Author: Admin

Sunday, January 29, 2006

The Australian federal government hopes to slash hospital emergency department waiting queues by setting up a 24-hour national medical hotline.

A government source said that the National Health Call Centre Network would be manned by registered triage nurses 24-hours a day, 7-days a week. Triage nurses would perform a diagnosis over the phone based upon the description given by the patient. The patient would then be referred to the nearest emergency department, their local GP or pharmacy – as determined by the nurse.

The issue is expected to be discussed at next month’s Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in Canberra. It is believed that the states and territories are supportive of the system.

If agreed upon by COAG, the service will be jointly funded by state/territory and the commonwealth governments at a cost of $40 million a year. The service would take 18 months to set up.

The service will be ran from a centralised call centre and be managed by a private contractor.

Julia Gillard, the opposition’s spokeswoman for health said any national call service needed to be linked with local GPs and medical services.

Gillard claims that under a Labor government, an after-hours “Pizza Hut” style service would be implemented, with a single national number connecting to a local call centre.

“You would be talking to people in the locality you are in and who know the local services,” she said

The Australian Medical Association, an organisation representing more than 27,000 doctors in Australia has slammed the proposal saying it will only deter people from seeking appropriate medical treatment.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

US$25 million of North Korean funds previously frozen in a Macau bank has been transferred to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. The money was released late last week, and transferred from Macau to the Federal Reserve in New York City, and from there to a Russian bank and then into an account controlled by the North Korean government.

Pressure is mounting from the international community on the Pyongyang government to shut down its Yongbyong nuclear reactor. North Korea has been refusing to move forward due to the freezing of these funds in 2005.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Chinese officials have said that their country’s exports surged last December to edge out Germany as the world’s biggest exporter.

The official Xinhua news agency reported today that figures from the General Administration for Customs showed that exports jumped 17.7% in December from a year earlier. Over the whole of 2009 total Chinese exports reached US$1.2 trillion, above Germany’s forecast $1.17 trillion.

Huang Guohua, a statistics official with the customs administration, said the December exports rebound was an important turning point for China’s export sector. He commented that the jump was an indication that exporters have emerged from their downslide.

“We can say that China’s export enterprises have completely emerged from their all-time low in exports,” he said.

However, although China overtook Germany in exports, China’s total foreign trade — both exports and imports — fell 13.9% last year.

Monday, November 28, 2005

SpaceX called off the much-delayed inaugural launch of their new Falcon 1 rocket on Saturday from Kwajalein’s Omelek Island launch site. The intent was to launch the U.S. Air Force Academy’s FalconSat 2 satellite, which will monitor plasma interactions with the Earth’s upper atmosphere and magnetosphere.

The launch was delayed, then finally cancelled after an oxygen boil-off vent had accidentally been left open. The oxygen was unable to cool the helium pressurant, which then proceeded to evaporate faster than it could be replenished. A main computer issue, probably serious enough to cause a scrub on its own, was also discovered.

This long-anticipated flight was originally expected to be launched in January 2005, however a series of setbacks forced a series of delays, with the flight most recently scheduled to be in early 2006. It was intended to be launched from the Kwajalein atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The maiden voyage was originally intended to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with a Naval Research Laboratory satellite and a Space Services Incorporated space burial payload.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

On Friday, twin attacks in Iraq killed at least 72 people and wounded another 149. Separated by twenty minutes, the bombings targeted two marketplaces in Baghdad shortly before the call to Friday prayers.

These attacks were unlike suicide bombings in that the bombs were dynamite and ball bearings strapped to two women. These human bombs were then detonated remotely using mobile phone. The identities of the women have not been released.

Major-General Qassim Moussawi, spokesman for the Iraqi military in Baghdad said, “The operation was carried out by two booby-trapped mentally disabled women.” He did not explain how the forensic evidence could have proven the mental disability of the women. “We found the mobiles used to detonate the women,” he said.

Moussawi said this of the investigation: “Forensic and bomb squad experts as well as the people and traders of al-Shorja area of the carpet market have confirmed that the woman who was blown-up there today was often in the area and was mentally disabled… In the New Baghdad area the shop owners and customers of the pet market confirmed that the woman who was blown-up there was mentally disabled as well.”

An aide to Moussawi suggested the claims were based on eye-witness reports. He also said authorities believe the women were unaware of plans to detonate the explosives.

Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a spokesman for the multinational force in Baghdad, said, “By targeting innocent Iraqis, they show their true demonic character. They care nothing for the Iraqi people; they want to subjugate them and forcefully create a greater Islamic sharia state.”

Later, Stover told Reuters that the U.S. military was not aware of evidence to suggest the women were mentally handicapped. Pentagon reports on the attacks also lacked any reference to the mental condition of the women.

“There is nothing they won’t do if they think it will work in creating carnage and the political fallout that comes from that,” the U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said. He blamed the attacks on Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the bombings underlined “the absolute bankruptcy and brutality” of those who carried them out. “The Iraqi people have been right to turn against these terrible, violent people in their midst who will do anything.”

Forty-five were killed at the Ghazl pet market, and 27 were killed in New Baghdad. The Ghazl market is only open on Fridays and had remained popular despite two attacks in 2007. Both attacks were centered on pet markets.

“Most people who visit this market are poor and just want to enjoy themselves but they came and got killed,” said Hassan Salman, who sells bird seed at the Ghazl market.

The attacks are the deadliest in Iraq since the al-Khilani Mosque bombing which killed 87 people on June 19, 2007.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Severe thunderstorms impacted the northeast United States today, producing sporadic power outages and weather conditions ranging from heavy rainfall to large hail. The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) received dozens of damage reports; trees, tree limbs, electrical wires and utility poles were downed throughout portions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.

Severe weather advisories were posted during the morning and early afternoon, and are now expiring as the storms pull out of the area.

According to the SPC, hailstones occasionally approached one inch in diameter. Strong winds were also present, and there were reports of dog kennels being blown across a highway in Pope County, Pennsylvania. However, no deaths or injuries occurred.

The National Weather Service said a funnel cloud was reported in Livingston Manor, New York at about 1:55 pm this afternoon, prompting the brief issuance of a tornado warning.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Ian Narev, the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, this morning “unreservedly” apologised to clients who lost money in a scandal involving the bank’s financial planning services arm.

Last week, a Senate enquiry found financial advisers from the Commonwealth Bank had made high-risk investments of clients’ money without the clients’ permission, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars lost. The Senate enquiry called for a Royal Commission into the bank, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Mr Narev stated the bank’s performance in providing financial advice was “unacceptable”, and the bank was launching a scheme to compensate clients who lost money due to the planners’ actions.

In a statement Mr Narev said, “Poor advice provided by some of our advisers between 2003 and 2012 caused financial loss and distress and I am truly sorry for that. […] There have been changes in management, structure and culture. We have also invested in new systems, implemented new processes, enhanced adviser supervision and improved training.”

An investigation by Fairfax Media instigated the Senate inquiry into the Commonwealth Bank’s financial planning division and ASIC.

Whistleblower Jeff Morris, who reported the misconduct of the bank to ASIC six years ago, said in an article for The Sydney Morning Herald that neither the bank nor ASIC should be in control of the compensation program.