can be no
dialogue until the managers have recovered their full freedom
akers announced three months ago that it planned to shut down the fraisses plant
in june citing collapse in customer orders
workers drank coffee and ate sandwiches outside the plant on thursday and
bitterly complained that they were not being compensated sufficiently for their
loss of income
they shouldn take us for naive fools said ludovic maintenance worker
french workers last year carried out series of bossnappings to protest
layoffs but no such radical action has been taken over the past months
president nicolas sarkozy in april spoke out against the detentions saying
there were illegal and vowed to take action
haitians rush for cash as bank re opens
port au prince jan afp
hundreds of haitians rushed thursday to make deposits and withdraw cash as
main bank re opened almost nine days after massive earthquake left the capital
city in ruins
under extremely tight security including individual screenings of customers and
their documents and shut down of the surrounding street patrons of the
central bank of haiti brh stood in single file to await visit to teller
because the main brh offices were damaged in the quake the bank was forced to
open for business at the nearby offices of construction company
these are temporary counters which can offer limited number of operations
such as depositing checks and money or taking out money but cannot carry out
more complicated transactions like currency exchanges the bank security
chief yves willy riviere told afp
renee lafortune nurse came to the temporary bank along with hundreds of
other hospital employees and said she simply could not wait
don have any more cash and can borrow money from my friends because
they are in the same situation she said
haiti devastating january earthquake sent prices soaring as the population
competed for basic supplies amid general shortages and an influx of foreigners
with dollars
traders have been making huge profits selling water oil and phone cards
milliliter bag of water that once cost gourde now costs three the soda
that cost gourde now costs
phone cards despite having the price labeled on them also cost double so too
cigarettes and alcohol especially for luxuries like single cooked meal
prices in the capital of the poorest country in the region are now comparable to
those in madrid or rome
one bank customer truck driver fenelon rolso pledged to take all the money he
could get from the wad of checks in his hand to get as far away from here as
quickly as possible
rolso said he feared the whole city might soon be evacuated due to the rising
risk of diseases in the squalid open air refugee camps where most inhabitants
are now forced to live
two french military officers engineering specialists inspected the nearby brh
building the facade of which was mostly made from glass
from the outside the building seems healthy but we must check inside to see
if the structure can withstand further shocks said one of the officers who
asked not to be named
we will then advise the bank chief of our decision
ex foreign minister says britain was keen to avoid iraq war
london jan afp
britain wanted to avoid the war in iraq its foreign secretary at the time
said thursday saying that backing the conflict was the most difficult decision
have ever faced in my life
jack straw the first serving cabinet minister to give evidence to public
inquiry into the us led conflict insisted however that ministers made the best
judgements possible in the run up to the invasion
straw who is currently justice secretary in prime minister gordon brown
government gave evidence week before former premier tony blair makes his
long awaited appearance on january
blair will be grilled on the reasons for the conflict amid doubts about the
intelligence on iraq weapons of mass destruction wmd used to justify the
invasion and blair professed desire to remove iraqi leader saddam hussein
in his evidence straw insisted that so called regime change was not britain
aim and said he made clear at the time that any use of force to depose saddam
under this objective would have been improper and unlawful
in page memorandum submitted to the inquiry ahead of his verbal evidence
he accepted that from early there was no secret whatever that us military
action against iraq backed by britain was possibility
but he wrote our foreign policy objective was the disarmament of iraq and its
compliance with un security council resolution not military action
against iraq nor regime change
had never wanted war but the strategy we had adopted to secure iraq
disarmament was diplomacy backed by the threat of force
reluctantly but firmly came to the view that to enforce iraq disarmament
obligations we had no option but to proceed with military action if saddam
hussein did not respond to final ultimatum
saddam could have complied with the weapons inspections regime provided for
under resolution which was passed in november in which case straw
told the inquiry that would have been the end of it from our point of view
the wmd were never found in iraq and witnesses to the inquiry have admitted the
intelligence pointing to them was patchy
straw admitted the government had made an error in september
intelligence dossier on iraq which claimed saddam had wmd which could be
launched within minutes
plainly that reference should have been much more precise because it only ever
referred in the intelligence to battlefield weapons that was an error and it is
an error that has haunted us ever since he said
however he insisted that the document was never designed as case for war
but was aimed at alerting british lawmakers to the threat iraq posed adding
that the intelligence it contained was not the only reason for concern
he had formed judgment about iraq based on its previous aggressive behaviour
towards its neighbours its use of chemical weapons on its own people and
previous attempts to conceal wmd
on personal note straw wrote in his memorandum that backing military action
was the most difficult decision have ever faced in my life
made my choice he wrote have never backed away from it and do not
intend to do so and fully accept the responsibilities which flow from that
believed at the time and still believe that we made the best judgements
we could have done in the circumstances
high level talks on new russia us nuclear pact report
moscow jan afp
