World moves to contain flu spread

Governments around the world are hurrying to contain the spread of a new swine flu virus after outbreaks were reported in Mexico, the US and Canada.

At least 100 people are now suspected to have died of the disease in Mexico.

The UN has warned the virus has the potential to become a pandemic, but said the world was better prepared than ever to deal with the threat.

Stocks of anti-viral medicines are being readied and travellers are being screened at some airports for symptoms.

Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said suspected swine flu cases in his country had risen to 1,614.

SWINE FLU
Swine flu is a respiratory disease found in pigs
Human cases usually occur in those who have contact with pigs
Human-to-human transmission is rare and such cases are closely monitored


Of the 103 deaths in Mexico, only 20 are so far confirmed to have been caused by the new virus.

In the US, where 20 people are confirmed to have caught the virus, a public health emergency has been declared.

There are also confirmed cases in Canada, and investigations are being carried out on possible cases in five other countries.

In most cases outside Mexico, people have been only mildly ill and have made a full recovery.

In other developments:

• Tests are also being carried out on individuals or groups in New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Brazil and Israel who fell ill following travel to Mexico

• World Health Organization (WHO) experts will meet in Geneva on Tuesday to discuss whether to raise the pandemic alert level

• The European Commission also said it was calling an urgent meeting of health ministers to discuss the situation

• The World Bank is providing Mexico with more than $200m in loans to help it deal with the outbreak

• Shares in airlines have fallen sharply on fears about the economic impact of the outbreak

Vigilance urged

The WHO - the UN's health agency - has said the swine flu virus could be capable of mutating into a more dangerous strain.

The BBC talks to people in Mexico City about the flu outbreak.

In pictures

But officials say they need more information on the virus to determine the threat it poses.

Dr Keiji Fukuda, WHO's assistant director-general in charge of health security, said all countries were "looking at this situation very seriously".

"But it's also clear that we are in a period in which the picture is evolving... [and that] we have to be very careful to collect the best possible information," he said.

The WHO is advising all countries to be vigilant for seasonally unusual flu or pneumonia-like symptoms among their populations - particularly among young healthy adults, a characteristic of past pandemics.

Most of those who have died so far in Mexico were young adults.

The H1N1 virus is the same strain that causes seasonal flu outbreaks in humans but the newly detected version contains genetic material from versions of flu which usually affect pigs and birds.

There is currently no vaccine for the new strain, but severe cases can be treated with antiviral medication. Dr Fukuda said years of preparing for bird flu had boosted world stocks of antivirals.

Widespread cases

In the US, eight cases have been confirmed among New York students, seven in California, two in in Texas, two in Kansas and one in Ohio.

FLU PANDEMICS

1918 : The Spanish flu pandemic remains the most devastating outbreak of modern times - infecting up to 40% of the world's population and killing more than 50m people, with young adults particularly badly affected

1957 : Asian flu killed two million people. Caused by a human form of the virus, H2N2, combining with a mutated strain found in wild ducks. The elderly were particularly vulnerable

1968 : An outbreak first detected in Hong Kong, and caused by a strain known as H3N2, killed up to one million people globally, with those over 65 most likely to die

"I do fear that we will have deaths," Dr Anne Schuchat of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told reporters.

The Canadian cases were recorded at opposite ends of the country: two in British Columbia in the west, and four in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia.

Several other people are being tested for the virus in countries around the world.

A number of countries in Asia and Latin America have begun screening airport passengers for symptoms.

Russia has banned imports of raw pork and pork products from Mexico and parts of the US. But Dr Fukuda said that there was no evidence to link exposure to pork with infection.

In the Mexican capital schools, bars and public buildings remain closed and many people are choosing to stay indoors.

Some people are beginning to worry about the effects swine flu is having on their livelihoods and the Mexican economy in general.

Fear of the virus is expected to lead to many tourists canceling their holidays and Mexican exports are already beginning to be affected.

