People Before Profit blog

WORLDNOTES: European Union, South Korea, Occupied Territories, South Africa, Venezuela, Cuba

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:48:00 +0000

European Union: Youth unemployment skyrockets

The EU statistical agency Eurostat last week reported a first quarter hike in young worker unemployment to 18.3 percent, up 3.7 percent. In all, 5 million workers in 27 EU nations aged 15-24 are without work.

Total unemployment rose 1.5 percent to 8.2 percent. Youth unemployment rose from 11 percent to 28.2 percent in Latvia, from 7.6 percent to 24.1 percent in Estonia and from 9.5 percent to 23.6 percent in Lithuania.

Discrepancies between unemployed youth and total joblessness were greatest in Italy with 24.9 percent and 7.4 percent respectively and in Spain where comparable figures were 33.6 percent, Europe’s highest and 16.5 percent. Spain’s 789,000 unemployed youth and Great Britain’s 851,000 were tops in Europe.

South Korea: Workers strike over news control

The National Union of Media Workers launched a strike July 21 protesting legislation introduced by the ruling party six months ago that would facilitate newspaper corporations moving into television broadcasting.

Critics say the rightwing government, under pretexts of job creation and market diversification, is working to keep news reporting in “safe” hands. Presently, they note, the evening television news often provides an antidote to the conservative offerings of morning newspapers. The opposition Democratic Party sees cross-ownership as potentially blocking its progressive agenda, reports Hankyoreh News.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions initiated a strike on July 22 in solidarity with media workers and in support of workers at Ssangyong Motors, two months into a plant occupation.

Occupied Territories: UN leader issues plea

Referring to Israeli West Bank settlements, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week urged “Israel to commit fully to its obligations, including to freeze settlement activity and natural growth.” Press TV noted Palestinian determination to reject peace talks while settlement activities continue.

New reports surfaced recently of Palestinian suffering at Israeli hands. On July 20, West Bank settlers burned down 350 olive trees near Burin in retaliation, according to the French news agency AFP, for removal of a “wildcat settlement.” The next day, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem released a report verifying that most wastewater from Israeli West Bank and Jerusalem settlements goes untreated, threatening human health and the environment. B’Tselem cited “the rights of Palestinians to (clean) water and sanitation.”

South Africa: President confronts disappointed hopes

Protests have multiplied against lack of clean water and decent township housing. Police using rubber bullets arrested over 100 demonstrators recently. The BBC alluded to the impatience of a million people living in shacks, most without electricity or water.

“We will have to wait a little longer for a significant increase in new job creation,” new President Jacob Zuma declared last week. Yet the gap between rich and poor has widened during 15 years of African National Congress rule.

Business Day said Zuma would meet with teams working on “crisis response programs” and “take action against all who break the law.”

The ANC Youth League called for governmental response to the protests and for leaders “to visit affected communities.”

Venezuela: Poverty is down

The National Statistics Institute (INE) reported recently that poverty declined between 2002 and 2008. “Extreme poverty,” represented by 752,649 Venezuelans without income or adequate housing, fell to 11.8 percent, down from 20.2 percent. Those poor because of sporadic income fell from 43 percent to 27.5 percent. Structural poverty, marked by lack of income or adequate housing, but not both, dropped from 30.6 percent in 2002 to 23.2 percent in 2008.

INE director Elías Eljuri characterized the methodology his agency used as rigorous. Suggesting that social programs had contributed to the favorable trends, the report on Popular Tribune’s web site cited as an example children receiving meals at school, up from 300,000 a decade ago to 4.5 million children now.

Cuba: Friendshipment arrives

At a July 24 press conference in Havana, Rev. Lucius Walker, leader of the 20th Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan, declared that most U.S. citizens oppose the U.S. blockade against Cuba. Accompanying Walker were 130 “solidarity ambassadors” who, according to the Granma newspaper, had worked to send 115 tons of U.S. humanitarian aid to Cuba. They purposefully defied U.S. regulations by not seeking permission to donate supplies or travel to Cuba.

Walker called upon President Obama to apply his “concept of change” to normalizing U.S.-Cuba relations, returning the Guantanamo naval base to Cuba and liberating the jailed Cuban Five prisoners.

En route to Cuba, the visitors had collected donated material at solidarity meetings in 140 U.S. cities.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit@roadrunner.com)

Honduran regime of fear

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:24:00 +0000

Original source:

Last month Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was kidnapped by the army and expelled from the country.

But last Friday he vowed to re-enter Honduras at a border crossing where thousands of his supporters had already gathered to greet and protect him.

I was travelling in a convoy of 60 cars and buses towards the Honduran border with Nicaragua. The convoy included the first lady of Honduras Xiomara Castro and her family, who were hoping to be reunited with President Zelaya.

Just before midday, coup leader Roberto Micheletti went live on air to announce an immediate curfew. His aim was to provide legal cover for what his illegal regime had being doing all morning - preventing ordinary citizens from moving freely about their own country.

We listened to Micheletti's announcement on Radio Globo, one of only two radio stations still daring to oppose the coup regime.

We had two choices - turn around and drive back to the capital Tegucigalpa, or continue towards the border in open defiance of the military. We chose to do the latter.

'This battle of nerves continued, roadblock after roadblock. Each time, we dared the army to shoot. And each time they declined to do so, possibly disobeying orders'

As we neared what was to be the first of a series of military roadblocks, I witnessed soldiers stopping public buses and ordering the passengers out onto the roadside. If these citizens were to make it to the border or to their homes, they would now have to do so on foot.

The army roadblock consisted of a lorry parked sideways across the road and a couple of dozen soldiers together with their shame-faced commanding officer.

After half an hour of fruitless negotiations, the driver of the car in front of us took a calculated gamble and began to drive around the roadblock.

Four soldiers moved in front of the car and raised their guns - and then moved aside to let it pass. We followed, along with the rest of the convoy.

And so this battle of nerves continued, roadblock after roadblock. On each occasion, we dared the army to shoot. And each time they declined to do so, possibly disobeying orders.

In this manner, we inched closer and closer to the border, buoyed by the support of local peasant families who cheered and applauded as we passed.

But just when it looked like we were going to reach our intended destination, the situation took a terrifying turn.

Our convoy was joined by two truckloads of hooded gunmen, each them wearing black balaclavas with only tiny slits cut out for the eyes. They wore police uniforms.

I recorded on tape describing what happened next, my voice shaking as I spoke.

'This is an absolutely incredible scene. We have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight police officers with what appear to be pump-action guns and they are all wearing balaclavas and fully masked up. I am standing directly in front of them.

