WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - Multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis killed 150,000 people in 2008 and infects between 400,000 and 500,000 people globally, according to World Health Organization estimates released on Thursday. WHO said the numbers suggest the hard-to-treat infection is spreading and said there is an urgent need for countries to set up labs to fight it. So-called MDR-TB is especially common in Russia, Tajikistan, China and India, WHO said in a report. It said an especially hard-to-treat form called extensively drug resistant TB or XDR-TB is also growing. "Almost 50 percent of MDR-TB cases worldwide are estimated to occur in China and India. In 2008, MDR-TB caused an estimated 150,000 deaths," the WHO report said.
PARIS, March 18 (Reuters) - Funding to combat malaria must be more than tripled if the mosquito-borne disease which kills nearly a million people a year is to be fought effectively, health campaigners said on Thursday. Presenting a report covering the past decade, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership said a jump in financing had helped to contain the disease but more needed to be done. "In all the countries where there is sufficient financing, we are reaching our goals," said Awa Marie Coll-Seck, executive director of the partnership, which is backed by the World Health Organisation. Total annual global funding was about $2 billion at the end of 2009, far short of the estimated $6 billion required annually to expand the campaign, the partnership said.
LONDON (Reuters) - German scientists have created a three-dimensional "invisibility cloak" that can hide objects by bending light waves. The findings, published in the journal Science on Thursday, could in the future make it possible large objects invisible, but for now the researchers said they were not keen to speculate on possible applications. "For now these...cloaking devices are just a beautiful and exciting benchmark to show what transformation optics can do," said Tolga Ergin of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Transformation optics use a class of materials called metamaterials that guide and control light.
LONDON (Reuters) - German scientists have created a three-dimensional "invisibility cloak" that can hide objects by bending light waves.
The findings, published in the journal Science on Thursday, could in the future make it possible large objects invisible, but for now the researchers said they were not keen to speculate on possible applications.
"For now these...cloaking devices are just a beautiful and exciting benchmark to show what transformation optics can do," said Tolga Ergin of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Transformation optics use a class of materials called metamaterials that guide and control light.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying a U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut from the International Space Station landed safely in Kazakhstan on Thursday. The capsule -- ferrying Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev -- landed in the vast steppe near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan as planned, Russia's Mission Control said.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying a U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut from the International Space Station landed safely in Kazakhstan on Thursday.
The capsule -- ferrying Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev -- landed in the vast steppe near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan as planned, Russia's Mission Control said.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health officials on Thursday sought to clamp down on the marketing of cigarettes to children and teenagers, issuing national limits on vending machine sales, free samples and taking other steps after a failed attempt more than a decade ago. Under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules, tobacco companies such as Reynolds American Inc and Altria Group Inc's Philip Morris could no longer use brand names to sponsor sporting and other events or to sell merchandise such as hats and T-shirts.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health officials on Thursday sought to clamp down on the marketing of cigarettes to children and teenagers, issuing national limits on vending machine sales, free samples and taking other steps after a failed attempt more than a decade ago.
Under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules, tobacco companies such as Reynolds American Inc and Altria Group Inc's Philip Morris could no longer use brand names to sponsor sporting and other events or to sell merchandise such as hats and T-shirts.
Artists, authors and academics from overseas are regularly being refused permission to enter the UK under the government's points-based visa system, according to a dossier of cases to be presented to Downing Street tomorrow.Writers have been prevented from attending their book launches, painters deported for carrying their own works and a Pakistani band banned from attending the World Pipe Band championship in Glasgow, according to the civil rights group, Manifesto Club.A petition opposing the visa restrictions is to be handed into the prime minister's office tomorrow. It has been signed by prominent figures, such as the sculptor Antony Gormley, the director of the National theatre, Nicholas Hytner, the lawyer Lady Kennedy and the poet Blake Morrison, as well as 10,000 others.An accompanying dossier, naming those turned away over the past year, records their anger and disappointment. "This is an account of talent stopped at our borders, which has left the country all the poorer," the petition says.
