“UK reports: Pope Benedict XVI to visit Britain - Herald Times Reporter” plus 4 more |
- UK reports: Pope Benedict XVI to visit Britain - Herald Times Reporter
- 4 injured in shootout at San Diego border crossing - The Guardian
- Passenger missing from Alaska cruise ship - Seattle Post Intelligencer
- Toddler Thursday: flight risk - Weblogs.baltimoresun.com
- Businesses share lessons from spring H1N1 outbreak - Centre For Infectious Disease Research and Policy
| UK reports: Pope Benedict XVI to visit Britain - Herald Times Reporter Posted: 24 Sep 2009 05:24 AM PDT LONDON Pope Benedict XVI will next year make the first visit to Britain by a pontiff in decades, British media reported Wednesday. Reporters traveling to New York with Prime Minister Gordon Brown reported news of the planned visit, but Brown's Downing Street office refused to officially confirm it. Archbishop Vincent Nichols, head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, said he was encouraged and pleased by reports of the pope's visit. He said the British government had invited the pope on several occasions, but that any official confirmation would have to come from the Vatican. "We are glad the Holy Father is giving such consideration to the invitations he has received from Her Majesty's government, which accord closely to the wishes and requests also expressed by the bishops of England and Wales," Nichols said in a statement. "The prospect of a visit by Pope Benedict fills us with joy." Three British newspapers and the Sky News and BBC broadcasters all cited unidentified sources in reporting the planned visit. In Rome, a Catholic church source said a visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Britain is among the possible trips he may make in 2010. The source asked not to be identified because trip planning is still being worked out and no dates have been set. Other possible trips include to Malta and Fatima, Portugal. Announcements of such visits generally are made first by the local church. The last visit to Britain by the head of the Roman Catholic Church was by Pope John Paul II in 1982.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 4 injured in shootout at San Diego border crossing - The Guardian Posted: 24 Sep 2009 05:31 AM PDT SAN DIEGO (AP) â€" Four people were injured in a gun battle Tuesday involving an attempt to smuggle illegal immigrants from Mexico at the busiest border crossing in the U.S., authorities said. More than 70 people traveling in three vans involved in the incident were in federal custody, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Angelica DeCima. Details remained sketchy, but van drivers tried to storm past inspectors at the San Ysidro port of entry and make their way into the U.S. without stopping, DeCima said. "It was human smuggling, definitely," said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Three of the injured people were in the vans, and a fourth was in another vehicle, DeCima said. It was unclear how serious the injuries were. An ICE agent and a CBP officer fired their guns during the shootout, DeCima said. The shootout occurred over nine lines of traffic in the 24 northbound lanes, said Monica Munoz, a San Diego police spokeswoman. About 40,000 vehicles enter the U.S. each day at San Ysidro, which connects San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. Investigators closed the port to vehicle traffic from Mexico to the United States.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Passenger missing from Alaska cruise ship - Seattle Post Intelligencer Posted: 23 Sep 2009 04:03 PM PDT U.S. and Canadian ships and aircraft are searching for a passenger who is missing from a cruise ship traveling from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Vancouver, B.C. The 67-year-old woman was reported missing to the U.S. Coast Guard about 11 a.m. today. The woman, a U.S. citizen, was noticed to be missing when she didn't leave the Sapphire Princess after it arrived in Vancouver this morning. The Princess Cruises ship left Ketchikan on Monday afternoon. The U.S. Coast Guard said its search area begins in Ketchikan and runs 86 miles south to include Dixon Entrance, Tongass Narrows and the northern end of Hecate Strait; it's using a plane, helicopter and boat. Canadian authorities are searching along the British Columbia coast from Hecate Strait south about 500 miles to Vancouver, B.C. The cruise ship has been searched by crew; no signs of the woman were found, said the Coast Guard, and her belongings were found in her stateroom. Her name is being withheld until next-of-kind are notified. In August, another passenger went missing from an Alaska cruise ship. Amber Malkuch, of Arlington, Snohomish County, who was traveling aboard Holland America's Zaandam cruise ship, was found dead in the waters off Alaska's Douglas Island. Foul play was not suspected.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Toddler Thursday: flight risk - Weblogs.baltimoresun.com Posted: 24 Sep 2009 10:46 AM PDT
We're flying cross-country in a few weeks with the little one, and frankly, I'm worried. This won't be Isaac's first time on a plane, or even his first cross-country journey, but it will be his first time flying since he started walking and discovered the joys of mobility. His previous flights have posed their own challenges. When he was nearly 4 months old, Isaac and I flew solo to Oregon to visit my mom, who had been ill and unable to travel to us after his birth. Leg 1 was a packed flight, and he got a little antsy, but the father of a 5-month-old was crammed into the seat by me, and he just kind of rolled with it, thankfully. Leg 2, we had more space, and he slept like a log for most of it, but since it was getting late, the pilot started the descent without making an announcement. In Portland, you go kind of over the mountain and then doowwwwn to the river real quick to land, and even on a grownup head, it can be brutal. I didn't have a chance to get Isaac his pacifier or bottle and he woke up in screaming pain. I was desperately trying to get him to calm down when a flight attendant unbuckled herself, came over, and helpfully told me that although crying would eventually clear his ears, if I could get him "to take a bottle or pacifier or something, that would really help." I looked at her with a crazed expression, three kinds of pacifiers hanging off my fingers, a bottle tucked under my arm, a knuckle near Isaac's screaming mouth being ignored, and tried to clear the white-hot fury from my brain to form a sentence