'There are police vehicles to my left and there is a huge army truck in front of me.

'I am going to walk as far as I can towards the military checkpoint here.

'I am now at the very front of the military checkpoint and I can see a line of army personnel in helmets carrying riot shields. And they are being confronted by the wife of President Zelaya, who is now standing directly in front of a line of armed police.

'They have clubs and batons ready to attack us. They are holding their clubs up in the air.

'The crowd are now chanting. The president's wife is on the phone, possibly to her husband or possibly she's talking with the international media.

'The line of military police have batons drawn and are standing literally three yards away from where we're standing. This is an unarmed peaceful demonstration.

'I am now going to retreat, as the military have now spread out across the fields and are taking up positions with guns, surrounding us. This is an extremely scary situation.'

Later, we spotted three snipers high up on a mountain to our right, moving around like little ants - one dressed in a white shirt, the others in army green.

Thankfully no-one in our group was shot or killed that day, probably because the presence of the first lady provided us with some protection.

Others have not been so lucky. As of July 24, human rights organisations had already documented that seven opponents of the regime had been killed, with two more missing since the coup on June 28. The real figure was probably much higher.

I left on Friday night by car, travelling back to the capital under the curfew. Shortly after sunrise, the body of Pedro Magdiel Munoz Salvador, a 23-year-old opponent of the coup regime, was found where it had been dumped, 400 metres from the checkpoint. His body bore multiple stab wounds and other marks of torture.

The rest of the group remains trapped by the military, without food, water or shelter. Disease is spreading, but the army has refused to allow in the Red Cross.

Not everyone in Honduras is against the coup. The upper and middle classes, who describe themselves as 'civil society,' are mobilising in support of the regime.

When I attended their state-sponsored rally earlier in the week, I was told that there is no repression in Honduras. I now know this to be a lie.

Hondurans are being intimidated, arrested and killed. Censorship of the media is almost complete.

President Barack Obama says that he is against the military takeover, but he has yet to formally declare it a military coup. Were he to do so, US law stipulates that all military and economic aid to the regime must be stopped.

And despite the US administration's refusal to recognise the coup regime, and the US declaration that Zelaya remains the only legitimate president of Honduras, Hillary Clinton and the State Department have made clear that they are opposed to Zelaya's efforts to return to his country.

On Saturday morning, the pro-coup daily newspapers in Honduras - as befits a military dictatorship, there are no anti-coup daily newspapers - triumphantly announced Clinton's declaration that Zelaya's attempt to cross the border from Nicaragua was 'provocative.'

The coup regime in Honduras survives by virtue of US equivocation. In order to end the coup regime, the US administration needs merely to make two public announcements.

One that all military and economic aid to the regime is immediately suspended, the other that the US gives its full practical support to the immediate return of Zelaya to his country to take up his rightful office as president.

If Obama were to take these steps, the dictatorship in Honduras would fall in a day. It is surely now time that he does so.

Calvin Tucker is co-editor of www.21stCenturySocialism.com

Action needed to avert AIDS 'treatment time bomb'

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:29:00 +0000

JOHANNESBURG, 28 July 2009 (PlusNews) - The goal of achieving universal access to treatment by 2010 has preoccupied the global AIDS community in recent years, but a new report warns that not preparing for the changing treatment needs of people living with HIV will doom the sustainability of treatment programs in developing countries.

Over the next decade an increasing number of patients on inexpensive first-line antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in low-income countries will need second-line ARVs, which currently cost at least seven times more. Many patients will also need to be switched to newer, less toxic first-line drugs, which have fewer side-effects but are at least double the price.

'The Treatment Timebomb', released this month by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on AIDS, a group of United Kingdom MPs, argues that action is needed now to bring down the price of second-line and less toxic first-line ARVs if a crisis is to be averted later.

'We must not sleepwalk into a situation where treating even a small proportion of those with HIV is unaffordable,' warns the report, which summarised the findings of a five-month inquiry into long-term access to antiretroviral (ARV) medicines in the developing world.

Low-income countries can afford to buy older-generation ARVs largely because multiple manufacturers are producing generic versions of them at a fraction of the original cost, but most of the newer drugs are being produced under patents that prevent generic manufacture.

The AAPG report points out that safeguards in the World Trade Organization's Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) allow countries to override patents - for public health purposes - by issuing 'compulsory licenses' that enable the generic manufacture of drugs still under patent.

However, few developing countries have exercised this right, citing a lack of capacity and legal know-how to negotiate the complicated paperwork required, and political pressure from foreign governments.

The authors of the report support an alternative approach that would see pharmaceutical companies putting their ARV patents into a single pool, from which manufacturers or researchers could draw in exchange for a royalty fee.

They argue that patent pools, an initiative of UNITAID, an international facility set up to purchase high volumes of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis drugs at low prices, not only have the potential to reduce the price of existing ARVs, but to stimulate the production of urgently needed new medicines and formulations, such as paediatric ARVs and fixed-dose combinations.

Despite political pressure from over 100 UK MPs who signed a parliamentary petition, no pharmaceutical company has so far agreed to put its ARV patents into a pool, but Nathan Ford, head of the medical unit of international medical NGO, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), in South Africa, said the use of parliamentary channels to promote a cause previously only championed by NGOs was a positive development.

'The problem is AIDS treatment requires a range of drugs, so if some companies play ball and others don't, the net result may be that second-line treatment will still be more expensive,' he told IRIN/PlusNews. 'It's really important that all companies engage in a solution.'

An editorial on patent pools in the British medical journal, The Lancet, on 25 July, said the mechanism 'could create a win-win situation', but the AAPG report would need to be backed by political clout for drug companies to come on board.

Waitress swallows cockroach to prove a point

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:27:00 +0000

A waitress at a restaurant in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, swallowed a cockroach crawling in one of the guests' bowl of noodles.

Zhang Xue, in her 20s, only wanted to prove that the insect was harmless after the guests created a ruckus.

Bull checks in hotel for a comfortable night

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:19:00 +0000

A yellow bull running wild entered a hotel in Jinan, Shandong province, and spent an entire night inside one of the rooms last week.

The bull, which had already injured a man, casually walked into a room at the inn without being noticed.

The owner of the inn saw the bull in the room the next day and called the cops, who took away the animal.

Tension builds in Honduras confrontation

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:42:00 +0000

Tension is building in Honduras as President Manuel Zelaya, driven from his country by a military coup, has taken brief but powerfully symbolic steps across the border from Nicaragua, while sending a letter to US President Barack Obama asking the United States to sharply increase pressure on the coup regime.