senior officials from the united states and russia held talks thursday on new
nuclear disarmament treaty interfax news agency reported after both sides said
significant progress had been made
us and russian negotiators have been in lengthy talks on replacement for the
strategic arms reduction treaty start key cold war era disarmament
pact which expired in december
us national security adviser james jones and chairman of the joint chiefs of
staff mike mullen took part in the discussions in moscow with their russian
counterparts interfax said without providing the names of the russian
officials
the discussions are occurring behind closed doors interfax quoted russian
diplomatic source as saying
russian president dmitry medvedev said last weekend that the two countries had
made significant progress towards new nuclear disarmament treaty
us under secretary of state william burns said recently that the two sides were
on the verge of deal
the broad outlines of the new treaty have been clear since summit in july
when us president barack obama and medvedev agreed that the replacement treaty
should slash the number of warheads on either side to between and
the presidents also agreed that the number of carriers capable of delivering the
warheads should be limited to between and
the united states has said it currently has some nuclear warheads while
russia is believed to have about
top obama ally no rush on health care
washington jan afp
president barack obama top ally in the us congress on thursday played down
prospects for quick solution to the election year impasse on his top domestic
goal remaking us health care
democratic house speaker nancy pelosi said she did not have the votes to pass
the senate version of the sweeping legislation unchanged widely discussed
path to enacting the historic overhaul
in its present form without changes don think it possible she told
reporters shortly after talks with senate democratic majority leader harry reid
don see the votes for it at this time
pelosi who qualified her doubts by saying everything is on the table to
achieve the democrats ambitious goal underlined we re not in big rush to
craft compromise and pledged we ll take the time it needs
we will go forward vowed the california democrat the present system is
unsustainable
shock defeat in special election on tuesday stripped democrats of their
already unreliable vote supermajority in the senate technically enabling
republicans united against the effort to stall the bill indefinitely
top democrats in the senate and house of representatives had been working with
the white house to meld the two chambers rival bills and push the compromise
version through but face narrowing legislative path to success
house democrats met earlier to consider their options including passing the
senate bill and trying to change it later crafting stripped down measure or
pushing series of what one lawmaker called bite sized health care proposals
anchored on largely uncontroversial items in the giant package
republicans gleeful over winning the massachusetts senate seat held for nearly
half century by democratic icon ted kennedy have said tuesday election
means the democratic approach is dead
democrats hoped to have clear plan before obama delivers his marquee state of
the union speech on wednesday aides said
rugbyu mauger heading home to new zealand
london jan afp
aaron mauger is to leave leicester at the end of the european season and head
back to new zealand in bid to regain place in the all blacks squad for next
year world cup on home soil
the year old centre joined reigning english champions leicester after the end
of the world cup where new zealand were beaten by france in the quarter
finals in cardiff
mauger who won all black caps between to scoring tries plans
to return to canterbury and then see if he can force his way back into new
zealand coach graham henry plans
mauger who helped the tigers win the english premiership title last season and
reach the european cup final told thursday leicester mercury am leaving
leicester which is pretty sad but want to go back to new zealand and look at
the opportunities of playing over there again with an eye on the world cup
my desire is to play again for the all blacks and canterbury and give it my
best crack
have talked to the all blacks coaches caught up with them during their
autumn tour and have had some discussions through my agent with the new zealand
rugby union nzru about possible contract
we are sorting out that central contract now it just depends on me being in
the right space to sign something
he added know there are no guarantees but the correspondence have had with
the nzru has been pretty positive
they want me to give it my best shot and if am playing well enough will
be in with chance of making the all blacks squad
obama bank plan roils jittery stock markets
london jan afp
european and us stocks plunged on thursday despite unexpectedly good results
from wall street juggernaut goldman sachs after president barack obama outlined
plans to regulate the banking sector
obama proposed size caps for the biggest us banks in dramatic shake up of the
sector after spending billions in taxpayer dollars to save too big to fail
financial giants from toppling the world biggest economy
never again will the american taxpayer be held hostage by bank that is too
big to fail obama said at the white house alongside former federal reserve
chief paul volcker who advised him and helped frame the new rules
the president blamed banks and financial crisis for sparking the worst economic
crisis since the great depression with huge reckless risks in pursuit of quick
profits and massive bonuses in binge of irresponsibility
us stocks reacted negatively to the plans with the blue chip dow index down
percent and the nasdaq down percent in afternoon trading
if enacted proposals of this kind would curtail big banks earnings power
which is not positive consideration for their investors said patrick hare
an analyst at financial market analysis site briefing com
investor nerves also frayed over concerns that china economy might be
overheating and that debt levels in some european countries are getting out of
control
in addition there were broader fears of possible return to recession this
year
china economy expanded by percent in new data out on thursday
showed while the business consultancy pricewaterhousecoopers pwc forecast
that china could overtake the us as the world top economy by
