Sunday, June 28, 2009

Citing a lack of results from the primary autopsy by the Los Angeles (LA) Coroner’s Office of Michael Jackson’s body, the Jackson family has requested that an independent coroner examine the body in hopes of finding the cause of death.

The LA Coroner’s have ruled out foul play, but the toxicological tests could take as long as 6 weeks, and as of now have not specified the reason for Jackson’s death. The Coroner’s officer has stated though the decision for an independent autopsy was surprising, they didn’t have any issues with allowing it.

The Jackson family has been unable to contact Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Conrad Murray, who was with the star during his final hours. Police have stated that Dr. Murray is not a suspect, but they are attempting to set up an interview.

Reverend Jesse Jackson, an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, has been in contact with the family and has been providing counseling. He stated “they [the Jacksons] didn’t know the doctor…He should have met with the family, given them comfort on the last hours of their son.” An associate of Ed Chernoff, Dr. Murray’s lawyer, stated that “contrary to what has been out there, Dr. Murray has been co-operating with authorities from the outset and will continue to do so.”

Friday, June 9, 2006

Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced Australia’s unemployment rate for May 2006 on Thursday. The rate had dropped to 4.9 percent, the first time since 1976 that unemployment in Australia had been below five percent.

Mr Howard said 56,000 full time jobs were created in May with 38,000 of those taken up by women. He said it was a symbol of how well his government was managing the economy. “The result is a wonderful symbol of the success of the Government’s economic policies.” said Mr Howard.

According to the government 1.8 million jobs have been created since it took office in March 1996.

The number of people actively seeking work also increased, a sign Mr Howard said that people are “confident of finding work.”

At an interview in Sydney, Mr Howard told reporters that he believed the unemployment rate would be driven down further when the benefits of his Workchoices industrial relations reforms begin to show. “I believe, as some of the effects of the workplace relations changes work their way through, then the unemployment rate, particularly in small business, will go down even further,” he said.

Mr Howard denied that Workchoices had any affect on the figures for May saying that it was too early to tell. “I am not going to make that claim. It’s only May’s figures and the changes only came in March. I think it is too early to make that claim” Mr Howard told reporters.

Following the announcement, Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey said that the rise in the number of jobs could not have happened without the government’s industrial relations reforms. “We wouldn’t have achieved these outcomes, particularly in employer hiring, without the changes we’ve made,”

“When employers have confidence in their hiring arrangements as the Workchoices gives them, they’re going to go out and hire more people” said Mr Tuckey.

Stephen Smith, workplace spokesperson for the opposition attacked Mr Tuckey’s claims, stating that all the government’s new industrial relations legislation has achieved is reduced wages. “The suggestion that somehow we’ve got these employment and unemployment figures as a result of 30 days of John Howard slashing wages is a complete nonsense,” he said.

“It’s great that we’ve got a 30-year low in unemployment but that’s a result of 15 years of continuous economic growth and a resources boom.” said Mr Smith.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, remained in jail last night after being charged with sexually attacking a chambermaid at a New York City hotel. Strauss-Kahn has agreed to undergo forensic screening before he appears in court, and has vowed to “vigorously” defend himself against the charges, which are likely to create a leadership void at the IMF, disrupt emergency talks over the European debt crisis, and spell the end of his political career.

Strauss-Khan was the favourite candidate for the French presidency, and was expected to announce he would stand against Nicolas Sarkozy this month. But the allegations are expected to destroy the hopes of his supporters, increase infighting among the French left, and leave his political career in tatters. His arrest comes at a critical moment for the IMF, and will likely plunge efforts to stabilise the financial states of struggling eurozone countries into chaos. He was meant to discuss the bailouts of Greece and Portugal with European Union financial officials at a meeting in Brussels this week.

Eswar Shanker Prasad, a professor of international economics at Cornell University, said: “This sordid episode – no matter how it ultimately plays out – will spell the end of Strauss-Kahn as an effective leader of the IMF even if he retains his position, which is highly unlikely.” The IMF, however, insisted it remained “fully functioning and operational.”