On Wednesday July 22, negotiations being mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias appeared to have bogged down. The previous week, Arias had presented a seven point proposal both to President Zelaya and to Roberto Micheletti, the head of the de-facto coup government. Micheletti did not accept the proposal on the grounds that it would have brought Zelaya back to Honduras as president to serve out his term which ends in January of 2010. Arias then presented a modified proposal which neither side has accepted.

Many analysts familiar with the situation suspect that the strategy of Micheletti and his colleagues in the coup government is to drag out negotiations until after the November 29 presidential and congressional elections (which Micheletti wants to move back to October). After a new president is elected, Micheletti expects that international pressure, including sanctions imposed on Honduras by the OAS and other bodies plus most countries around the world will fade, and the coup plotters will have won.

This horrifies the other countries of Latin America, many of which have vivid memories of coups d’état by bloodthirsty military adventurers like Augusto Pinochet of Chile or Efrain Rios-Montt of Guatemala, whose governments killed many thousands of their countrymen. This is why there is such unity among Latin American countries in insisting that Zelaya be restored to power.

The two main traditional conservative political parties in Honduras, the Liberals and the National Party, are both anti-Zelaya at the leadership level, even though there are suggestions that part of the Liberal Party’s base may be moving toward Zelaya, who won as that party’s candidate in the 2005 presidential elections, but then moved leftward. The main party of the left in Honduras, the Party of Democratic Unification, with 5 seats in the outgoing Congress, has been heavily identified with the project of a non-binding referendum to ask if citizens wanted a vote on a constitutional convention in the November election. This referendum effort was the pretext for the coup on June 28, though the real reasons probably include the many progressive, pro-worker steps the Zelaya government had been taking. The coup leaders accuse Zelaya of having violated the Constitution by planning to extend his time in office, though he himself has said nothing of the kind, and the wording of the referendum does not mention presidential terms in office, only the idea of having a constitutional convention.

Democratic Unification and its presidential candidate, Cesar Ham, have been very active in resistance to the coup regime, along with labor unions and peasant, student and other mass organizations. Thus Democratic Unification is undergoing strong repression right now, with reports of two of its activist having been killed. If the coup regime succeeds in keeping Zelaya out and itself in power up to the elections, with press controls and other repressive measures, it will be very hard for Ham and Democratic Unification to campaign, if they are allowed to at all. The coup regime is getting plenty of aid and comfort from the ultra-right in the United States, especially Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Connie Mack (R-FL) who have been inviting representatives of the coup regime to testify in Congress. U.S. corporate interests invested in Honduras, including Chiquita Banana and others, have a stake in keeping Micheletti in and Zelaya out, and the right- wing press and pulpit in the United States are putting out massive amounts of disinformation about the real situation in the Central American country. This weekend, right-wing US Congressmen Connie Mack and Brian Bilbray (R-CA) showed up in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, to express their support for the coup.

Zelaya’s allies among the other countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), including the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, are suspicious that the Arias negotiations are a ploy to run out the clock on the situation in Honduras and assure that the coup group can manipulate the elections in the above manner. They have therefore been highly critical both of Arias and of the US government for promoting the mediation instead of maximizing US economic pressure on the coup government and its supporters.

President Zelaya has now unleashed two logjam-breaking initiatives designed to force the international community to act more decisively to oust the Micheletti regime.

On Friday July 24th, Zelaya himself, accompanied by a large group of supporters and press, personally drove from Esteli, in Nicaragua, to the Honduran border at Las Manos, with the stated purpose of crossing over and demanding that the Honduran military let him enter and resume his post. Meanwhile, thousands of Zelaya supporters, including Zelaya’s wife and children, were converging on the crossing point from the Honduras side to greet Zelaya and form a protective cordon for him. At the same time, Honduran unions announced a general strike, and Zelaya supporters manned many roadblocks throughout the country. Zelaya crossed the border on Friday, spoke briefly to an army lieutenant colonel and requested that he contact the army high command to ask them not to oppose Zelaya’s return. This didn’t happen and Zelaya went back across into Nicaragua again, where he has established a base camp in the town of Ocotlan.

The army and police have been kept busy confronting the demonstrators who have been converging on the border, arresting a number of people, driving others into forested areas and killing at least one.

The second initiative by Zelaya was to write directly to US President Barack Obama to insist that the U.S. government ratchet up pressure on the coup regime by such measures as canceling the visas of people in the leadership of the coup government, including the commanders of the armed forces, army and navy as well as top civilian coup leaders, and freezing their U.S. bank accounts until Micheletti and his gang back down.

Immediately after the coup, President Obama had made a strong statement denouncing it and affirming that the United States considers Zelaya to be the legal president of Honduras. The United States, like the OAS and the European Union, cut off some aid to Honduras, about $19 million worth. However, the State Department has so far declined to officially classify the situation as a coup d’état, perhaps because Honduras would then lose more aid under requirements of U.S. law. Before Zelaya entered Honduras on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had criticized the move as “reckless” (as had OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, in milder terms), which caused annoyance in the Zelaya camp.

The Mexican daily La Jornada quoted Enrique Reina, Zelaya’s minister of communications and ambassador delegate to the United States, as saying “We believe that the measures we are requesting from the US administration will exercise direct pressure on those who executed the coup without causing a negative impact for the Honduran people”.

In the United States, cosponsors are adding their names to a resolution in the House of Representatives, H RES 630, which deplores the coup and calls on the United States to exert pressure for Zelaya’s return to the presidency. There are 40 cosponsors to the measure, whose main sponsor is Congressman Bill de la Hunt of Massachusetts. A rival measure promoted by the ultra right, which calls for the recognition of the coup government, has 31 cosponsors.

The U.S. government had said that President Zelaya was coming up to Washington DC this coming Tuesday to meet with officials, but this is now in doubt, as Zelaya says anybody who wants to talk to him can come down to his encampment in Ocotal, Nicaragua.

Media are now reporting that the commander of the Honduran armed forces, General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, one of the people whose visas Zelaya has asked to be cancelled and bank accounts frozen, has stated that he will not fire on Zelaya if he returns to Honduras, and that he supports the mediation process. According to press reports, the statement was drafted for General Vasquez by “US congressional aids”.

2,000 people bitten by dogs per day in Sri Lanka

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:16:00 +0000

Two thousand incidents of dog bites are reported each day in Sri Lanka, a local English newspaper reported on Sunday.

The Sunday Island quoted officials from the Health Ministry as saying that 28 patients died of rabies while 205 others suffered from the disease in the first six months of 2009.