but china biggest rise in inflation in months underlined the broader
challenges of breakneck growth and came as the world bank and international
monetary fund warned again that the country could face an economic bubble
china gets touch of overheat markets across the rest of the world shudder
that is the way of things today in global economy controlled as much in the
east as it is in the west said analyst howard wheeldon at bgc brokers
the concern with china came against backdrop of investor nerves over the
global economy as whole with the imf and the united nations this week both
warning of possible double dip recession this year
those worries have been heightened in europe where several governments are
struggling to cope with rising debt levels debt troubles in countries like
greece and portugal have also dragged down the euro against the dollar
capital economics consultancy said there are still major uncertainties over
the likely strength and sustainability of the upturn in europe
meanwhile those euro zone economies with combination of fiscal strains and
competitiveness problems face painful period of adjustment
london benchmark ftse index dropped percent to points the
frankfurt dax fell percent and the paris cac slumped percent
elsewhere in europe milan was down percent amsterdam slipped percent
and madrid took percent dive
right now traders appear bit nervous said fred dickson market strategist
at us investment company da davidson amp co
but he added we remain bullish recognizing that periods of above average
stock market price volatility are to be expected
there was some good news for the stock markets as influential us banking giant
goldman sachs on thursday reported higher than expected fourth quarter and full
year profit despite the downturn
the tokyo stock exchange benchmark nikkei index closed up percent
earlier in the trading day as foreign investors bought heavyweight companies
such as toyota and sony
but analyst jane foley at online trading site forex com warned that faster
than expected chinese growth has heightened fears that the people bank of
china may hike interest rates this quarter
reporters put twitter facebook to big brother test
paris jan afp
five journalists plan to lock themselves away in french farmhouse with access
only to facebook and twitter to test the quality of news from the social
networking and micro blogging sites
twitter and facebook use as news breaking tools has been highlighted over the
past year particularly during opposition protests in iran that many media
described as twitterised revolution
this month twitter once again played key communications role in quake hit
haiti with users sending harrowing personal accounts heart rending pictures
and cries for help
but how would the world look if viewed only through the prism of these sites
whose phenomenal growth has been fuelled by smartphones and for twitter online
bursts of characters
are these social media which between them have nearly million users
really the serious threat to established media they are often said to be
those are the questions the five reporters hope to answer when they retire for
five days from february to farmhouse in france southern perigord region
when they arrive they will be relieved of their smartphones and will be given
mobiles that cannot connect to the internet and will then be reminded of the
strict rules that ban television radio and newspapers
we will give them five computers with blank hard drives said francoise dost
of the rfp french language public broadcasters association which is organising
the experiment
they have agreed to be linked to the outside world only through twitter and
facebook no web surfing is allowed said dost
the young guinea pigs from canadian french belgian and swiss radio stations
will each go on the air on their respective channels to comment on the news that
they have found
this experiment will enable us to take hard look at all the myths that exist
about facebook and twitter said helene jouan senior editor at france inter
one of the stations that is sending journalist
our aim is to show that there are different sources of information and to look
at the legitimacy of each of these sources she said
nour eddine zidane who will be france inter guinea pig in the experiment
said he was already regular user of both facebook and twitter
use them for two different functions facebook is for friends and twitter
use as an alert system because you must always be careful about it he said
he noted that the death of senior french politician philippe seguin was
recently first made public on twitter but pointed out that tweet about
computer meltdown in french post offices quickly proved to be false
such hoaxes are common on twitter and facebook with one this week saying that
us airlines were flying doctors and nurses to haiti free of charge to help with
relief efforts
reputable media organisations will always check such stories by phoning the
parties involved or checking against other sources such as news agencies
online media or their own reporters
but trying to sort the wheat from the chaff without access to these other
sources will be difficult task for the four men and one woman confined to the
farmhouse in perigord
they will be telling how they manage or perhaps fail on the airwaves and
in communal blog to which they will post
haitians rush for cash as bank re opens
port au prince jan afp
hundreds of haitians rushed thursday to make deposits and withdraw cash as
main bank re opened almost nine days after massive earthquake left the capital
city in ruins
under extremely tight security including individual screenings of customers and
their documents and shut down of the surrounding street patrons of the
central bank of haiti brh stood in single file to await visit to teller
because the main brh offices were damaged in the quake the bank was forced to
open for business at the nearby offices of construction company
these are temporary counters which can offer limited number of operations
such as depositing checks and money or taking out money but cannot carry out
more complicated transactions like currency exchanges the bank security
chief yves willy riviere told afp
renee lafortune nurse came to the temporary bank along with hundreds of
other hospital employees and said she simply could not wait
don have any more cash and can borrow money from my friends because
