A fire driven by Santa Ana winds threatened 20 homes as it spread over several acres of brush Monday, officials said. Mild winds were blowing the fire uphill in steep terrain, said Ventura County Fire Capt. Barry Parker. A helicopter was dropping water over the area of modern homes, many set amid hills on cul-de-sacs, and 200 firefighters were on the lines, officials said. The blaze broke out as “red flag” warnings were posted for fire danger due to gusty offshore winds and low humidity in the region. Thousand Oaks, a city of 127,000, is about 40 miles west of downtown Los Angeles.Parker characterized the wind as a “mild Santa Ana,” a type of wind that blows toward the coast, pushing back the normal flow of moist air from the Pacific....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com
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Editor - 20:07:00 01-22-07
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 The dilemma of a deadly disease: patients may be forcibly detained Doctors fear TB strain could cause a global pandemic if it is not controlled |
South Africa is considering forcibly detaining people who carry a deadly strain of tuberculosis that has already claimed hundreds of lives. The strain threatens to cause a global pandemic, but the planned move pits public protection against human rights. The country's health department says it has discussed with the World Health Organisation and South Africa's leading medical organisations the possibility of placing carriers of extreme drug resistant TB or XDR-TB under guard in isolation wards until they die, but has yet to reach a decision. Pressure to take action has been growing since a woman diagnosed with the disease discharged herself from a hospital last September and probably spread the infection before she was finally coaxed back when she was threatened with a court order. More than 300 cases of the highly infectious disease, which is spread by airborne droplets and kills 98% of those infected within about two weeks, have been identified in South Africa....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/southafrica/story/0,,1996375,00.html
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Editor - 19:54:00 01-22-07
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| Nicaragua's Ortega Slashes His Salary and Those of His Cabinet Members |
Leftist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who took power earlier this month, said Monday that he was slashing his salary and those of Cabinet members. In a news conference, Ortega said he would earn a monthly salary of $3,200 while Cabinet members would earn no more than $3,000. Former President Enrique Bolanos earned about $10,000 while some Cabinet members earned more than $5,000. Several presidents across Latin America have cut their salaries recently in response to criticism they earn excessive amounts while millions of their citizens live in poverty. President Felipe Calderon of Mexico cut his salary by 10 percent after taking power in December. His predecessor, Vicente Fox, made about $245,000 a year in 2006. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2814804
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Editor - 19:45:00 01-22-07
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| Vatican divided as cardinal says patients should have right to die · Doctors should be protected says Martini · Euthanasia case debated in Italian parliament |
The Vatican's rigid opposition to euthanasia has come under fire from within its own ranks after it denied a religious funeral to a paralysed man who had asked to be removed from a life-saving respirator. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the influential former archbishop of Milan, said on Sunday that terminally ill patients should be given the right to refuse treatments and that the doctors who assist them should be protected by law. On December 20 a doctor in Rome unplugged the respirator which for many years had kept alive Piergiorgio Welby, who had muscular dystrophy. Although the Vatican has agreed that protracted treatments for the terminally ill can be ended by doctors if no cure is possible, the Vicariate of Rome denied Welby's family permission to hold a Catholic funeral, claiming Welby's "desire to end his life, expressed frequently and publicly, is contrary to Catholic doctrine"....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,,1996334,00.html
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Editor - 19:16:00 01-22-07
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| Bookkeeper Charged With Stealing $6.9 Million Bought Real Estate, Talking Trees, Feds Say |
A bookkeeper for a construction materials company embezzled $6.9 million and used the money to go on a shopping spree that included a 104-acre ranch and a half-dozen talking trees like those in "The Wizard of Oz," federal authorities said Monday. Prosecutors say Angela Buckborough Platt also bought eight show horses; a fleet of motor vehicles including a 1964 Ford Thunderbird; a house on five acres in Rhode Island; Hollywood-grade cinematic props to decorate her home for Halloween; and a life-size ceramic statue of Al Capone. Samantha Martin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office, said that when friends or relatives asked Platt about her wealth, she told them that she was the CEO of a corporation or that she and her husband had won the lottery. Platt, 43, of Wyoming, Pa., was charged Monday with one count of interstate transportation of stolen property. She has agreed to plead guilty in a deal subject to court approval, Martin said. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2814512
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Editor - 19:01:00 01-22-07
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| Attacks Leave 137 Dead Across Iraq |
A homicide bomber crashed his car into a central Baghdad market crowded with Shiites just seconds after another car bomb tore through the stalls where vendors were hawking DVDs and used clothing, leaving 88 dead Monday in the bloodiest attack in two months. The bombings, along with a double bombing that killed 12 people in the town of Khalis, battered Shiites during one of their holiest festivals. The attacks were the latest in a renewed campaign of insurgent violence in advance of a U.S.-Iraqi security operation. In all, 137 people were killed or found dead across Iraq, including a teacher who was gunned down as she was on her way to work at a girls' school in a mainly Sunni area of Baghdad. The toll also included the bullet-riddled bodies of at least 30 people, apparent victims of death squads largely run by Shiite militias. ...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245418,00.html
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Editor - 18:50:00 01-22-07
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