Of the 205 patients, 172 had been infected from dog bites while the others had contracted the disease from cats, cows, pigs, goats, polecats and foxes.

The government has to spend 500 million rupees (about $4.31 million) each year to treat the victims bitten by dogs with an average of 39,000 rupees (about 336.2 dollars) per person.

Meanwhile, the government has allocated 200 million rupees (about 1.74 million dollars) to the Health Ministry's sterilization program to control the growth of dog population in Sri Lanka.

The government said 20,740 surgical sterilizations and 13,557 chemical sterilizations were made in the first half of this year.

There are 2.5 million dogs in Sri Lanka with 40 percent of them being strays, health officials said.

Castro on July 26: The land is waiting for us

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:40:00 +0000

Original source:

Cuban President Raul Castro has said that the global economic crisis means tougher times ahead for Cuba, but the country has no-one to blame but itself for poor farm production.

In a speech marking Revolution Day, the Cuban president said that the island can’t simply pin all its problems on Washington’s 47-year-old trade embargo.

He implored Cubans to take better advantage of a government program initiated last year to turn unused state land over to individual farmers.

“The land is there, here are the Cubans,” he said, pounding the podium. “Let’s see if we get to work or not, if we produce or not, if we keep our word.”

The 78-year-old Castro called agricultural production Cuba’s top priority and a matter of national security.

“It is not a question of yelling ‘Fatherland or death! Down with imperialism! The blockade hurts us’,” he said.

“The land is there waiting for our efforts.”

On the third anniversary of the last time his 82-year-old brother Fidel was seen in public, the younger Castro showed signs that he is getting more comfortable with national addresses.

He opened his speech with a joke about the stage’s lack of shielding from the sun.

Tens of thousands of supporters, most wearing red T-shirts or caps, filled a grassy plaza dotted with red and black July 26 flags.

Revolution Day commemorates the date in 1953 when the Castros led an attack on the Moncada army barracks in the eastern city of Santiago.

Cubans consider it the beginning of the revolution that culminated with dictator Fulgencio Batista’s ousting on New Year’s Day 1959.

An eight-story tall banner on a building behind the crowd featured a picture of both Fidel and Raul thrusting their arms skyward under the words The Vigorous and Victorious Revolution Keeps Marching Forward.

Castro has asked Cubans to be patient as he implements “structural changes” to a struggling economy.

He also has said he’d be willing to meet U.S. leaders over any issue.

Officials from Cuba and the U.S. discussed immigration this month for the first time since 2003.

The Obama administration lifted restrictions on Cuban-Americans who want to travel or send money to the island.

But the U.S. has said it wants to see small political or economic reforms before going further.

In a related development, the U.S. has turned off a Times Square-style news ticker — a source of irritation for the Castro government — at its diplomatic mission in Havana that since 2006 streamed propaganda and news into the night, diplomatic sources told Reuters reporter Marc Frank.

“The measure is the latest in a series of initiatives by the Obama administration as it seeks to engage Cuba and to end 50 years of enmity viewed in Latin America and the Caribbean as a relic of the cold war,” Frank wrote.

“It is a beginning — and it is encouraging. It has to do with the atmosphere. It suggests that we are moving toward a more normal diplomatic relationship,” said Wayne Smith, who opened the U.S. mission’s Interests Section under President Jimmy Carter.

It is believed the ticker was turned off late last month.

“The Cubans could have howled victory — but [they] said nothing, indicating they are serious about improving relations,” a diplomatic source said.

The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some local contact may have resumed already. Easing of travel restrictions for U.S. and Cuban diplomats in each other’s capitals was expected soon.

It appears the standoff about the U.S. mission is winding down. The Cuban government took the billboards down soon after Barack Obama took office. There have been no marches past the building since Raul Castro took over from his ailing brother Fidel in February last year.

The U.S. is the only country in the western hemisphere that does not have normal relations with Cuba.

Immigration talks, called off by the Bush administration, resumed this month. Cuba has expressed interest in broadening discussions to include drug trafficking, human smuggling and disaster preparedness.

“We’re … seeing if, as we change some of the old approaches … we [see] movement on the Cuban government side,’’ Obama told reporters.

Marc Frank of Reuters contributed to this article.

Amateur, astronauts, astronomers and the rare Jupiter collision

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:03:00 +0000

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the sharpest visible-light picture yet of atmospheric debris from an object that collided with Jupiter on July 19. NASA scientists decided to interrupt the recently refurbished observatory's checkout and calibration to take the image of a new, expanding spot on the giant planet on July 23.

Computer programmer Anthony Wesley, from the small village of Murrumbateman, north of Canberra, Australia, discovered the Jupiter collision using a 14.5-inch telescope in his backyard. He immediately realized its significance.

'By two a.m. I'd come back up to the house and was sending alerts to all the people I could think of that should be looking at this and especially the professional astronomers with specialized instrument for measuring this,' he said. 'The sooner they could see this the more interesting and more useful science they can get from it.'

'It's a dream really for anyone who takes photographs of the planets and photographs of Jupiter to take a photograph of this type, really it's a dream come true for me.'

'We owe a huge debt to him for picking up on these things,' said planetary scientist Leigh Fletcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The spot was created when a small comet or asteroid plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere and disintegrated. 'Because we believe this magnitude of impact is rare, we are very fortunate to see it with Hubble,' said Amy Simon-Miller of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. 'Details seen in the Hubble view shows a lumpiness to the debris plume caused by turbulence in Jupiter's atmosphere.'

The new Hubble images also confirm that a May servicing visit by space shuttle astronauts was a big success.

For the past several days, Earth-based telescopes have been trained on Jupiter. To capture the unfolding drama 360 million miles away, Matt Mountain, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, gave observation time to a team of astronomers led by Heidi Hammel of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

'Hubble's truly exquisite imaging capability has revealed an astonishing wealth of detail in the impact site,' Hammel said. 'By combining these images with our ground-based data at other wavelengths, our Hubble data will allow a comprehensive understanding of exactly what is happening to the impact debris.'

Simon-Miller estimated the diameter of the impacting object was the size of several football fields. The force of the explosion on Jupiter was thousands of times more powerful than the suspected comet or asteroid that exploded [here on planet earth] over the Siberian Tunguska River Valley in June 1908.

The image was taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. The new camera, installed by the astronauts on space shuttle Atlantis in May, is not yet fully calibrated. While it is possible to obtain celestial images, the camera's full power has yet to be seen.

According to Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. 'The best is yet to come.'