Map showing spread of swine fever
Mexico: 103 dead - 20 confirmed to have died from swine flu, 18 confirmed ill with swine flu
United States: 20 confirmed cases
Canada: 6 confirmed cases
UK, France, Spain, Israel, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand: suspected cases being tested

Expatriate Beijing Photo Contest

Invitation to the Photo Contest

--The City of Beijing in the Eyes of Foreigners



To let the World better understand China and the city of Beijing, the Foreign Affairs Office of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, the Information Office of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, the Beijing People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, and the Beijing Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment are hosting a photo contest for the City of Beijing titled ‘In the Eyes of Foreigners’. This contest will feature works from foreign photographers working in China or other parts of the world and will run from April to July 2009.



The theme of the contest is the ‘New Images of Beijing’. The contest purpose is to give foreign friends a good opportunity to better understand Beijing , its charms and, in particular, its changes. We are currently accepting submissions of photographic work exploring the new images of Beijing in every subject such as: travel, recreation, daily life or work in Beijing . All foreigners who have lived or traveled in Beijing are welcome to enter the contest.



Winning photos will be selected by a committee of experts. Prize-winners will be invited to Beijing to participate in a press event and will be presented with a special collection of the prize-winning photos.



Submission of photos to the contest will be taken as tacit approval for publication and display of those photos. Information and promotional material for the contest will be released throu gh print media. At the conclusion of the contest, the organizing committee will hold an exhibition of the top quality photos in Beijing , in addition to publishing them in an album.



The deadline for submissions of photos is July 10, 2009. Participants should note the following:

1. Entries can be black and white or color images, and submitted either electronically or as prints. Group entry is limited to 4 photos. Digital photos of JPG format should be no less than 500kb.



2. Submitted print photos should be 10 inches along their longest edge, un-mounted.



3. Digital photos should be delivered as hi gh -resolution files (no less than 18MB each), burned on CD or DVD. The entries can be submitted by email, mail or dropped in at the registration office of the organizing committee. Please write: Photo Contest: “ Beijing in the Eyes of Foreigners” on the envelope. While the organizing committee will do its utmost to care for images submitted to them, it is not responsible for damage or loss incurred during the mailing process. The entries will not be returned to the participants after the event. The Organizing Committee retains the responsibility for any interpretation of the event.



4. Entries should be accompanied by the attached registration form and sent to:

Organizing Committee, Photo Contest--- Beijing in the Eyes of Foreigners

No.97, Nanheyan Street , Dong Cheng District , Beijing 100006, China

Tel: 010-65221475 010-65212270

Email: bjeyes@photobtmbeijing.com Website: www.btmbeijing.com



The Organizing Committee of The City of Beijing in the Eyes of Foreigners

Beijing Official International Website: www.eBeijing.gov.cn

Miss Africa in China Pageant

Miss Africa in China. First edition: May 25th 2010 in Beijing. ----------------- Reserve your ticket now!

This is a brief outline of the Miss Africa in China Pageant In the month of May of every year, a beauty contest is launched for contestants who are female Africans living in China. Photo albums of all registered contestants are placed on the web for public appreciation and preselecting. The online screening goes on until December. During this period the committee of judges closely studies the files of all the contestants. In December the best ten from all the contestants are selected for the final ceremony in May. Online screening for the ten preselected goes on until May 1st; then the final ten appear before a grand jury during a prestigious ceremony in the same month of May. A Miss Africa in China is then selected and two runners-up. At the end of the ceremony a new edition is launched for the next year. Important dates 1. Deadline for registration for all contestants: Sunday, May 24th 2009. 2. Publication of names, profiles and pictures of contestants: Sunday, June 7th 2009. Online voting begins. 3. Publication of recorded messages from contestants: Sunday, August 2nd 2009. Online voting continues. 4. Preliminaries: Best 10 contestants selected for the final event. Sunday, December 6th 2009. Online voting for the best 10 continues 5. Photo shooting event for the best 10 contestants at a chosen resort by our top sponsors. March 2010 (date not decided yet).