when my seatmate saved me. "She's offered him everything she's got, OK?" Rarely have I felt such gratitude toward my fellow man. At 6 months or so, we flew solo to Texas, but it was pretty uneventful except that the carseat didn't quite fit between the rows, so even though we each had a seat, I had to share mine with part of his carrier for most of the flight. Eh, whatever, he slept most of the way. Just shy of a year, Isaac accompanied us to California. The flight out was going really smoothly (we had the row to ourselves!) until he choked a bit on a goldfish cracker after drinking a full bottle of milk. Let's just say I wished I had followed my initial instinct to pack an extra outfit for myself into the carryon. (I have to say, though, the flight attendants were so good after the vomit incident and helped us clean up remarkably quickly and efficiently. I was impressed. And relieved.) On the way home from California, the planes were completely full, but strangely, Isaac slept for about three-quarters of our time in the air. Speaking of relieved. But now ... I don't know. Every second his feet are on the ground, he is on the move. If we have to hold him still, and he doesn't want to, he kind of freaks out. He's at that stage (15 months old) where he easily gets frustrated because he's just figuring out that he can communicate with us, but we often don't understand. The good thing is, he sometimes spends ages playing with his books, and one of his new favorite things is to plop down in one of our laps. So maybe with a snacks, a few new interesting books and his favorite stuffed animal for naptime, we'll be OK. But if anyone has suggestions for flying with toddler, hit me in the comments! (Photo of plane wing by me, taken a while back, and not while flying with child)  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 24 Sep 2009 09:56 AM PDT Mary Beth Nierengarten Sep 24, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – On the final day of a business preparedness summit in Minneapolis, a panel of experts emphasized having clear, open communication with employees as well as having flexible plans—lessons they learned from being on the frontlines in Mexico and the Southern Hemisphere during the spring novel H1N1 outbreak. Other critical lessons shared by the panelists were the need to build strong relationships between corporations and national and local governments and recognizing the importance of promoting prevention measures both in and outside of the workplace. The 2-day summit, "Keeping the World Working during the H1N1 Pandemic," was sponsored by the CIDRAP Business Source, part of the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. Building strong relationships Despite the fact that 3M had planning policies in place for crises, such as a flu outbreak, that could disrupt their businesses, these didn't matter once the government mandated policies to shut down schools and prohibit people from going to work. Given how events unfolded, Palensky said, the key is flexibility and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. "We were surprised at every single minute of every single day," he said. One critical lesson Palensky learned from his company's experience is the importance for businesses to develop a strong relationship with national and local governments, particularly when there is a lot of conflicting information about what is occurring. It is important, he said, to try to have access to the highest levels of government to get a consensus of what is going on. Developing a strong relationship with government also helps to leverage a company's position in a country during such a crisis. Palensky said that the experience of 3M during the spring H1N1 outbreak diverged from other countries because, as a supplier of N-95 respirators, the company was deemed to be a critical supplier and had access to government. This preferred position also allowed its management team to assemble and factories to stay open. "The reason we were able to do that is that we had relationships to government so that we could identify ourselves and offer ourselves as a critical supplier," he said, "and that very quickly changed the tenor of our relationship with the government." Other critical relationships to form are with people who have expertise in pandemic preparedness. Palensky said that, along with having a corporate medical director with pandemic planning expertise, the company also works with local medical experts. This is particularly important in situations, like the spring outbreak, that involve a lot of conflicting information. Maintaining good communication Dr. Irene Lai, MB, BS, deputy medical director of International SOS in Sydney, Australia, also spoke of the need to provide good information to people, particularly when government actions create a situation in which people may be affected by different, and sometimes contradictory policies. Citing varying responses to the spring outbreak among different states in Australia, she said that one major lesson was the need to inform people of the ramifications of traveling between states that have different response policies. One important aspect of developing good communication with employees is to identify high-risk patients, according to Cabanilla. Highlighting that 99.5% of employees who get sick will only be mildly affected and return to work, he stressed the importance of "attending to and identifying as soon as possible high-risk people and provide interventions." Palensky agreed about both good communication and identifying high-risk patients. After discovering this spring that 3M's communication needed improvement, Palensky said the company is enhancing communication with workers, both onsite and offsite, through phone, e-mail, and company postings, as well as in person. "We have significantly increased our communication to employees when they are not at work," he said. In identifying high-risk patients, he also emphasized the need to provide protective measures, like hand sanitizers and respirators, to employees at work and at home. Taking care of families For CIDRAP Director Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, who moderated the session, focusing on protecting workers at home as well as at work demands that the old model of occupational safety be tweaked to more accurately reflect the 24/7 communication model needed to protect workers. "This is one area we can work on," he said.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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