To view the image and obtain more information about Jupiter's new spot, visit:

Western public calls for troops to get out

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 08:04:00 +0000

Original source:

Majorities in the US, Britain, Germany and Canada want their governments to withdraw military forces from Afghanistan, according to polls.

As US President Barack Obama sends 9,000 more troops into the country to join the 59,000 US personnel who are already there, opposition to the apparently interminable conflict is hardening in the US, Europe and Canada.

July is already the deadliest month of the war for both US and NATO forces, with 63 soldiers killed, including 35 US and 19 British soldiers.

An Associated Press-GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media poll found that just 44 per cent of US citizens want US forces to stay in the country, while 53 per cent think that they should withdraw.

A separate 24-country poll on global attitudes to Mr Obama's policies by the non-partisan Pew Research Centre found that a majority of respondents in Britain, Germany and Canada, the top contributors to the US-led counterinsurgency campaign, think that their troops should withdraw.

Pew said that in Britain 46 per cent of respondents wanted to keep British troops deployed, while 48 per cent said they should pull out.

The research centre said in a statement that 'majorities or pluralities in 18 of 25 countries say that the US and NATO should remove their troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible.'

In Canada, which has 2,500 soldiers deployed in Kandahar province, 50 per cent of the public are in favour of a withdrawal while 43 per cent think that the troops should stay.

In Germany, which has 4,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan's relatively quiet northern regions, government officials are continually on the defensive in the face of domestic polls finding that a majority of Germans oppose their government's involvement in combat missions.

Meanwhile, Pentagon special operations chief Michael Vickers has reported that Washington is sending more Predator unmanned aerial vehicles and a large fleet of missile-carrying Reaper drones to Afghanistan.

Mr Vickers said that manned C-12 aircraft are also providing surveillance and gathering intelligence in Afghanistan.

He said that the combination of unmanned aerial vehicles and sensor-laden aircraft with links to ground forces will give commanders an 'unblinking eye' over the country.

15 major trends for social networking sites

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 04:26:00 +0000

According to foreign media reports, none of the Internet marketing firms or traditional media are as popular as Social Networking Sites (SNS). It is predicted that the market scale of corporate SNS product will reach $2 billion by 2012. Companies will have lagged behind if they fail to perform in the SNS market.

Meanwhile, SNS is a rapidly changing market. To break into the market, companies must understand the following 15 major development trends:

1. SNS goes mobile. SNS is shifting from the traditional desktop market to the mobile market.

2. Not only is SNS a venue for individual exchanges, it is a marketing platform for companies.

3. SNS will become an ideal advertising medium for companies to target their potential clients.

4. SNS is a threat to the traditional e-mail services.

5. SNS allows advertisers to communicate with their potential customers.

6. The SNS market will be further segmented and new websites will be created to target sub-groups and niche demographics.

7. Companies must discover the 'leaders,' a handful of influential members on SNS websites who can influence others' purchase decisions.

8. 'Crowd-sourcing' means mobilizing the masses. It refers to recruiting an unspecific number of people at low wages or for free to develop products and services.

9. SNS creates more SNS entrepreneurs, and provides more business opportunities.

10. Social networks are connecting to each other, and more sites will begin to integrate their services with one another.

11. SNS may take a cue from computer manufacturer Apple, which introduced a feature in its iTunes software that recommends songs based on music library history. SNS websites may provide similar services for online retailers.

12. Twitter will be sold to Google.

13. Online, money can buy you friendship. Australia's SNS and marketing firm, uSocial, launched a commercial service targeting Twitter users early this month. Twitter users can increase 1,000 followers by spending 87 USD.

14. Don't forget the spectators. There are many spectators who will stay away from social networks or simply watch from the sidelines. Businesses must know and cater for these users even if they are not actively part of any social networks. Yet sometimes they may participate in SNS websites via Google searches.

15. Defend corporate reputation. As companies' presence online grows, they need to protect their online images.

Workers strike to support occupation

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:44:00 +0000

Original source:

South Korean trade unions have kicked off a general strike in support of striking workers who have occupied a Pyeongtaek car factory for over two months.

The 700,000-strong Korean Confederation of Trade Unions reported that 'all affiliated unions' supported the action yesterday, which follows a series of heavy-handed attacks by riot police on unionised members of the Ssangyong Motors workforce.

The KCTU leadership has also launched a hunger strike and sit-in protest in front of the National Assembly in Seoul.

Some 800 Ssangyong workers have been occupying the Pyeongtaek facility since May, when management announced that it would axe 2,646 workers - 36 per cent of the workforce - as part of a 'restructuring plan' at the Chinese-owned plant.

Since last Thursday, management has blocked all food from entering the factory and the trade unionists are reportedly surviving on three or four rice balls a day.

On Saturday, bosses prevented doctors and nurses from entering the compound, then on Monday, over 3,000 riot police backed by around 30 vehicles mounted with water cannon stormed the factory compound, with creditors brandishing an eviction order in tow.

The combined forces failed to dislodge workers, who have holed up in the plant's paint shop.

Yesterday, police began dropping vats of tear gas from helicopters onto the workers and huge speakers have been installed near the occupied building, blaring messages calling on them to leave.

Around 100 police commandos are reportedly on standby for a possible raid.

As yet there have been no hand-to-hand clashes, but 16 people, including five policemen, have been injured so far.

The KCTU observed in a statement that police and management 'have embarked upon a joint operation to break the strike,' warning that the 'police suppression symbolises further catastrophe rather than any attempts to solve the crisis of Ssangyong Motors.'

It declared that the strike must 'continue strongly and indefatigably, despite whatever sacrifice and pain that may come in our way,' adding: 'This July battle will decide the fate of workers.'

Big turnout expected in hotly contested Iraqi Kurdistan vote

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:14:00 +0000

Special elections that began Thursday morning in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region are considered the hottest since the first Kurdish parliamentary elections in 1992.

The elections are significant for all of Iraq. Iraqi Kurdistan comprises three of Iraq’s 18 provinces and contains about one-fifth of Iraq’s population.

The outcome of the elections could affect efforts to resolve ethnic strife in disputed areas of northern Iraq bordering the Kurdish region, and ongoing conflicts over control of oil and its revenues.

Two main Kurdish parties have been the dominant political forces in the region for decades. These are Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdish Regional Government President Massoud Barazani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

This time, voters are choosing from more than 500 candidates from 24 slates for the111-seat regional Parliament. Dissatisfaction over corruption and political nepotism are a factor in the ferment.

In the first Kurdish election in 1992, only seven slates ran. In the second election, in 2005, there were 13 slates. Both times the PUK and KDP ran together, as they are doing now. In 2005, their alliance won 104 of the 111 legislative seats.