they are in the same situation she said
haiti devastating january earthquake sent prices soaring as the population
competed for basic supplies amid general shortages and an influx of foreigners
with dollars
traders have been making huge profits selling water oil and phone cards
milliliter bag of water that once cost gourde now costs three the soda
that cost gourde now costs
phone cards despite having the price labeled on them also cost double so too
cigarettes and alcohol especially for luxuries like single cooked meal
prices in the capital of the poorest country in the region are now comparable to
those in madrid or rome
one bank customer truck driver fenelon rolso pledged to take all the money he
could get from the wad of checks in his hand to get as far away from here as
quickly as possible
rolso said he feared the whole city might soon be evacuated due to the rising
risk of diseases in the squalid open air refugee camps where most inhabitants
are now forced to live
two french military officers engineering specialists inspected the nearby brh
building the facade of which was mostly made from glass
from the outside the building seems healthy but we must check inside to see
if the structure can withstand further shocks said one of the officers who
asked not to be named
we will then advise the bank chief of our decision
goldman sachs to cut london bonuses due to new tax report
london jan afp
us bank goldman sachs which has announced forecast busting profits will
slash bonuses for london staff because of new british tax on the payments sky
news reported on thursday
sky news which did not cite its source said the bonus restriction might mean
that goldman staff in london will earn less than collegues who are based
elsewhere
late last year the british government slapped percent tax rate on bank
employee bonuses above pounds euros dollars in an
attempt to recoup cash spent rescuing the financial sector
london based spokesman for goldman sachs declined to comment on the reports
however the group chief financial officer david viniar told analysts in
conference call that the cost of britain bonus tax could be several hundred
million dollars
he added there will be definitely be tax hit sometime next year and we
expect it will be several hundred million dollars although we don know yet
goldman announced thursday that net profits rocketed almost sixfold to
billion dollars in compared with billion in the previous year
the bank also revealed it had paid billion dollars in compensation and
benefits last year which was percent higher than in
goldman employs staff around the world including some workers in
the british capital city financial district
britain one off levy targeted the high earning city bankers whose excessive
risk taking was blamed for helping fuel the global financial crisis that sparked
worldwide economic downturn
concern over extremely thin brazilian models
sao paulo jan afp
the organizers of latin america biggest fashion show raised the alarm thursday
over emaciated brazilian models apparently following unhealthy us and european
trends
we have noticed with concern that some models on our catwalks often the most
booked are extremely thin these brazilian girls are based most of the year
in europe and in the usa where they work majorly paulo borges the creative
director of the sao paulo fashion week said in statement
he issued the warning after seeing models fly in to parade in this week
brazilian fashion event and stressed he and the other organizers were intent on
preventing extreme health problems among these professionals
the sao paulo fashion week has over the past three years introduced minimum age
restrictions and health report requirement for the agencies and design houses
that book models to help create positive message about modeling
but the perceived new push towards skeletal models was worry
this situation cannot be ignored borges said urging those in the fashion
industry to stand up against the new trend
we would like to propose joint effort towards minimizing this issue and
preventing the effects of this trend on models on our industry and on society
itself he said
us regulators tighten bank capital accounting standards
washington jan afp
us regulators ordered banks to follow tougher rules on capital requirements
accounting standards starting in november officials said thursday
banking organizations affected by the new accounting standards generally will
be subject to higher risk based regulatory capital requirements said joint
statement from the federal reserve and other regulators
the move is part of broader regulator effort to curb risky practices that led
to the global financial crisis
the rule better aligns risk based capital requirements with the actual risks of
certain exposures the statement said
the new accounting standards require banks to include number of off balance
sheet items in their liabilities which could raise capital requirements
the final rules were issued by the office of the comptroller of the currency
board of governors of the federal reserve system federal deposit insurance
corporation and office of thrift supervision
obama announces plan to rein in banks finance firms
washington jan afp
president barack obama on thursday announced plan to limit the size and scope
of us banks and finance firms in populist bid to roll back corporate excess
and limit dangerous risk taking
never again will the american taxpayer be held hostage by bank that is too
big to fail obama said at the white house alongside former federal reserve
chief paul volcker who advised him and helped frame the new rules
the president blamed banks and financial crisis for sparking the worst economic
crisis since the great depression with huge reckless risks in pursuit of quick
profits and massive bonuses in binge of irresponsibility
obama vowed to enact the reforms in congress even if wall street deployed an
army of lobbyists to kill them
if these folks want fight it fight ready to have he vowed
defiantly
the announcement was the latest attempt by the white house to harness popular
fury at massive wall street bonuses and tight credit markets which is adding up
to an angry political mood in crucial election year
the plan will effectively force finance firms to chose between proprietary
activities trading in stocks and sometimes risky financial instruments and
commercial activities like making loans and collecting deposits
