World News Trends

“Shocking Disaster” for Aral Sea

One of the four largest lakes in the world has marked ‘one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters’ because of its slowly shrunken size which is an excruciating 90 percent loss from the original size of its sea bed.

Its evaporation left a windy salted sand which caused jobless fishermen and stranded fishing boats and ships on land. It poorly exhibits a robust land which is dry and lifeless, compared to its condition in 1989.

The shrunken size of the Aral seas was caused by diverting the rivers that once were freely flowing towards the sea into the Soviet Union irrigation projects.

U.N. Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon toured the sea during visit to the five countries of former Soviet Central Asia which included a touchdown in Muynak, Uzbekistan. This was once a town on shore of the “big sea” and now can be described with gray dead sands and hot winds along with the display of camels near the hulks of stranded ships.

Ban was deeply concerned about this and is calling to set aside all rivalries between the surrounding countries and join him into repairing the damages and regain what was lost in the shrunken sea. He promises the United Nations’ support for this project and will continue to help relive the Aral Sea.

There is an ongoing project to replenish the northern part of Aral Sea where a dam is being constructed so as to rise the water level and to house the living sea creatures including marine life to help boost the fish economy of the people in Uzbekistan.

Tags: Aral Sea, Ban Ki-Moon, Uzbekistan

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International Donors’ Conference for Haiti’s Future

The United States and United Nations will hold the International Donors’ Conference in New York today, March 31, 2010. This will be entitled as “ International Donors’ Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti” and will be held at the United Nations in New York city. This is in cooperation with the government of Haiti together with the supporting nations such as Canada, Brazil, France, European Union and Spain.

This event is open to all United Nations’ member as well as those who want to participate in helping Haiti regain national strength and be able to recover from the tragic memories of the earthquakes that had happened. It will be helpful enough to show that all the nations are helping towards the betterment of each country as well as keeping high hopes of gaining strength and be able to touch peoples’ lives by joining such noble event. This event is for the benefit of Haiti as well as supplying long term needs for its full recovery and for health and feeding programs to be prolonged for those who were greatly affected by the tragedy.

Haiti is hopeful that it will survive despite the struggles that it is experiencing right now. People are helping one another and this is one great fact to know that we haven’t lost the good values of mankind like helping other people whatever the race, culture and tradition we are into. Through this, we would be able to show that we care and that we are ready to help hand in hand for a better future not just for Haiti, but for the entire world as well.

Tags: haiti, United Nations

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Lay’s Potato Chips to be Included for HVP Recall List

Lay’s is a popular brand of potato chips and is now to be recalled in Canada by suspecting salmonella contamination within its contents.

The CFIA or Canadian Food Inspection Agency has announced last Monday that Lay’s smoky bacon flavored potato chips contains HVP or hydrolyzed vegetable protein which was known to be made of a spoiled batch of enhancer products being manufactured form the United States.

Though the recall only includes those 43-gram bags of Lay’s chips which were stamped as “fresh until” March 23 – May 4, and 235-gram from March 23 – April 27, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is still taking precautions to avoid cases of salmonella infection.

Salmonellosis is an infection caused by the Salmonella bacteria and symptoms may include diarrhea, fever, vomiting and abdominal cramps which tales after 12-17 hours after ingesting the infected food. It usually lasts from 3 to 7 days, but severe diarrhea may cause dehydration to the patient and might be dangerous if not seriously treated and cared for. This type of disease affects certain parts of the gastrointestinal tract including the stomach, intestines and into the blood stream supplying the entire system and if not treated with antibiotics, might cause death and severe injuries to the patient.

Salmonella can be found in those foods which are not properly processed and cleaned well. Such examples are beaten raw eggs and milk and products derived from it which are not handled clean and refrigerated immediately after the process.

So far no cases of Salmonellosis have been recorded within Canada due to ingestion of suspected products which were recalled.

Tags: HVP, Lay's potato chips, salmonellosis

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Sledge Hockey is In

Paralympic Winter in Vancouver last Tuesday night—that was the highlight of the week.  Canada is still the defending champion scoring first goal on a power play at merely 30 seconds of the second period.

Sledge hockey was invented to allow those who are handicap to still play hockey despite their disability. It started when a Swedish player modified the hockey gear together with his friend for them to still be able to play hockey. Their design was of two metal blades on a metal frame that will allow them to puck beneath the ice. Together with it are two round poles with a handle that allows them to control the sledge within the ice field. From then on new innovations have been made until the Paralympic Games have made the design specially used for such tournament.

Teams from different countries have adopted such kind of sport to allow other physically incapacitated athletes to still participate and make themselves worthwhile through the games that they play. Through this, people will realize that we all have equal rights to make ourselves useful and we can still do the things that we want despite our physical disability.

Sledge hockey has made the pathway for disabled people to reach out and be able to participate with games and other tournaments.

Tags: canada tournament, paralympic games, sledge hockey

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Deadly Risks on Baby Slings

These hip products which moms and dads are comfortable at using might not be safe for your little angels. CPSC or Consumer Product Safety Commission has investigated about the said product and it is said to have at least 13 deaths over the last 20 years with 3 cases involved only for last year.

Most of the cases involved infants below 4 months of age, according to CPSC and the number of cases involved has alarmed the agency and are now considering recalling all baby sling products to avoid hazardous effects to babies or infants.

According to the safety panel, there are two possible ways that baby slings can pose hazardous effects to the baby. These are through suffocation and blocking normal airway passages of the baby.

Suffocation

The material or fabric being used for such products presses against the baby’s mouth or nose, which causes suffocation of the baby within a minute or so. This is quite the usual scenario for cases that have been investigated by the safety panel and it has alarmed quite a few parents about this deadly risk of using baby slings.

Blocking normal airway passages

The baby once placed in the sling is being cradled by it or in a C-like position. Babies don’t have strong neck or head control to flip upwards for normal breathing once on this type of position, so what happens is that the baby’s normal airway passage is being blocked, depriving him or oxygen intake within. Babies then won’t be able to cry for help, inducing them slowly to suffocation.

These are troublesome scenarios which could take our babies in just a nick of time, and might cause terrible effects to them as well. Parents should be well-aware about this and they should choose wisely as to what specific products they will use for their baby’s safety.

Tags: baby slings, slings

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