This time the PUK-KDP alliance is facing a strong challenge from PUK co-founder Nishurwan Mustafa who is running on his own Change List. Mustafa owns a powerful media company, Wisha, that he has used to promote his campaign. Most of the list is made up of former PUK officials. Some suggest that Mustafa could win 20 percent of the vote.

Another first is the formation of a left electoral slate, the Freedom and Social Justice list, which is composed of five left parties including the Kurdistan Communist Party.

The Kurdistan Communist Party has two seats in the Iraqi Parliament, and works closely with the Iraqi Communist Party, which also has two seats in Parliament.

In the past the Kurdish CP has participated in the Kurdish alliance led by the PUK and KDP.

Dr. Hadi Mahmoud, spokesman for the Freedom and Social Justice list and a member of the Kurdistan Communist Party, told the Kurdish Globe that the left parties had formed their electoral alliance in order to “find a way into the decision-making medium and effectively act there,” and because they “want to be able to create street/public activity — a form of left struggle that is democratic, civil, and peaceful.”

He made it clear that his list does not want to topple the ruling KDP-PUK alliance, but rather to ensure wider participation and transparency, especially in the economic field.

The left parties’ program, he said, emphasizes “social reforms, including developing society, expanding democracy's dimensions, expanding secularism, and spreading civil ideas in both political and social lives.”

“Leftists are not content with the economic policy of the Kurdish Regional Government and Iraq, which all are built dependent on the rationality of neo-liberalism,” Mahmoud said. “It was neo-liberalism that caused the economic crises for the capitalist system in the United States.” The left right now cannot call for establishing a socialist system — it is impossible to establish now, he said. But the left wants the existing capitalist system to “allow people a role.”

“We require the economic policy to be clear and progressive,” he said. “A healthy system cannot be achieved via slogans. The government should control the market and the region's investment law must be amended.”

Currently, he said, “all the doors are open for foreign investment while the law does not help native capitalists. Privileges given to a foreign investor are not allowed to a national investor. The foreign investors who come are exempted from taxes. Some contracts lack transparency. Development must be carried out in the social interest. Investment now, however, is the neo-liberal style that opens all the doors for investment without any control. This policy must be redirected.”

Also running is a list is made up several Islamic parties, one of them connected with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Five parliamentary seats have been reserved for the region’s Turkmen minority, another five seats for Chaldeans/Assyrians, and two seats for Armenians. Several slates are vying separately for these seats.

Kurdish voters are also electing the regional president. Incumbent President Barzani is expected to win handily over four competitors.

Officials and political analysts expect a high turnout. Balloting will be completed July 25.

A referendum on a controversial new regional constitution has been postponed until later this summer or early fall.

suewebb @ pww.org

Letter from New Orleans: Friendshipment winds its way to Cuba

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:50:00 +0000

The 20th Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba is making its way to the U.S.-Mexico border, picking up humanitarian aid along the way and educating the public about why the U.S. should normalize relations with Cuba.

But the Pastors For Peace Friendshipment, July 3 - Aug. 3, also gives 'caravanistas' a chance to visit many places in the United States.

John Thomas, from Newfoundland, Canada, is on this year's caravan and wrote the following letter after visiting New Orleans. We publish it here with the author's permission.

I'm in New Orleans, tired and emotionally shaken from a levy tour that I just did.

We're staying in the Lower 9th Ward, the neighbourhood that was hit the hardest by Katrina back in 2005, four years ago, but the houses look as if the hurricane had passed a lot more recently than that. Foundations have been reduced to rubbles of brick, rooftops caved in, abandoned cars wait for a government response that is not coming, doors hang open to reveal hallowed out interiors, driveways undistinguishable from the bayous that surround New Orleans, hardwood floors like broken matchsticks, emptiness and silence.

The Lower 9th Ward had a population of 17,000 before Katrina, 3,000 remain. The city of New Orleans the same: 650,000 to 350,000. Entire buildings are boarded up and thick grass and weeds populate the parking lots.

Speckeled throughout this are brand new KFCs, Wal-Marts, Walgreens and other corporations that have the financial resources to rebuild. This is a black neighbourhood. This is their reality. Most people left after Katrina and they're not coming back.

Other parts of the city, the more affluent neighbourhoods that were hit just as bad as any other part of town, look as if nothing happened.

The mansions along Lake Pontchartrain have groomed gardens, oblivious joggers and Hummers that sit securely behind the impenetrable levy conveniently disguised as an urban green space.

On the way to the French Quarter is the inner city, which is dominated by sheets of plywood over the windows and doors of low-income housing.

Then, the French Quarter is as charming and colourful as you'd see in a travel magazine: voodoo boutiques encouraging the sale of quirky souvenirs, restaurants that serve gumbo and crayfish, Mardi Gras beads hanging in trees and new sidewalks and floral arrangements on street corners.

I'm sorry this is not so uplifting but I just had to get this off my chest. I've been writing a lot lately, which I'll hopefully get to share with you at a time when an internet connection is more available. The South is a place I want to come back to, racially divided but an endearing human spirit that I haven't seen in a while. Keeping it light enough to travel even when things get heavy,

John

Missing iPhone led to employee's suicide

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:35:00 +0000

A 25-year-old employee of a leading Taiwanese electronics manufacturer allegedly committed suicide after he was blamed for the disappearance of a sample iPhone mobile phone.

Sun Danyong was suspected of stealing a model of the popular Apple mobile phone earlier this month.

Sun's company, Foxconn, was licensed to produce the iPhone in one of its factories in Guanlan, Shenzhen, local media reported.

Sun, who graduated from the renowned Harbin Institute of Technology last year, was reportedly responsible for the final packing of a shipment of 16 iPhones at his company.

One of the phones was found missing when he handed over the products to their receivers from Apple on July 10.

Sun reported the incident to his supervisor three days later after he could not find the sample phone. Foxconn's environment and safety department subsequently launched an internal investigation into the case.

On July 16, Sun jumped to his death from the 12th floor of a residential building, local media reported.

He had his last online chat with former university classmates just three hours before, with his final post seen on a popular Chinese Internet forum.

In it, Sun wrote that the investigation over the missing iPhone was 'one of the most humiliating experiences' of his life.

Sun's girlfriend, who came to visit him just three days before his death, said some colleagues at Foxconn searched his home on the afternoon before his suicide, according to a report by Southern Metropolis Daily.

Foxconn spokesman James Lee expressed sorrow and sympathy over Sun's death and apologized to his family yesterday.

