Posts tagged death

“The cold snap in Europe, which began in late January, has killed hundreds and brought deep snow where it hasn’t been seen in decades,”  says this article in the Seattle Times.

This should be front page news. Instead, the article doesn’t appear until page eight. And the title, “At least 3 killed in avalanche in Kosovo,” belies the seriousness of the situation. (The print version carries a different headline: “Cold snap, snow lock down Europe.”)

How about a headline that tells it like it is?

140,000 trapped by snow – Death toll rises past 550.

That headline would give readers a glimpse of what’s really happening in Europe, where snow drifts reaching above the rooftops have kept tens of thousands of villagers prisoners in their own homes.

Now, I’ll admit that once you get past the ho-hum headline and down to the third paragraph, the Seattle Times article gets to the harsh truth.

You learn that in Montenegro, “the heaviest snow in 63 years sealed off hundreds of villages, shut down roads and railways and closed the main airport.” And you learn that “It was the biggest snowfall in the capital since 1949.”

You also learn that “boat traffic on the frozen Danube river — one of Europe’s key waterways — has been unable to move for the longest time in recent memory.” (Italics added.)

The rest of the article is quite informative, and I appreciate that.

But it’s that “cold snap” thing that bugs me.

Did all of the world’s journalists go to “cold snap” school?

If temperatures go up by a hundredth of a degree they scream “global warming.” But if, heaven forbid, it’s record cold and record snow? “Well, let’s just call it a cold snap.”

Would you call it a “cold snap” when more than 100 vessels become trapped in icy waters of the Sea of Azov? That’s what Reuters called it. “A fierce cold snap with temperatures of about -25C (-13 F) caused large parts of the Azov Sea to freeze,” said Reuters.

Would you call it a “cold snap” when more than 2,000 roads in Turkey are blocked by heavy snows? That’s what the Google News headline announced. The article itself was very good, speaking of brutal cold and record low temperatures, but – “cold snap”?

Would you call it a “cold snap” when people have to cut tunnels through 15 feet of snow to get out of their homes? “Eastern Europe has been pummeled by a record-breaking cold snap,” says this otherwise great AP article.

Look at these headlines. Are these the result of a “cold snap”?

• Serbia cuts power in desperate bid to prevent collapse of national grid
  The country’s entire electric distribution system could collapse…
• Hundreds of barns collapse in Italy
  At least one million farm animals in danger of running out of food.
• Villages buried under 4-5 meters of snow – Video
  “23.000 people are isolated, how many people and animals have died we don’t know since nobody can reach there.”
• Italian villages trapped in more than 9 feet of snow
  With the death toll already at 43, another blast of freezing weather…
• Danube freezes over – One of the greatest rivers in Europe
  Danube wholly or partially blocked in six countries.
• Most winter grain destroyed in southern and eastern Ukraine
  With temperatures 12 to 17C below average, the situation in Ukraine has became serious.
• European death toll rises to 480 – and counting
  150 cattle killed when roofs collapse. “It seems more like a war in Europe.”
• Code red for agriculture in Tuscany
  “Blizzard comes and farmers tremble” – Loss rates up to 50%.
• Turkey quake survivors fighting the snow
  Walking 300 feet through the snow to reach the nearest toilets.

No, this is no mere cold snap. There’s a tragedy unfolding in Europe, and the world needs to know.

Please forward this article to everyone you can.

(Source: iceagenow.info)

The end of last year was masked with sadness for Belgium parents Raphaël Sirjacobs & Béatrice Dupont, as their nine week old daughter Stacy Sirjacobs lost her fight for life. Stacy died just one week after her first vaccinations and left her twin sister Lesly behind. Devastated by their loss their parents are convinced that vaccines and hospital failures were the cause of their beautiful daughters death.

Stacy and Lesly were born one month premature by Caesarean section and spent the next four days in an incubator. Stacy needed resuscitation at birth.

Following medical advice parents Sirjacobs and Dupont decided to have the twins vaccinated. Stacy was slightly unwell with a cold on the day of her vaccinations but doctors assured her parents that it was safe to give her the vaccinations.

(It is worth noting that there is a history of Sudden Infant Death and allergies in the family. The twins were being prescribed a milk supplement due to a milk allergy at the time Stacy became ill)

The twins received Prevenar, a vaccine against meningitis and pneumonia, Infanrix Hexa, a six in one vaccination for diphtheria, tetanus, polio, pertussis, hepatitis B and Haemophilus type B, and finally the Rotarix, a preventive vaccine for gastroenteritis.

This means that these tiny vulnerable babies received a staggering nine vaccines in one day, vaccines that may have caused one of them to die.

A week after her vaccinations Stacy became unwell with a fever of 39.9 degrees C. Her parents decided to administer Perdolan to lower her fever. As their daughter was still very poorly they called the hospital who advised them to bring their daughter in.

The medical staff diagnosed Stacy with a slight chest infection and infection in her blood and told her parents not to worry as this was “not serious”. Stacy was then given medication and put on a drip feed and kept in for observation.

Stacy’s father informed me that all links to the vaccines were strongly denied.

