The statistics show that seven women out of 1,000 serving in the Army, Navy and RAF suffered some form of mental disorder – including depression, anxiety or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
More than 6,000 Canadian Forces members and discharged veterans who are receiving physical or psychiatric disability benefits from Veterans Affairs Canada have either served in Afghanistan or have a disability that has been related to their service in Afghanistan, the department says: here.
The Montréal-based antiwar collective Échec à la guerre (which translates roughly as “Stop war”) is organizing a People’s Summit Against War and Militarism to be held March 19-21 in that city. Featuring workshops and panels as well as a plenary session that will issue a Joint Declaration, the People’s Summit promises to be an important step in creating an understanding of the underlying issues that alone can sustain and build an ongoing movement against war and imperialism in this country [Canada]: here.
As a result, Zhucheng City has become known locally as “dinosaur city“.
The footprints were uncovered on a 2,600 sq m (0.64 acre) rock slope in a gully following three months of excavation work, Xinhua reported.
The find is unusual because of the quantity and size of footprints uncovered, scientists said.
The footprints, which range from 10cm (3.9in) to 80cm in length, belong to dinosaur types including tyrannosaurs, coelurosaurs and hadrosaurs, Xinhua said.
Paleontology Field Prospecting in Angola 2009, looking for vertebrate fossils. This video shows the size of the Cretaceous outcrops in Angola. By Octávio Mateus. See also www.paleoangola.org
An international team of scientists has announced the discovery of “turtle of Angola,” a Late Cretaceous reptile that was one of the earliest known marine turtles from Africa. The seafaring turtle, Angolachelys mbaxi, lived 90 million years ago.
Octavio Mateus, who led the project, informed me of the find today. He is a researcher at both the New University of Lisbon and the Museu da Lourinhã.
The Dinosaur Era marine turtle “represents one of the first marine amniote lineages to have invaded the South Atlantic after separation of Africa and South America,” according to Mateus and his team. The researchers believe the turtle first emerged in the North Atlantic. When the new opening to the southern part of the ocean occurred, this animal, and apparently others, made a bee-line southward. A marine lizard, Angolasaurus, from the same time period has also been found, and it too was one of the first to invade the South Atlantic.
An orthodontist in the state of Baden-Württemberg has reportedly turned a 16-year-old boy out of her practice because she was offended by his name – “Cihad,” an alternate spelling for “Jihad,” which she interpreted to mean “holy war.”
According to the paper, the boy’s parents were shocked, saying they had chosen the name simply because they liked it, and not for religious reasons.
Islamic scholars say the word “jihad” means “striving for God,” but it has been co-opted by Islamists for their purposes of “holy war,” the paper reported. …
The state medical association told the paper that the law does not require doctors to treat patients except in the case of an emergency. But the organisation also called a treatment refusal based on a first name “unusual.”
“Jihad” is a very common name for both boys and girls. It has nothing to do with Al-Qaeda or anything. Just like, maybe atheist, parents give their children names like “Christian”, “Christine”, or Christian saints’ names (like George, after Saint George, a soldier according to legend), in itself has nothing to do with Christian fundamentalism.
The first person to be found guilty of “Islamist terror” charges in Scotland has been freed amid jubilant scenes outside the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh: here. And here.
HAVANA - Eight US American doctors will join a Cuban medical team in helping earthquake victims in Haiti. This is what Cuban and U.S. officials announced this Friday.
The Americans have graduated from the ELAM medical school in the Cuban capital Havana. The US Americans and approximately one thousand people from the present Cuban team will work in a hospital in Croix-des-Bouqets, a suburb in the north of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.
For half a century, the U.S. and Communist
“Communism” means a completely classless and stateless society. No-one claims Cuba has reached that stage yet. So, this is a careless use of the word “communist”.
Cuba have had a very tense relationship, which inter alia led to a U.S. boycott. Under President Barack Obama, relationships are getting better slowly.
Already shortly after the earthquake in Haiti, Cuba gave the United States permission to use Cuban airspace to transport victims of the natural disaster.
The airspace issue, if reported correctly, would be really a sign of better relationships between the two governments.
However, as far as know (please correct me if I am wrong), these US American doctors are coming to Haiti on their own iniative, and not as US government representatives. They got their medical education in Cuba, as they considered there were better possibilities for them there than in their own country. They did so, very much against the wishes of the George W. Bush administration and earlier US administrations.
