Deadly
Yosemite virus warning to 10,000 US campers
Thousands
of people could be at risk from a deadly virus in California's
Yosemite National Park that has already claimed two lives, officials
say.
BBC,
26
April, 2012
Four
other cases of Hantavirus, a rare lung disease, have been reported.
The
park said it is getting about 1,000 calls per day from frightened
visitors on its Hantavirus hotline.
There
is no known cure for the virus, spread by infected rodent droppings.
Symptoms can take up to six weeks to show and one third of cases are
fatal.
The
virus is carried in rodent faeces, urine and saliva. When it dries
out and mixes with dust, it can be inhaled by humans, especially in
small, stuffy spaces.
The
disease can also spread if people touch or eat contaminated
substances, or are bitten by an infected animal.
The
first death was reported earlier this month. One of those who died
was a 37-year-old man from the San Francisco Bay area.
Big
streetlight switch-off moves a step closer
THE
next steps have been revealed in a scheme which will see streetlights
across North Yorkshire being switched off overnight in a bid to save
council bosses £400,000 a year.
26
April, 2012
One Manhattan resident, however, is fed up with it.
Joseph Bolanos, president of the West 76th Street Block Association, decided to call attention to the problem by installing eye-catching signs on Wednesday: fake traffic-crossing signs just for the rats.
The diamond-shaped plastic signs prominently feature the words “RAT XING” with a big black rat at the center. Bolanos hung the signs with double-sided tape around his Upper West Side neighborhood.
The move may be a bit flippant, but Bolanos said he thinks the signs could bring attention to the issue plaguing his streets.
Standard
and Poor's downgrades Sharp debt to junk status
LCD
maker is suffering from the flagging television market
31
August, 2012
Sharp
has had its credit rating cut to junk status by the Standard and
Poor's rating agency.
Sharp,
which invested heavily during the LCD television boom in the mid
2000s, is now paying the price as demand for televisions slumps
across the board. Now Standard and Poor's has bestowed the ignominy
of lowering Sharp's credit rating to BB+, putting it into what's
called junk status.
Standard
and Poor's also warned that Sharp has weak cash flow and is facing
worsening market conditions, two things that will not endear it to
investors. It said, "Sharp's liquidity position has weakened,
and the company is highly dependent on short-term borrowings in light
of weak internal cash flow and a less favourable funding
environment."
Sharp
has had a troubled year and earlier this week announced that it will
lay off 2,000 employees in Japan, as its LCD business simply cannot
support itself. Standard and Poor's said that unless Sharp's fortunes
improve, the firm could be hit with another credit rating downgrade.
China's
Railway Ministry Posts $1.4 Billion Loss
China's
Ministry of Railways reported an after-tax loss of 8.8 billion yuan
($1.4 billion) in the first half due to rising operating costs,
highlighting the financial difficulties faced by the already
debt-saddled ministry
WSJ,
31
August, 2012
The
financial report posted on Chinabond, an official website for bond
issuers, did not give a comparative figure as the ministry in past
years has only released annual data. It reported an after-tax profit
of 31 million yuan for all of 2011.
The
report showed that the railway ministry's operating expenses came to
249.26 billion yuan in the January-June period, more than half the
435.35 billion yuan it reported for all of 2011.
The
ministry also raised 310.8 billion yuan, mainly through bank loans
and bond issues, in the first half of this year, much less than half
the 967.4 billion yuan it raised in all of 2011. In 2010, it raised
1.059 trillion yuan.
Typhoon
Bolaven helps douse wildfires
31
August, 2012
Typhoon
Bolaven has helped firefighters to put out wildfires in the
Khabarovsk Region, the local administration says.
A
total of 11 wildfires were raging in the region’s northeastern
areas when the cyclone struck.
The
ensuing heavy rain enabled fire-fighting brigades to extinguish six
wildfires and contain the remaining five within 24 hours.
The
last pockets of fire were doused on Friday morning.
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