Not-So-Secret Holiday Hints at Change for Marijuana Advocates

Kevin Moloney for The New York Times

Allen F. St. Pierre, left, the executive director of Norml, speaking Sunday at a forum at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

SAN FRANCISCO — On Monday, somewhere in New York City, 420 people will gather for High Times magazine’s annual beauty pageant, a secretly located and sold-out event that its sponsor says will “turn the Big Apple into the Baked Apple and help us usher in a new era of marijuana freedom in America.”

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Kevin Moloney for The New York Times

David Perleberg sold pro-marijuana T-shirts at the forum, including one that shows the university’s buffalo mascot inhaling.

They will not be the only ones partaking: April 20 has long been an unofficial day of celebration for marijuana fans, an occasion for campus smoke-outs, concerts and cannabis festivals. But some advocates of legal marijuana say this year’s “high holiday” carries extra significance as they sense increasing momentum toward acceptance of the drug, either as medicine or entertainment.

“It is the biggest moment yet,” said Ethan Nadelmann, the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance in Washington, who cited several national polls showing growing support for legalization. “There’s a sense that the notion of legalizing marijuana is starting to cross the fringes into mainstream debate.”

For Mr. Nadelmann and others like him, the signs of change are everywhere, from the nation’s statehouses — where more than a dozen legislatures have taken up measures to allow some medical use of marijuana or some easing of penalties for recreational use — to its swimming pools, where an admission of marijuana use by the Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps was largely forgiven with a shrug.

Long stigmatized as political poison, the marijuana movement has found new allies in prominent politicians, including Representatives Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Ron Paul, Republican of Texas, who co-wrote a bill last year to decrease federal penalties for possession and to give medical users new protections.

The bill failed, but with the recession prompting bulging budget deficits, some legislators in California and Massachusetts have gone further, suggesting that the drug could be legalized and taxed, a concept that has intrigued even such ideologically opposed pundits as Glenn Beck of Fox News and Jack Cafferty of CNN.

“Look, I’m a libertarian,” Mr. Beck said on his Feb. 26 program. “You want to legalize marijuana, you want to legalize drugs — that’s fine.”

All of which has longtime proponents of the drug feeling oddly optimistic and even overexposed.

“We’ve been on national cable news more in the first three months than we typically are in an entire year,” said Bruce Mirken, the director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, a reform group based in Washington. “And any time you’ve got Glenn Beck and Barney Frank agreeing on something, it’s either a sign that change is impending or that the end times are here.”

Beneficiaries of the moment include Norml, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which advocates legalization, and other groups like it. Norml says that its Web traffic and donations (sometimes in $4.20 increments) have surged, and that it will begin a television advertising campaign on Monday, which concludes with a plea, and an homage, to President Obama.

“Legalization,” the advertisement says, “yes we can!”

That seems unlikely anytime soon. In a visit last week to Mexico, where drug violence has claimed thousands of lives and threatened to spill across the border, Mr. Obama said the United States must work to curb demand for drugs.

Still, pro-marijuana groups have applauded recent remarks by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who suggested that federal law enforcement resources would not be used to pursue legitimate medical marijuana users and outlets in California and a dozen other states that allow medical use of the drug. Court battles are also percolating. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard arguments last Tuesday in San Francisco in a 2007 lawsuit challenging the government’s official skepticism about medical uses of the drug.

But Allen F. St. Pierre, the executive director of Norml, said he had cautioned supporters that any legal changes that might occur would probably be incremental.

“The balancing act this year is trying to get our most active, most vocal supporters to be more realistic in their expectations in what the Obama administration is going to do,” Mr. St. Pierre said.

For fans of the drug, perhaps the biggest indicator of changing attitudes is how widespread the observance of April 20 has become, including its use in marketing campaigns for stoner-movie openings (like last year’s “Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantánamo Bay”) and as a peg for marijuana-related television programming (like the G4 network’s prime-time double bill Monday of “Super High Me” and “Half Baked”).

Events tied to April 20 have “reached the tipping point in the last few years after being a completely underground phenomenon for a long time,” said Steven Hager, the creative director and former editor of High Times. “And I think that’s symptomatic of the fact that people’s perception of marijuana is reaching a tipping point.”

