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Wednesday, October 13, 2021

As reported by Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inaugurated a new weapons exhibition in Northern Pyongyang, on the occasion of the ruling Party’s 76th founding anniversary. This exhibition is located in the Three-Revolutions Exhibition House, a museum built under the command of former leader Kim Jong Il.

A ceremony took place outside the exhibition house for the arrival of Kim Jong Un. The leader was greeted by cries of “Manse!” (Long Live, or Hurrah!) from the crowd, which were mainly military officers, party officials and “merited officials, scientists and technicians in the national defence industrial field.” Present at the ceremony were high-ranking party officials Choe Ryong Hae, Jo Yong Won and Hyon Song Wol. North Korean premier Kim Tok Hun was also present, alongside Marshal Pak Jong Chon. Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong could also be spotted in the crowd of officers.

The military band of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) and members of the Orchestra of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK proceeded with a short musical display, playing songs about the Workers’ Party. After the musical show, servicepersons of the KPA proceeded with a martial arts display, with some featured acts consisting of breaking bricks and tiles with bare fists, bending steel bars with the sternum and jumping over cars. A squadron of fighter pilots flew over the exhibition grounds, with coloured smoke being released from the jets to display the colours of the North Korean flag.

The ceremony was followed by a speech from Kim Jong Un inside the exhibition. In his speech, Kim said that “the US tacit sponsorship continue to damage the inter-Korean feelings and emotions” and that “South Korea has been unhesitant on several occasions in disclosing its ambition for securing military supremacy over us under the preposterous excuse of deterring threat from us”.

Kim Jong Un also called for the North Korean nation to be “powerful also for our coming generations”, citing this objective as the nation’s “first and foremost task”. He followed by calling upon the people to devote themselves to the defence abilities of the country.

After his speech, Kim Jong Un awarded servicepersons and other people with high decorations, including the Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il Orders, the Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il Prizes, the title of Labour Hero, the Order of the National Flag and watches signed with the named of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

Kim Jong Un then toured the exhibition, where countless missiles were displayed, including editions 14, 15 and 16 of the Hwasong ICBM series.

After touring the exhibition, Kim Jong Un met the fighter jet pilots who flew over the exhibition and left in a limousine.

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Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Yesterday evening saw the Usher Hall in Edinburgh host a meeting between representatives of the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) and the local rock and pop music scene. The meeting was dominated with local musicians’ complaints over the “zero tolerance” policy Edinburgh is viewed as having adopted towards amplified music.The meeting began with the leading panel — Norma Austin Hart, vice-convener for Culture and Sport; John Stout, promoter from Regular Music; Kevin Buckle, of local store Avalanche Records; and Karl Chapman, manager of the Usher Hall — introducing themselves and outlining the purpose of the meeting. This being best-summarised as a desire to emulate the vibrant music scene of places as far-flung as Austin, Texas and Sydney, Australia.

Councillor Hart indicated officials from Austin had already offered to get involved in improving the live music scene in the city; although none were present from Austin, US-born local musician Pat Dennis provided his frank opinion on where Edinburgh fails to nurture the local music scene: that failure to support a grass-roots, small venue, music scene prevents the city being capable of organising events similar to Austin’s South by Southwest festival outwith August, when Edinburgh hosts the Festival and Fringe.

Coming in for the lion’s share of criticism, staff from CEC’s Licensing Board were visibly uncomfortable when the topic of the “single complainant” was brought up time and time again. Unlike any other business within the city, or residential properties, noise pollution within premises permitted to sell alcohol is not managed by environmental health staff. That responsibility is bundled with the alcohol license, which leaves publicans fearful that their premises will be forced to close if they do not comply with demands to cease use of any amplification, or hosting live music. This was characterised as a ‘tyranny of the minority’, a most-undemocratic approach where one person — for example, recently moved into a property adjacent to a long-established premises hosting live music — could force the closure of a business which has hosted local talent for 30+ years.

Taking heed of the strength of feeling from the majority present, Councillor Hart made a number of personal commitments towards the end of the meeting. Those included setting up a working group, Music is Audible, to look at how the council could better work with venues, and to have a follow-up meeting in March next year.

Friday, October 6, 2006

Up to 17,000 people are being evacuated in Apex, North Carolina after a chlorine gas leak occurred during a Hazardous Waste facility explosion and fire.

Residents are advised to keep windows closed, turn off all air conditioning and that tenderness of the mouth, gagging and nausea are typical signs of poisoning. They are advised to stay away from the fire and any smoke, as it could be a health hazard. CNN reports that air quality tests run by the NCDENR indicate nothing especially harmful in the air near the plant.

Area residents are being advised to call 919-856-7044 for general information as 911 lines are overloaded. Bruce Radford, manager of the town in suburban Raleigh, said that the business district, schools and the town hall will remain closed on Friday.