Full Story Here:

ACT health officials have issued a warning about death cap mushrooms, after three people were taken to hospital after eating the fungus.

The death cap mushroom has claimed three lives and been responsible for at least a dozen poisonings in Canberra over the past decade.

Recent rain has encouraged the growth of the mushroom, usually found near oak trees.

It ranges in colour from white to greenish-brown, but can be difficult to distinguish from common field mushrooms.

Symptoms after eating the mushrooms include stomach pain, vomiting and nausea.

Recently two people were treated at Calvary Hospital and another at Canberra Hospital after eating the mushroom.

(Source: abc.net.au)

A police officer killed an elderly, deaf and mentally disabled man riding his bicycle by shooting him with a Taser stun gun after he failed to obey instructions to stop.

Roger Anthony, 61, was killed as he made his way home in Scotland Neck, South Carolina, after officers responded to a 911 call about a man who had fallen off his bicycle in a car park.

The caller told dispatchers that the man appeared drunk and that it looked like he had hurt himself.

Officers said they repeatedly told Mr Anthony to get off his bike, but when he didn’t respond, they shocked him.

The state Office of the Medical Examiner hasn’t yet determined a cause of death.

Family members claim Mr Anthony had hearing problems and suffered from seizures. Now they’re considering whether to file a lawsuit against the town.

His brother Michael said: ‘What did they tase him for? It’s hurting me. It’s really hurting me.’

Scotland Neck Mayor James Mills said he wouldn’t blame the family for suing.

‘There has been no information that this man was a threat to anybody,’ he said.

‘If I was a family member, I’m sure I’d be thinking the same way.’

Mills said he has tried to get information from the police department about what happened to Mr Anthony, but they have turned him away.

Police Chief Joe Williams says the officer is on administrative leave while the SBI conducts its investigation.

He declined to comment further

Mr Anthony’s niece, Porsha Anthony said: ‘I’m sad. I lost an uncle.

‘Hopefully it will be rectified so that not another family in Scotland Neck has to go through this’.

The State Bureau

Photo:Hundreds have queued to see Moamar Gaddafi’s corpse (R). (Reuters: Thaier al-Sudani )

(Editor’s Note: Why is it that the US was so concerned about muslim customs and giving Bin Laden a burial within 24 hours, yet Gaddafi was killed several days ago, and his body has been displayed like a sideshow exhibit ever since?)

The body of former Libyan leader Moamar Gaddafi will be buried in a secret location in the Libyan desert later today, Libya’s new rulers say.

An official with Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) said it would be a simple ceremony attended by Muslim clerics.

“He will be buried tomorrow (Tuesday) in a simple burial with sheikhs attending the burial,” the official told the Reuters news agency.

“It will be an unknown location in the open desert.

Audio: Libya rebel fighters accused of war crimes(AM)

“No agreement was reached for his tribe to take him,” he added.

Gaddafi’s body has been on display, alongside his son Mutassim and an army chief, in a commercial freezer in Misrata.

Hundreds of people have queued up to view the rotting corpse of the former dictator who was killed after his violent capture last week.

But questions over just how Gaddafi died following his capture on Thursday are growing and overnight the NTC bowed to international pressure and announced it would hold an investigation into his death.

“In response to international calls, we have started to put in place a commission tasked with investigating the circumstances of Moamar Gaddafi’s death in the clash with his circle as he was being captured,” Libya’s interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said.

He said all Libyans wanted to try Gaddafi for his crimes: “From executions, to imprisonment, to throwing away the Libyan wealth … or using that wealth against the Libyan people”.

“Some people may have wanted him to have been tried to extend their feeling of relief at his downfall,” he said.

Disquiet has grown internationally over how Gaddafi met his end after NTC fighters hauled him out of a drain where he was hiding following NATO air strikes on the convoy in which he had been trying to flee his falling hometown of Sirte.

NTC leaders are adamant he was shot in the head when he was caught “in crossfire” between his supporters and new regime fighters soon after his capture.

But there have been reports that Gaddafi, who mobile phone video showed was alive but bloodied, dazed and with what appeared to be a bullet wound on the left side of his face after his capture, was summarily executed.

Gaddafi’s kinsmen had asked to bury the body in his home town of Sirte, as requested in the former leader’s will, but the interim government said it wanted it disposed of in a secret location to prevent it becoming a shrine for his followers.

The NTC official said the decomposition of the body had reached the point where the “corpse cannot last longer”.

He said Mutassim would be buried in the same ceremony as his father.

A grab taken from the pan-Arab Al Arabiya satellite television station of a video broadcast on Al Sumud TV shows Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi arguing with National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters upon his capture in Sirte on October 20, 2011.

A National Transitional Council official confirmed that the photo of a bloodied Muammar Gaddafi is indeed authentic. Al Jazeera streamed video of Gaddafi’s body being dragged through the streets of Sirte. Al Arabiya says the former Libyan ruler’s body has arrived in Misrata and that it will be allowed to film it. Another NTC official in Misrata says the body is being taken to a secret location. “Gaddafi’s body is with our unit in a car and we are taking the body to a secret place for security reasons,” an NTC official told Reuters.

(Source: thedailybeast.com)