Around the world

While most of us had a quiet Christmas, the world dealt with it’s share of trouble.

China
Chinese engineers and officials have capped a natural gas well with concrete. It has become the worst industrial disaster in the nations history. The well blew in Chongqing on Tuesday. They are still searching for the dead. 198 people are confirmed dead while 10 thousand are suffering from burns and poisoning.

Working conditions in China remain perilous. 10 thousand people a month died in work-related accidents from January to December 2003.

California
October and November’s forest fires in California are a contributing factor to deadly mudslides east of Los Angeles on Christmas Day. Two more bodies were found at a church camp yesterday, bringing the death toll 7. 20 people are still missing.

Benin
An over loaded Beirut-bound plane plunged into the sea shortly after taking off from Cotonou, the main city in Benin on Thursday killing 135. 15 UN peace-keepers are among the dead.

Iran
Reports have said the quake measured 6.3 to 6.7 with aftershocks measuring 5.1.
No one knows how many are dead in the city of Bam which has a population of about 200 thousand. In the ongoing chaos counting the dead is difficult, as they are buried in trenches. Estimates range from 5 thousand to 25 thousand Desperate workers and residents search for the living buried deep under rubble.
70 percent of the city was destroyed.
People that work in earthquake rescue know that 90% are found alive within the first 24 hours. The Iranian government has said it will accept help from any country but Isreal. Right now, body bags and medical supplies are needed. Canadian Iranians and Canada’s World Vision are sending help.

Since 1991 over 17 thousand Iranians have died in earthquakes.

US Cattle

BSE, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has been linked to new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), a human brain-wasting disease.

First diagnosed in Britain in 1986, BSE affected 178,000 British cattle and resulted in the eventual destruction of 3.7 million animals.

It cost British farming billions of pounds as countries around the world banned British beef.

And now the US has it’s first known case.
It is believed cattle contact the disease from eating infected feed. A cow may take four or five years to show symptoms.
Feed is infected when an unknown sick cow is ground into animal feed. Although the practise is banned, it continues.
It takes time to trace the source of an infected cow, and rumours abound.
140 people in the UK and Europe died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after consuming contaminated meat.

Canada’s beef industry lost millions of dollars when BSE was discovered in a cow imported from the US last May.

Top Words of 2003
An internet dictionary has complied the top words of 2003.

1) Embedded
2) blog
3) SARS

In the past few weeks two SARS cases were found in Taiwan and Singapore believed to be the result of laboratory accidents.
The disease drew world attention in February. And now, another case is probable in the epicentre of the original outbreak. A Guangdong man has been admitted to hospital, but a definitive diagnosis has not been confirmed as yet.