No fatalities have been reported. WRAL-TV reported that 90 residents of a nearby nursing care facility were moved to a local hospital as a precautionary measure. About 20 Apex residents were reported to have been treated and released for respiratory symptoms related to exposure.

Officials are presently unsure of the cause. The fire and subsequent explosions started sometime after 9 p.m. EST Thursday, October 5.

Changing weather conditions in the area threaten additional evacuations. A section of State Highway 55 has been shut down near the incident.

The company, Environmental Quality of Wayne, Michigan, had been warned and fined $32,000 by state regulators in March of 2006 for hazardous conditions at the plant, which temporarily stores hazardous materials including chlorine, pesticides, and PCBs.

WRAL-TV reports that Sulfur, Oxidizers, Chlorine, Pesticides and PCBs were stored in the facility.

Fire crews from Cary, Apex, Raleigh, Wake County and Fairview are assisting in the effort. However, there is no effort to fight the fire as it would be too dangerous to firefighting personnel. It will eventually burn itself out.

Tuesday, May 2, 2006

An Armavia Airbus 320 passenger plane flying from Armenia‘s capital, Yerevan, to the city of Sochi in southern Russia has crashed into the Black Sea. The jet was found 6 km from the coast and carried a total of 113 people. Among the passengers were 8 crew and 6 children. Controllers lost contact with the plane at 0215 local time (Tuesday 2215 UTC).

Rescuers have found the corpses of a woman and a girl and another 12 body parts at the site of Wednesday’s crash of Armenia’s Airbus A-320 plane off Russia’s Black Sea coast, a spokesman for the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office told Interfax. Other reports say that at least 25 bodies have been found.

There were 77 Armenian citizens, 26 Russian citizens, 1 Ukrainian and 1 Georgian citizen on board of the Armenian air liner, Armenian Civil Aviation Department head Artyom Movsisian told on a news conference.

“Most of the Russian citizens are of Armenian origin,” Movsisian said.

“Rescue efforts are being hampered by deteriorating weather conditions, heavy rain and rough seas,” a spokesman for the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said.

“The fragments were found six km (3.7 miles) from the shore near the airport of Adler. The search operation continues,” said Beltsov. The location of the crash site has been ascertained by a numerous fragments and life vests, and a large oil slick.

“The only thing [we] know is that when the crew asked for permission to land, the air controller in Sochi responded that bad weather meant this was not yet possible,” Gayane Davtyan, head of Armenia’s civilian aviation authority said. “Contact with the crew was lost at 600 meters, when the plane went to circle for a second time.”

The cause of the tragedy remains unclear, but the investigators are pursuing two main versions: bad weather conditions and poor maintenance.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office believes terrorism can be ruled out as a factor in the A-320 plane crash near the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on Wednesday morning.

“We don’t have any information that could indicate a possible terrorist attack on board the plane,” Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel told Interfax on Wednesday.

An official from the regional department of the Emergency Situations Ministry in southern Russia said “apparently there were malfunctions on board, as the pilots were making another attempt to land at the Adler airport.”

“The plane was in an ideal technical condition, the crew was well qualified,” said the airline’s deputy commercial director, Andrei Aghajanov. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

In the area where the plane crashed, more rain is expected in the next hours and the water temperature is currently between 8 to 10 degrees celsius.

The Russian and Armenian presidents have announced on Wednesday that Friday, May 5th, would be a day of mourning in remembrance of the 113 people that died in the crash.

The worst crash involving an two-engine A-320, which was first built in 1984 and remains the most popular Airbus on the market, occurred in August 2000, when a Gulf Air plane crashed off Bahrain on a flight from Cairo, killing all 143 people on board. The Airbus A320 is a short-to-medium range commercial passenger aircraft and a total of 328 people have been killed in earlier A320 accidents.

About 20 boats and a Be-200 amphibious aircraft are involved in the recovery operation, emergency services said, adding that two more Be-200s would fly to the scene if necessary. A group of rescuers from the Russian emergency ministry is expected to fly to the crash site in the next few hours.

Friday, July 23, 2021

With five active cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19, South Australia begun a one-week lockdown on Monday. Announcing the lockdown, state Premier Steven Marshall declared “we have no alternative but to impose some fairly heavy and immediate restrictions”.

The first case out of South Australia’s active cases was presented to Modbury Hospital on Sunday night, having returned from Argentina earlier this month. The fifth, which Premier Marshall noted as “far more worrying”, visited The Greek on Halifax restaurant at the same time as someone who was later confirmed to be carrying the virus. Chief Public Health Officer for the state Nicola Spurrier said “if anyone has been at The Greek on Halifax they need to get into quarantine and get tested”.