Mr. Hager said the significance of April 20 dates to a ritual begun in the early 1970s in which a group of Northern California teenagers smoked marijuana every day at 4:20 p.m. Word of the ritual spread and expanded to a yearly event in various places. Soon, marijuana aficionados were using “420” as a code for smoking and using it as a sign-off on fliers for concerts where the drug would be plentiful.

In recent years, the April 20 events have become so widespread that several colleges have urged students to just say no. At the University of Colorado, Boulder, where thousands of students regularly use the day to light up in the quad, administrators sent an e-mail message this month pleading with students not to “participate in unlawful activity that debases the reputation of your university and degree.”

A similar warning was sent to students at the University of California, Santa Cruz — home of the Grateful Dead archives — which banned overnight guests at residence halls leading up to April 20.

None of which, of course, is expected to discourage the dozens of parties — large and small — planned for Monday, including the top-secret crowning of Ms. High Times.

In San Francisco, meanwhile, where a city supervisor, Ross Mirkarimi, suggested last week that the city should consider getting into the medical marijuana business as a provider, big crowds are expected to turn out at places like Hippie Hill, a drum-happy glade in Golden Gate Park.

A cloud of pungent smoke is also expected to be thick at concerts like one planned at the Fillmore rock club, where the outspoken pro-marijuana hip-hop group Cypress Hill is expected to take the stage at 4:20 p.m.

“You can see twice the amount of smoke as you do at a regular show,” said B-Real, a rapper in the group. “And it’s a great fragrance.”

Ban on Drooping Drawers Faces Legal Challenge

RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — As fashion statements go, the young men’s “sagging pants” look, with trousers slung low enough to reveal a generous swath of boxer shorts, has some lamentable drawbacks.

For one thing, it can veer perilously close to the ultimate wardrobe crisis for a man: a sudden drop of trousers to the ankles. Then there is the legal issue. In this tiny beachfront town 70 miles north of Miami, the look is against the law.

Last year, more than 70 percent of voters here backed an ordinance making it illegal to wear trousers low enough to reveal skin or underwear.

Other cities, including Lynwood, Ill., and Flint, Mich., have passed similar measures, but none appear to have pursued violators as energetically as Riviera Beach. Since the law took effect last July, 15 to 20 young men have been charged with violating the ordinance, defense lawyers say.

But with many of the cases pending, the Office of the Palm Beach County Public Defender last week challenged the ordinance on constitutional grounds.

Two assistant public defenders representing three defendants argued before Judge Laura Johnson of North County Court in nearby Palm Beach Gardens that the ordinance and its enforcement violated principles of freedom of expression and the right to due process. They added that enforcement of the ordinance has focused exclusively on young black men.

Mayor Thomas Masters, a Baptist minister, said in an interview that Riviera Beach voters “just got tired of having to look at people’s behinds or their undergarments,” but the public defenders argued that sagging pants were a constitutionally protected expression of identity.

Their star witness was Chelsea Rousso, a former New York fashion designer who is now a fashion instructor at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.

Ms. Rousso, 48, looking uptown chic on the witness stand in a three-quarter-length embroidered jacket and a knit black dress by Ellen Tracy, conceded that sagging pants were not for her. They look “uncomfortable,” she said, and “comfort is very important in the things I wear.”

Still, the low-slung pants look is one that has gone from “tribal” to mainstream, she said, displaying pictures of the soccer star David Beckham, the teenage heartthrob Zac Efron, Prince Harry and others sporting it.

“It started out as an expressive concept, and it went mainstream,” Ms. Rousso said. “A lot of people picked up on it, with the social ramifications that went with it.”

In cross-examination, Matthew Russell, the police department’s general counsel, disputed the “expressive” elements of wearing one’s pants below the waist. The court will hear the city’s final argument on April 22.

Mr. Russell said after the hearing that the sagging pants issue was of prime importance to Riviera Beach. “We’re working very hard to improve the image of our city,” he said.

Mayor Masters frowned through Ms. Rousso’s testimony. He said cities should have the right to maintain social standards, just as they can dictate the height to which certain trees can grow. “I think society has the right to draw the line,” he said.