Artists, authors and academics from overseas are regularly being refused permission to enter the UK under the government's points-based visa system, according to a dossier of cases to be presented to Downing Street tomorrow.
Writers have been prevented from attending their book launches, painters deported for carrying their own works and a Pakistani band banned from attending the World Pipe Band championship in Glasgow, according to the civil rights group, Manifesto Club.
A petition opposing the visa restrictions is to be handed into the prime minister's office tomorrow. It has been signed by prominent figures, such as the sculptor Antony Gormley, the director of the National theatre, Nicholas Hytner, the lawyer Lady Kennedy and the poet Blake Morrison, as well as 10,000 others.
An accompanying dossier, naming those turned away over the past year, records their anger and disappointment. "This is an account of talent stopped at our borders, which has left the country all the poorer," the petition says.
Bet the Olympics won't have any problems. keep to the Fen Causeway
Perhaps we should just declare the UK Europe's Own Trailer Park and be done with it.
That means some of the 4 m high densely packed snow piles on Helsinki streets, in an average of + 3 C, will take 6 months to disappear. Unless moved. The mean temperature in Helsinki in April is 3.3 C. You can't be me, I'm taken
In view of the continuing hostility of the police towards Strawberry Fair and their decision to ignore the decision of elected councillors to grant it a licence to run in 2010, the organisers have reluctantly taken the decision to cancel this year's event. Justin Argent, Chair of Strawberry Fair said "Gaining a secure license that will allow the Fair to continue for many years to come has to be the top priority for the Strawberry Fair committee. The police appeal of the decision made by Cambridge City Council means that we now have to put all our efforts into fighting that appeal, rather than into the detailed preparations for the 2010 Fair which should now be taking place, and we are not prepared to compromise either the appeal or the Fair itself. The timetable for the appeal means that we will not know whether the Fair can go ahead as planned until far too late in the day. We do not want to pass this risk on to the many supportive suppliers, traders, and artists whose livelihoods would be severely damaged by a last minute cancellation. By taking this decision now, people will be able to find alternative activities for 2010 safe in the knowledge that we are doing all we can to make sure Strawberry Fair returns in 2011 and beyond. Cambridgeshire Police have made it absolutely clear they do not want the event to go ahead and have put an incredible amount of time and resource into preventing it. We feel the police action shows just how far out of step they are with the people of Cambridge, who have shown overwhelming support for the event; and had the same enthusiasm been spent on working with us rather than fighting us, many of the key concerns would have been dealt with.
In view of the continuing hostility of the police towards Strawberry Fair and their decision to ignore the decision of elected councillors to grant it a licence to run in 2010, the organisers have reluctantly taken the decision to cancel this year's event. Justin Argent, Chair of Strawberry Fair said "Gaining a secure license that will allow the Fair to continue for many years to come has to be the top priority for the Strawberry Fair committee. The police appeal of the decision made by Cambridge City Council means that we now have to put all our efforts into fighting that appeal, rather than into the detailed preparations for the 2010 Fair which should now be taking place, and we are not prepared to compromise either the appeal or the Fair itself.
The timetable for the appeal means that we will not know whether the Fair can go ahead as planned until far too late in the day. We do not want to pass this risk on to the many supportive suppliers, traders, and artists whose livelihoods would be severely damaged by a last minute cancellation. By taking this decision now, people will be able to find alternative activities for 2010 safe in the knowledge that we are doing all we can to make sure Strawberry Fair returns in 2011 and beyond.
Cambridgeshire Police have made it absolutely clear they do not want the event to go ahead and have put an incredible amount of time and resource into preventing it. We feel the police action shows just how far out of step they are with the people of Cambridge, who have shown overwhelming support for the event; and had the same enthusiasm been spent on working with us rather than fighting us, many of the key concerns would have been dealt with.
We have all the freedom the police allow.. and no more. keep to the Fen Causeway