In accordance with new regulations, there are only five reasons for South Australians to leave home: essential work, shopping for essential goods such as food, exercise, but only with people from the same household and within 2.5 kilometers (2 mi) of home, medical reasons (which includes testing and vaccination against the coronavirus, but excludes elective and cosmetic surgery), and caregiving.

Schools have closed for all but children of essential workers, with online learning having begun on Thursday. Face masks are also be mandated for those who leave home. ABC News reported that “support for businesses is expected to be announced…”, with all non-essential retail required to close under the new regulations.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Buffalo, New York —An accident involving a city bus and a car at Sycamore and Monroe streets in the city of Buffalo, New York, United States, has injured at least 10 people, some seriously. The accident happened around 4:00 p.m. (EDT).

According to Buffalo Fire Department radio communications, at least two of the four people in the car will have to be removed by the ‘jaws of life’. Their condition is considered serious. The condition of the other two passengers is not known.

There are at least eight people on the bus. At about 4:15 p.m., a mobile triage was dispatched to the scene to determine how many of the passengers on the bus would need to be taken to local hospitals for treatment. At least six will be “packaged” and transported to Buffalo General Hospital.

By, 4:20 p.m., at least one of the trapped passengers was removed from the car. By 4:30, the second passenger had been removed. Both will also be treated at Buffalo General Hospital.

The bus is operated by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

18 December 2004

The global war on smoking passed a major milestone on 30 November 2004. On that date, Peru became the 40th country to ratify an international treaty to reduce smoking, thus triggering activation of the treaty in 90 days.

According to the World Health Organization‘s World Health Report 2003, tobacco consumption is the single leading preventable cause of death. It prematurely ends the lives of 5 million people a year, a figure which will double by 2020 if current trends are not reversed. Tobacco is the only legal product that causes the death of one half of its regular users, more than many illegal drugs. This means that of the current 1.3 billion smokers, 650 million people will die prematurely due to tobacco. Another way to look at the effect of smoking is to measure the average reduction in life expectancy among smokers. A study published in the British Medical Journal in June 2004 followed 34,439 male doctors since 1951 and showed that smokers died on average 10 years earlier than non-smokers.

Although the number of smokers has stabilized or fallen in developed areas, it is rising in developing or transitional regions, which contain more of the world’s population and already 84% of the world’s smokers. To fight this increasing health threat, the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) was unanimously adopted by the 56th World Health Assembly in May 2003 following almost three years of negotiations. The treaty aims to reduce both the demand for and the supply of tobacco by setting standards on tobacco price and tax increases, tobacco advertising and sponsorship, labelling, illicit trade and second-hand smoke.

Studies show that increasing prices through taxes on tobacco products is the most cost-effective way to reduce smoking. The World Bank estimated that a 10% increase in tobacco prices would, on average, result in a reduction of 4% of the demand in high-income countries and 8% in lower-income countries. Thus the treaty suggests tobacco taxes or price controls, although it neither suggests specific levels nor requires any taxes or price controls.

The treaty requires all countries adopting it to ban, to the extent allowed by their constitutions, all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship within five years. Health warnings must occupy at least half of the principal display areas of a pack, but they must not be less than 30%. These health warnings must be changed regularly and may include pictures. Cigarette packages must contain information on ingredients and emissions.

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An anti-smoking ad (source: CDC Media Campaign Resource Center). View more here.

The treaty aims to reduce smuggling by requiring adopting nations to mark all tobacco packages for tracing purposes and to indicate their country of destination, as well as to cooperate with each other in monitoring and controlling the movement of tobacco products and investigating their diversion. The treaty bans tobacco sales to and by minors.

The idea for an international instrument for tobacco control was initiated in May 1995 at the 48th World Health Assembly. But it wasn’t until 1999, a year after the then WHO Director-General, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, made global tobacco control a priority, that work on the present treaty began. During the year after the FCTC was written, 167 countries signed and 23 countries ratified it, making it one of the most rapidly embraced UN treaties of all time. “The momentum growing around the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control seems unstoppable. It demonstrates the importance placed by the international community on saving many of the millions of lives now lost to tobacco,” said Dr Lee Jong-wook, WHO Director-General. “I look forward to more countries joining the 40 states that are making it possible for this Treaty to become law.”

Of the countries ratifying the treaty, the largest are (in order of decreasing population) India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, France, and Burma. Nations that have signed but not yet ratified include China, USA, Brazil, Nigeria, Philippines, Viet Nam, Germany, and Egypt. The largest non-signers are Indonesia, Russia, Colombia, Tanzania, and Uzbekistan. The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan went beyond the treaty requirements when on December 17 it became the first country in the world to completely ban the sale of tobacco.