On Martin Luther King Boulevard on Wednesday, a shirtless young man with plaid boxers showing above his pants declined to talk about the style. But others standing in front of a complex of barracks-like apartments attacked the ordinance, calling it “stupid” and “a bad law.”

“There are a bunch of other laws about clothes they should make,” said Carlos Edwards, sitting in a church van. Mr. Edwards cited the use of trench coats by teenagers involved in the Columbine massacre.

On Singer Island, Bart Berling, the owner of Mother Nature’s Cafe, also questioned the sense of outlawing low-slung pants. “I was young in the ’60s, when people started wearing their hair real long,” Mr. Berling said. He does not like the style, he said, “but as long as they ain’t naked, what’s the point?”

One defendant at the recent court hearing, Julius Hart, 18, sat a few rows behind Mr. Masters in neatly belted chinos and a tucked-in rugby shirt.

His father, John Hart, who voted for the ordinance, said he had taken his son shopping at Wal-Mart. “I told him to pick out four belts,” Mr. Hart said. “It’s not that he can’t afford a belt.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: April 15, 2009
Because of an editing error, an article on Monday about a law in Riviera Beach, Fla., banning low-slung trousers misstated the name of the judge who is hearing a challenge to the law. She is Laura Johnson, not Laura Johnson North. (She presides over North County Court.)

Japanese don’t like Chinese / Chinese don’t like Japanese

A new poll has shown what many people already know: Most Japanese and Chinese don’t hold a very favorable view of eachother.

Japan and China hold “very negative” opinions of each other, with only 28 percent of the Japanese and 21 percent of the Chinese having positive views, the Pew Research Center said Tuesday in a global survey report.

The Washington-based think tank cited rivalry between the two neighboring Asian nations with “long histories of conflict.”

In the United States, meanwhile, a narrow majority, or 52 percent, of Americans have a favorable opinion of China, up from 43 percent last year, and 66 percent hold a positive view on Japan, up from 63 percent, according to the poll conducted among nearly 17,000 people in 15 countries between March 31 and May 14.

The favorability rating of the United States came to 63 percent in Japan, down from 72 percent in the last available 2002 poll, and 47 percent in China, up from 42 percent last year.

The poll also asked Japanese people about possible threats:

Japanese view North Korea as a more serious threat with 46 percent saying North Korea poses a great danger to regional stability and world peace, while the rating came to 29 percent for both Iran and the U.S. presence in Iraq.

Read the full article here.

New York Times Women in the Workplace Career Expo

The New York Times Women in the Workplace Career Expo takes place from March 30 through April 29. Register today.

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MCA- An Overview

MAKING
CULTURAL ADJUSTMENTS: DIALOGUE TO HARMONY

At the core of MCA, is
the articulation of human voices speaking to the variety of
experiences that make our individual identities and personhood. Each
person in this book of 23 essays, written in Chinese and English,
presents a unique testament of emerging cultural patterns pointing to
instances of similarities and stark value differences, as different
codes of meanings typify our everyday human intercourse. The reader
is offered a unique perspective that is not the advantage of the
accused, abused, or the unexcused parties introduced in this
sometimes humorous anthology of personal growth in various cultural
settings. This work serves as a teacher, discussion tool, or dialogue
starter springing from essays that empower, reveal, and raise issues
through voices within, as well as, outside the United States.

Readers can attest to
the legitimacy of assumed universal values, shared fields of
experiences, and perhaps may recognize many behind the scenes
“secrets” that are often veiled by cultural myths or
family traditions. Most importantly, methods for facing personal
fears and creating harmonious solutions to complex communication
situations may be an advantage offered by this book. Additional
benefits lie in this bilingual work being a consultants’
reference toolbox, working encyclopedia for creating cultural
issues-oriented programs, and or a guide for transitional work as one
moves into new cultural arenas. An English audio CD set of this work
is also available.

Author: Aaron A. Vessup
– USA/PRC

New Star Press, Beijing

PRC (8610) 65270477

ISBN:
978-7-80225-585-2

309 pp.

Published February 2009