Latin American leaders have warned that Haiti was in danger of being turned into a US military base after the commander of US forces in the earthquake-devastated country declared that his 15,000 soldiers “will stay as long as is necessary”: here.
Haiti: From Batay Ouvriye - Position Statement: here.
This video from the USA is called Dr. Warren Hern Speaks about the Murder of Colleague and Friend Dr. George Tiller.
A Kansas jury took only 37 minutes to find antiabortion fanatic Scott Roeder guilty of murder in the execution-style shooting of Dr. George Tiller, who operated one of a handful of clinics in the US that performs late-term abortions: here.
[Anti abortionists] Operation Rescue Offers $10,000 Bounty for Doctors: here.
Abortion is one of the safest medical procedures in the country; ironically, those professionals and staff who make sure that abortion is safe may find their own safety compromised: here.
VietNamNet Bridge – Researchers have found out a new species of gecko in the Ta Cu Nature Reserve in Binh Thuan province.
The new endemic gecko is named Gekko takouensis sp. nov. Ngo & Gamble since it was discovered by Ngo Van Tri, an expert from the HCM City Institute of Tropical Biology and Dr. Tony Gamble from the Minnesota University, USA.
This is the second endemic gecko species found on Ta Cu mountain. The other is bent-toe gecko named Cyrtodactylus takouensis Ngo & Bauer.
Recently, many rare species of animals have been discovered in the Ta Cu Nature Reserve, including francolin, mountain hawk, Truong Son silver douc and black-legged monkey (Pygathrix nigripes).
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Ta Cu Nature Reserve has 751 floral species and at least 15 species are very rare. It is also the home to around 178 species of terrestrial spinal [vertebrate] animals.
Dr. Vu Ngoc Long, Director of the HCM City Institute of Tropical Biology‘s Bio-diversity and Development Centre, there are at least 25 species of endangered animals at the Ta Cu Nature Reserve.
To protect the important nature reserve, a project has been launched to improve management capacity of local authorities and raise people’s awareness of protecting environment.
Planetary scientist Carolyn Porco shows images from the Cassini voyage to Saturn, focusing on its largest moon, Titan, and on frozen Enceladus, which seems to shoot jets of ice.
The Cassini probe will become the first spacecraft to get a detailed look at summer in Saturn’s northern hemisphere, now that NASA has extended its mission until 2017.
Cassini arrived at Saturn in 2004, shortly after the height of winter in the northern hemisphere. But since the Ringed Planet’s year lasts 29 Earth years, it has never been able to witness the hemisphere’s more temperate months.
Now its current mission, which was set to end in September 2010, will be extended for a further seven years, taking it a few months past the northern summer solstice. The announcement comes after the White House revealed its proposed 2011 budget for the agency, which provides $60 million per year for Cassini’s extended mission.
Cassini detection adds to Enceladus liquid water story: here.
Since last Saturday, four new ‘Dutch’ asteroids are circling around in our solar system. They are named after the first Dutch female physician and champion of women’s suffrage Aletta Jacobs, the 17th-century master painter Pieter Jansz. Saenredam (well known for his realistic church interiors), the 17th-century pastor and language purist Samuel Ampzing, and the 18-19th-century physician, poet and lecturer in Natural History at Leiden University Dr Joannes le Francq van Berkhey.
The four asteroids move several hundred millions of miles from the sun in the space between the planets Mars and Jupiter.
Three weeks after the January 12 earthquake leveled most of Port-au-Prince and claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, anger in Haiti over the slow pace of relief and the impotence of President Rene Preval’s government has erupted into protests: here.
After the January 12 earthquake that devastated Haiti, the French government has moved to quell political opposition in Europe to the US military occupation of Haiti: here.
AS PEOPLE are pouring their hearts and money towards Haiti’s earthquake relief efforts, two issues have come to my attention. First, the issue of “security” and the extent to which defense is prioritized over health care. Secondly, the issue of health and building an infrastructure that provides free comprehensive health care to everyone: here.
Britain: A petition with more than 15,000 signatures has been handed to the Treasury asking Chancellor Alistair Darling to call on the IMF to cancel Haiti’s £560 million international debt: here.
Swiss court awards Haiti funds to Baby Doc Duvalier: here.