'His suicide, for whatever reason, in a way reflects a management defect on the part of Foxconn to some extent especially over the troubles faced by our young employees,' Lee told China Daily.

Lee said the department head who had allegedly mistreated Sun in his handling of the case has been suspended from his job, pending investigations by the police.

The police at Bao'an district, where the Foxconn factory is located, said they could not release any details about the case at this stage.

Li Jianyong, a lawyer, said the department chief would be subject to criminal charges if his alleged questioning of Sun over the missing phone was found to be violent.

Liu Feifei, a registered psychologist, said Sun's suicide reflected his fragility in dealing with problems.

'He knew the seriousness of the incident and was frightened to take the responsibility, that's why he chose to kill himself,' she said.

According to a reliable source, Sun was born in a poor family in Qujing, Yunnan province, and had not fully paid back his loan to his university.

Police catch underwear thief

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:29:00 +0000

German police uncovered over 1,000 pairs of underpants and more than 100 pairs of swimming trunks after catching a thief nabbing another three pairs for his collection.

The 46-year-old man was caught Sunday pinching three pairs of pants from a sports hall in the western town of Gelnhausen. Police then came across the enormous collection of underwear while searching his flat.

'They were all evidently in use, but had been washed and neatly stacked away,' a police spokesman said Monday.

Police are now investigating where all the underwear came from. The suspect claims to have acquired then from car-boot sales and over the Internet.

Zoo animals baffled by solar eclipse

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:17:00 +0000

When thousands of people thronged outdoors for the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, animals at the zoo in east China's Hangzhou City also reacted, quickly and confusedly.

Two Indian elephants, each weighing five tons, seemed to know nothing that solar eclipse. When the sun became invisible at about 9:35 a.m., the elephants dropped grass on their trunks and returned to their dorms without hesitation.

Three giraffe gathered on a corner when darkness fell. They stood still and looked around. Two minutes later, two giraffes returned to their homes while another stayed outside, still wondering about the phenomenon.

Monkeys became the noisiest group at the zoo. The monkeys who usually frolic retreated to their caves. Two lemurs could not stop crying in the caves as they do at night.

The shadow of the moon disoriented birds whose body clock and direction depend on the sun. Red-crowned cranes and flamingoes that had been wandering or drinking water suddenly fell asleep during the brief blackout of eclipse. But when the sun rays came out again several minutes later, the birds emerged from their cages and started life on another 'day.'

The solar eclipse was a first for most of the animals at the zoo. Birds and elephants are more sensitive to sun rays and showed more of a reaction than tigers, lions, leopard and pandas, said Jiang Zhi, a zookeeper.

But as the eclipse did not last long, all the animals at the zoo quickly resumed their normal lives, he said.

Iranian leader threatens elite over security

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:24:00 +0000

Original source:

Iran's supreme leader has warned the 'elite' not to disturb the country's security in a strong message to the opposition to back down after one of its top figures called for a referendum on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the opposition to be cautious regarding the turmoil that has shaken the country since the disputed presidential election on June 12.

Mr Khamenei said that hurting Iran's security was 'the biggest vice,' adding: 'Anybody who drives the society toward insecurity and disorder is a hated person in the view of the Iranian nation, whoever he is.'

The comments reported on state radio were clearly directed at Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the powerful cleric who on Friday criticised the leadership over the elections, and former president Mohammad Khatami, who yesterday called for a referendum to decide whether Mr Ahmadinejad's administration is legitimate and for a neutral body to oversee the vote.

Oil looming large in battle over Iraqs future

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:23:00 +0000

About the only reports out of Iraq in U.S. major media these days are about suicide bombings and other attacks. Meanwhile, though, Iraq is working to re-emerge as a major global oil producer.

How this will be achieved, what it means for Iraq’s future and who in Iraq will benefit are questions hotly debated there. Will Iraq hand over too much control over its oil wealth to foreign transnationals? Will it dismantle its publicly owned oil companies? Will it become just another “petro-state” serving global elites rather than the Iraqi people?

These issues will play an important role in the July 25 elections in Iraqi Kurdistan, and in national elections scheduled for next January. Differing views on oil matters, says Iraqi Communist Party spokesperson Salam Ali, “are highly influenced by the ongoing fierce political struggle over power, influence and wealth.”

“Oil is at the heart of this fierce battle that will decide the form and content of the future Iraqi state,” he says.

Earlier this month, Iraq’s cabinet gave preliminary approval to a deal with the China National Petroleum Corporation and BP (British Petroleum) to develop Iraq’s largest oil field, the Rumaila field in northern Iraq. It highlights China’s growing interest and role in developing Iraq’s oil industry. With violence continuing to ebb, many experts expect to see more of this type of foreign investment in Iraqi oil, with partnerships between Russian, Chinese and other companies and the big Western transnationals.

The CNPC-BP consortium was among 32 foreign bidders for eight oil development contracts at an auction held by Iraq’s Oil Ministry June 30. Bidders included transnational oil giants like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell, Lukoil, Japex, Total and the Korea Gas Corporation. The Chinese-British bid was the only one that accepted the Oil Ministry's terms. The auction was Iraq’s first oil and gas field offering to international companies in nearly three decades.

Iraq’s Communist Party reacted to the oil auction in a July 5 editorial in the party’s newspaper Tareeq al-Shaab. It made the following points:

* Oil is an especially strategic commodity, especially for Iraq, with oil revenues being the main source for funding the state’s budget and providing for the enormous needs for reconstruction and reviving Iraq’s economy. As a result, the Communist Party said, it is essential that any formula for using this national resource must ensure Iraq’s national interests and its control over oil and its revenues.

* The government should give priority to its own direct national investment, re-establishing the country’s National Oil Company, and utilizing Iraqi expertise. The Communist Party, whose leader Hameed Majid Mousa is himself trained as an oil economist, emphasizes that Iraq has a large pool of knowledgeable and trained oil experts who can play a big role in if their efforts are well organized and if they are provided with suitable working conditions.

* Iraq’s oil sector is in desperate need of developed technologies to rehabilitate its infrastructure and oil wells, to raise production in line with Iraq’s increasing needs as well as to develop its unexploited huge oil reserves with technical and economic efficiency. Considering these circumstances, Iraq may seek the help of international companies and institutions in order to make use of their experience and capabilities, but but this should be done based on conditions and controls that ensure Iraqi national interests and preserve the people’s right to own the oil wealth and control its destiny.

* Iraq can use limited-term technical support and service contracts with foreign firms, but the party warns against long-term “partnership sharing agreements” (known as PSAs) that mortgage Iraq’s oil and its revenues to foreign interests.

