 An Indonesian family infected with bird flu may have passed the disease among themselves rather than individually catching it from poultry, but the World Health Organization is leaving its pandemic alert level unchanged, the agency said Wednesday. Six of seven people in the extended family in northern Sumatra who caught the disease have died, the most recent on Monday. An eighth person who died was buried before tests could be conducted, but she was considered to be among those infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu. WHO is investigating whether the strain was spread among family members, although it said Wednesday there was no evidence the virus had mutated to a form that will spread more easily between humans, possibly sparking a pandemic. "We haven't seen evidence from Indonesia that the disease is passing easily from human to human," WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng told The A P. The agency's alert level remained at 3, where it has been for months. That means there is ...
http://www.usatoday.com
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Editor - 09:54:00 05-24-06
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 WHO fears bird flu spread between humans |
The World Health Organisation confirmed today that it "cannot rule out" the possibility that bird flu had passed between humans after the deaths of seven members of an Indonesian family from the virus.The health agency said it was "the most significant" development in bird flu, as far as questions of public health and safety were concerned.Scientists were investigating whether the family members, from Kubu Semelang village in North Sumatra, caught the disease after some of them spent the night in the same room as a relative who was suffering from coughing and other bird flu symptoms on April 29. The 37-year-old woman died on May 4 and was buried before specimens could be taken but epidemiologists believe she died from bird flu. Since then, six members of her family - her two sons, sister, brother, niece and nephew - have died. Her 25-year-old brother is currently being treated for bird flu symptoms....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/birdflu/story/0,,1782076,00.html?gusrc=rss
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Editor - 09:50:00 05-24-06
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| Jitters still sweep world markets |
US shares have edged up, providing some relief to investors hit by continuing jitters across global stock markets. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq both opened lower, reflecting declines in leading European markets, but subsequently made limited gains in morning trading. Europe's main share indexes all lost value with the FTSE 100, the Cac 40 and the Dax down more than 1% by 1600 BST. Worries about inflation and interest rate rises in the US have overshadowed corporate profits growth. Analysts expect volatile trading to continue after poor economic figures prompted a global sell-off last week. Weighing on the markets is the fear that higher interest rates needed to rein in inflation could kill off the global economic recovery in the process. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5011530.stm
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Editor - 09:45:00 05-24-06
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| Prosecutor: Bush official helped lobbyist Start of first trial in Abramoff influence peddling scandal |
A top procurement official in the Bush administration abandoned his duty to the public in order to serve lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and the official later concealed his conduct from investigators, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday. At the start of the first trial in the Abramoff influence peddling scandal, prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg told a jury that David Safavian provided substantial amounts of information about government-controlled properties that the lobbyist wanted for himself or his clients.Using his official position, Safavian “worked first and foremost for a rich, powerful” lobbyist and personal friend and then he “lied and concealed in order to keep the truth from the public,” Zeidenberg told the jury of 10 women and two men. Abramoff “constantly dangled” the prospect that Safavian could return to the private sector and join Abramoff’s lobbying operation, “where he would make a great deal of money and he would play a great deal of golf,” Zeidenberg told the jury....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12953015/from/RSS/
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Editor - 09:43:00 05-24-06
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| Web inventor warns of 'dark' net |
The web should remain neutral and resist attempts to fragment it into different services, web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee has said. Recent attempts in the US to try to charge for different levels of online access web were not "part of the internet model," he said in Edinburgh. He warned that if the US decided to go ahead with a two-tier internet, the network would enter "a dark period". Sir Tim was speaking at the start of a conference on the future of the web. "What's very important from my point of view is that there is one web," he said. "Anyone that tries to chop it into two will find that their piece looks very boring." ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5009250.stm
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Editor - 09:40:00 05-24-06
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| Privacy worries over web's future |
The next phase of the web could face "big privacy" issues, a senior UK academic has warned. Hugh Glaser of the University of Southampton made the comments at the WWW2006 conference in Edinburgh. He was describing the semantic web, an attempt to make the web more intelligent. Privacy problems could occur, he said, because the semantic web deliberately combines multiple sources of information about people and places. Although some semantic web programs have been developed, it will be many years before they are publicly available. "I don't want to even speculate on when people may be using it," said Mr Glaser. However, researchers are keen to start tackling concerns about the next wave of web technology early. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5009774.stm
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Editor - 09:38:00 05-24-06
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