Strauss-Kahn was to appear in court in Manhattan yesterday charged with three crimes, including attempted rape, but the hearing has been delayed so he can undergo forensic tests. He was taken into custody by officials while on an Air France passenger plane which was about to take off from John F. Kennedy International Airport for Paris; when detectives approached him in the first class cabin in the aircraft he reportedly asked: “What is this about?” Strauss-Kahn reportedly fled the hotel “in a hurry” after the attack, leaving a number of personal effects behind. “If our officers had been ten minutes later he would have been in the air and on their ^[sic] way to France,” a spokesperson for the New York Police Department said.

The chambermaid reported that she had been sexually assaulted by a man staying in a “luxury suite” at the Sofitel hotel near Times Square. “The maid described being forcibly attacked, locked in the room and sexually assaulted,” the police spokesperson said. Strauss-Kahn came out of the shower naked while the chambermaid was working in the room, tried to pull the woman onto the bed and locked the door, The New York Times reported, quoting police sources. She allegedly fought him off, but he sexually assaulted her again after dragging her to the bathroom, before he locked her in the room; she was reportedly hospitalized afterwards with trauma.

In 2008, a year after becoming the leader of the IMF, Strauss-Kahn was reprimanded by the organization’s board after being involved in an extramarital affair with another senior executive at the bank. More recently, he was pictured driving a luxury car in Paris, causing a media furore over whether his lifestyle fitted with the socialist attitude he claims to represent. But his wife, former television star Anne Sinclair, has dismissed the accusations. She said: “I do not believe for one second the accusations brought against my husband. I have no doubt his innocence will be established.”

Friday, January 13, 2006

The Turkish government has come under fire from officials in Dogubayazit, where three siblings died from the H5N1 strain of Bird Flu, for not sending enough resources and not responding quickly enough in the region.

The mayor of Dogubayazit, Mukkades Kubilay, claims that the Turkish government sent only three doctors and that there were not enough workers to destroy poultry.

The government has been accused of doing too little, too late. H5N1 was discovered in Turkish poultry in December, 2005.

Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker dismissed the claim, saying that culling of infected poultry began immediately following the discovery of H5N1 on December 15, 2005.

Questions about whether the government acted aggressively enough early in the outbreak emerged as officials tried to contain the disease, which Eker said had been confirmed in 11 of Turkey’s 81 provinces and was suspected in 14 others.

The number of confirmed human cases of H5N1 in Turkey is 18. Three of those have died from the virus.

Several others with the virus have shown few symptoms or are in a stable condition. Authorities suggest that the strain may not be as deadly as first thought. Of those who contracted the virus in Asia, half died.

An eight-year-old child who became infected after playing with dying chickens has been released from hospital.

Nationwide, 355,000 birds have been slaughtered in an attempt to slow the outbreak.

The Agricultural ministry is complaining that it has only 24 workers in Dogubayazit, a city of 56,000, and culling could take up to a month to complete.

Experts are still warning of a possible pandemic, prompting the world bank to release US$500 million in aid to assist countries combat H5N1.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

A result is expected today on the possibility of an election re-run in Nigeria. Opposition parties claim that current President Umaru Yar’Adua’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) fixed the results of the 2007 election in his favour and are calling to have the result annulled. So far, the tribunal has rejected one out of the two petitions calling for the annulment.

International suspicions were also raised at the time, with some voicing concern over the election.

A Nigerian judge is currently delivering the ruling on the case of granting the opposition parties a re-run, neither of which claim to have won the previous election. The decision could have negative impacts – if another election is called, it could be seen as an admittance of a ‘false democracy’ occurring in the last election and therefore undermining the political process in Nigeria. However, if no re-run of the election is called, it could cause instability between political rivals and may spark protests.

Emma Esau, of the Alliance for Credible elections, told the BBC: “We have faith the judges will give us a good ruling, and in any case we don’t believe there will be violence after the decision is announced. This will not take Nigeria to the brink.”

Yar’Adua assumed office on 29th May 2007 after the election in April, where he won 70% of the vote. Since then, he has became the first Nigerian leader to declare his personal assets, as well as overturning hikes in petroleum and tax made by the previous government. Despite these positive steps, he has also been surrounded by controversy, with several governors who served him before 2007 being charged by the EFCC, the anti-corruption commission.

Election annulments have already been passed for seven of thirty-six state governors and even the senate president, David Mark.