This is a hot topic in Iraq. Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani was questioned in Iraq’s Parliament last month about his ministry’s policy, shortly before the June 30 bidding. It was extensively covered on TV and other media. Shahristani has so far rejected PSAs for developing oil fields, favoring instead the service and technical support contracts.

* The details of the new Chinese-British contract must be made public and studied before any final decision is made on it, the Communist Party said. An economic feasibility study should be done, the party editorialized, “so as to ensure our national interests and abide by conditions that don’t harm proper exploitation of our oil wealth in the interest of our people and for our country’s prosperity.”

Some in Iraq who have challenged the oil auction are motivated by their own political agendas, Iraqi commentators note. Some seek to undermine Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as they maneuver to try to make gains in the national elections next January.

Positions that are outwardly militant, with very critical rhetoric on oil and other big issues, should be also viewed in this context, Iraqi analysts say. This includes groups that were part of the Shi’ite United Alliance (currently in the process of being restructured, but with little success so far), for example, the Fadhila (Virtue) party (which failed to capture the post of oil minister) and the Sadrists. The position of the Kurdistan Alliance is dictated by its own conflict with the central government over contentious issues (including oil, Kirkuk, and other contested areas).

The positions of some factions that are active within oil unions in the south of Iraq have been influenced by this struggle. While the stance of many activists is motivated by genuine national sentiments, analysts say, some political groups (such as those mentioned above) want to use their influence inside unions for narrow political ends, to put pressure on and extract concessions from opponents.

In addition, Ali, of the Iraqi Communist Party, points out, “One must not forget the regional factor and interference (including the interests of major oil producers in the Middle East and the Gulf that have no desire to see Iraq regaining its prominent position in international oil production). This factor is often overlooked or underestimated by foreign observers and analysts. But there is evidence that such conflicting interests have contributed to destabilizing the situation in Iraq and perpetuating internal strife.”

The Communist Party, in its July 5 editorial, said the ongoing debates in Iraq about oil, its future, and forms of investment in this sector, stress anew the need for enacting a balanced national law for oil and gas to regulate the oil industry and clarify authority and tasks, in order to help put an end to the internal power struggles over oil, and to provide favorable conditions for activating the National Oil Company, developing the oil sector and expanding its industries, ensuring a fair distribution of its revenues to benefit the people, and stimulating the development and modernization of all branches of the national economy.

suewebb @ pww.org

As H1N1 spreads, Thais take cover behind surgical masks

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:15:00 +0000

BANGKOK, Jul 15 (IPS) - Pattadol Piboonsak was gripped with fear last week when he fell ill with a high fever, displaying the usual symptoms of influenza.

'I thought I had fallen ill with the new [H1N1] virus,' says the 27-year-old Bangkok resident. 'I was [worried].'

But he was fortunate. He was diagnosed with seasonal flu, and by the weekend he had fully recovered.

The fear of falling ill to the H1N1 virus has not left him though. 'I have started wearing a [surgical] mask whenever I go out to public areas,' says Pattadol. 'I am afraid I will get the H1N1 virus.'

Like him, a female employee at a post office, have sought the protection of a face mask against the risk. 'I have been wearing a [surgical] mask since May, when we heard about this new virus,' says 28-year-old Sunanta, who opted against giving a last name. 'I will continue to wear the mask when I go to work till this virus is gone.'

In recent weeks, such fears have gripped a large number of Thais as an increasing number of people succumb to the new H1N1 virus. With over 4,000 reported cases, the country remains the worst hit by the pandemic in Asia. Across much of Bangkok, people are following the same personal measures of precautions. There is a steady increase in the number of surgical masks worn by passengers traveling in the elevated commuter trains that snake across Bangkok.

This week, the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority shut down 435 public schools, 200 nurseries and 13 occupational training centres. These centres of learning will remain shut for five days.

The concern about the H1N1 pandemic spreading across this South-east Asian country of 65 million people is understandable. In mid-May, when Thailand hosted a meeting of the region’s health ministers to draft measures to deal with the new virus, there were no reported cases here. The only four cases in Asia at the time were in South Korea and Hong Kong, with three cases being reported in the former.

Currently, 24 people have died out of the over 4,000 confirmed cases of the type-A H1N1 virus, according to public health authorities.

That works out to a 0.4 percent fatality rate, or four deaths out of 1,000 infected patients, which places it at a manageable Level Two, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) calculations. Countries are expected to shut their borders if the virus hits Level Five.

China, the regional giant, by contrast, had reported over 2,000 cases by the first week of this month, Japan had reported 1,790 cases, Philippines reported 1,709 cases, and Singapore reported 1055 cases, up to that period, according to the WHO.

In order to deal with the virus spreading further in Thailand, public health experts are prescribing measures that seek to slow the spread of the virus, rather than trying to stop it infecting people.

'This is not the time to contain the virus. All the effort should go to mitigation,' says Dr. Somchai Peerapakorn, of the WHO’s Thailand country office. 'Now you cannot stop the virus. We have to slow down the spread by protecting the population.'

'This is a brand new virus. Nobody can say what will happen next,' he explained in an interview. 'Measures to deal with the virus should be proportional and rational according to each country’s situation.'

The profile of those infected by H1N1 provides pointers to help shape mitigation efforts. 'The picture of those infected here are pretty much the same as those infected internationally. They are children, young adults and working age people,' says Dr. Supamit Chunsuttiwat, a specialist in preventive medicine at Thailand’s public health ministry.

Yet what remains uncertain for now in a country that has impressive public health facilities when set against its poorer neighbours such as Burma, Cambodia and Laos is the exact number of H1N1 cases. 'The number of real cases may be much higher,' Dr. Supamit told IPS.

That stems from the country being among the most open in the region, welcoming a steady flow of tourists, a factor that has made Thailand more vulnerable to the virus than those with less airline passenger traffic.

'The spread of the virus is because of our exposure,' says Dr. Supamit. 'We welcome so many tourists. Smaller countries with less exposure to tourists are having a less impact.'

Thailand’s challenge to slow the spread of H1N1 comes at a time when the WHO confirmed on Monday that the new flu is 'unstoppable' and recommended that all countries seek 'access to vaccines.'

The new virus, which was reported to have begun in Mexico and spread through North America between March and April this year, has now infected close to 100,000 people across the globe, of which 429 patients have died.

The speed at which the virus has spread from one corner of the globe to Thailand, on the other side, points to a new reality.

'In 2009, because of globalisation and the huge amount of international travel, the virus is taking six weeks to spread,' says Dr. Somchai of the WHO. 'In previous pandemics, it took six months to spread.'