However, there will be no change in case of certain day-time express trains like Taj Express, Gomti Express etc. where lower time limits for advance reservations are at present in force.

There will also be no change in case of the limit of 360 days for foreign tourists.

Source: pib.nic.in

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The department took the decision to terminate the services of Naphtronics Company following the company’s failure to post guards since December 21 2011.

North West MEC for Health, Dr Magome Masike, said the company’s poor service affected almost 98 percent of the facilities. At the remaining facilities, guards have been on and off duty compromising the safety of public health users.

"The action of Naptronics has led to some facilities that render a 24-hour service to shut down at night for security reasons and the department has thus been forced to breach its constitutional obligation duty to provide health care to people of the North West, hence the termination.

"The department could not allow this situation to continue, particularly given the fact that this compromised the security of our facilities, our health workers, public health users and state property," said Masike.

He added that it was no longer feasible for the department to give Naphtronics a notice to rectify the breach since that would further prejudice the interest of the department.

A new security company has since been appointed to safe guard neglected health facilities. Masike also announced that services at affected facilities have also been restored.

Source: BUA News
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According to the department spokesperson, Simon Zwane, last week, the department paid out R6.25 million in relation to the claim brought by Shabbier Nagel, who had a leg amputated while admitted at Steve Biko Academic Hospital for a heart condition.

A further R3.425 million was paid in relation to the costs claimed on behalf of Sibusiso Khanyi, who was born with cerebral palsy at Pholosong Hospital.

Zwane said the South Gauteng High Court had ruled that Khanyi be paid R9.25 million and it was agreed that the amount be paid in three instalments. Two more payments will be made in the coming months.

"The department views negligence amongst its staff very seriously. It took disciplinary action against 26 employees in the past two years and this resulted in the dismissal of two doctors and a nurse," he said. -

Source: BUA News
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The investment is in addition to the £560m Local Sustainable Transport Fund announced in January 2011. This additional funding, heavily geared towards cycling, will support jobs, enhance access to employment and encourage greater use of more environmentally friendly transport.

Sustrans – the UK transport charity – will receive £8m for projects to enhance cycle routes across England. The remaining £7m will be allocated through the Cycle Rail Working Group – the body which brings together representatives of the rail industry and the cycling sector – to improve integration between cycle and rail at stations. Measures will include safer and more convenient cycle racks, additional cycle parking and storage, and better access for cyclists. This will complement the £7m that Network Rail is already spending in this area.

Local Transport Minister Norman Baker said:

“This fund underlines the firm commitment of the Coalition Government to sustainable transport.

“If we are serious about reducing carbon, then we need to get more people walking and cycling. But we must do it in a way that boosts the economy.

“I want this fund to support projects that create growth and tackle climate change by cutting our carbon emissions.

“I look forward to seeing the projects put forward by Sustrans and the Cycle Rail Working Group and working with them to deliver transport that is greener, healthier and improves quality of life in our communities.”

Both organizations will now work up the specific projects they intend to fund. The successful projects will be announced in March.

Source: nds.coi.gov.uk
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According to the Catholic- run Veritas Radio, Col. Massaquoi said the discovery followed a tip-off by residents of the area.

This is the first discovery of such a huge quantity of ammunition in the county which lies about 35 kilometers from the capital Monrovia.

Bomi County was the base of the LURD and ULIMO rebel factions during Liberia’s bloody civil war in which tens of thousands were killed.

Since the end of the war in 2003, Liberia has witnessed two elections widely certified by the international community as largely free, fair and transparent.

Source African Press Agency

African News from NetNewsPublisher.com

Phibian and Humdinga feature Gibbs’ proprietary High Speed Amphibian (HSA) technology, which incorporates many technological breakthroughs in suspension, water propulsion and wheel-retraction design. The water-jet propulsion system enables safe operation in shallow water yet provides the high levels of thrust necessary to achieve planing speeds within seconds. A patented retracting suspension system provides exceptional ride-and-handling on the road, but in the water retracts wheels in seconds to reduce hull drag in marine use.

Phibian is an entirely new type of amphibious truck. Constructed primarily of carbon fiber, it is a multi-mode, multi-mission, high-speed amphibian that offers off-road capability on land. When Phibian transitions from land to water, the wheels retract and its dual jet propulsion provides water performance equal to that of purpose-built patrol and rescue boats.

"Phibian and Humdinga deliver a revolutionary and highly effective solution to the growing demands placed on today’s transport, first responder and military communities," said Gibbs’ Chairman, Neil Jenkins.

"Natural disasters in recent memory, such as the earthquake and tsunamis in Japan, Thailand, Sri Lanka and elsewhere in Asia;  as well as the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, illustrate the need for amphibians as capable, versatile and efficient as Phibian and Humdinga," Jenkins said.

Phibian is capable of traveling at highway speeds on land and in excess of 30 mph on water.  It seamlessly makes its land-to-water transition in less than 10 seconds with the simple push of a button.

Humdinga is a smaller vehicle created specifically to deal with remote and difficult terrain.

Gibbs has been developing its HSA technology since 1997. It represents an investment of more than $200 million and more than two million hours of engineering. Gibbs’ HSA technology can be applied to amphibians of all sizes – from 800 pounds to 10 tons.  It solves the persistent challenges of land-sea borders around the world, such as beachhead landings or crossing waterways and lakes.

Phibian and Humdinga versatility and capability attributes include:

• Highway-capable speed
• On-plane water performance in excess of 30 mph
• Replace need for separate boats and tow vehicles.

In addition to first responder and humanitarian uses, Phibian and Humdinga also have the potential to provide military units with specialized capabilities as well as many general transport applications.

Both amphibians will be offered as a base model that can be configured for customer requirements. Factory-installed options are being developed and may include for the Phibian:

• Fully enclosed, stand-up cabin with integrated radar arch
• Rear radar arch
• Canvas T-top over cockpit and extended canvas over cargo area
• Two or three crew seats with integrated restraints
• Passenger seating for 12 in cargo area
• Right- and left-hand side doors with full NATO pallet size access
• Tailgate and winch
• Anchor with electric windlass
• U.S. Coast Guard-required equipment for passenger use
• Heater and air conditioner
• Chemical toilet with stowable privacy enclosure
• Custom exterior treatments

Phibian and Humdinga are just two of several amphibians Gibbs has developed. Others include:  

Aquada: The world’s first amphibian to feature Gibbs’ High Speed Amphibian technology, Aquada is capable of speeds of more than 100 mph on land and in excess of 30 mph on water. The Aquada was designed from the ground up to perform in both land and marine modes, with over 100 patents covering technical innovations. In 2004, Virgin Group owner Richard Branson used a Gibbs Aquada to set a new record for crossing the English Channel in an amphibian. Branson set a new record of 1 hour 40 minutes, smashing the previous, 30-year-old record by more than 4 hours.

Quadski: The first-generation Quadski was demonstrated in 2006, and is capable of off-highway operation and marine operation. It is the first personal off-highway amphibian to feature HSA technology, and makes a seamless transition between land and water. An advanced Quadski will be introduced this year.

PHIBIAN SPECIFICATIONS

Engine / Propulsion

Suspension

Brakes

Wheels and tires

Dimensions

Capacities

HUMDINGA SPECIFICATIONS

Engine / Propulsion

Suspension / Brakes

Dimensions

Capacities

SOURCE Gibbs Amphibians

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How People Arrived Here:

gibbs amphibians

She quickly learned the motto adopted by Foxconn line workers, which is that “they use women as men and men as machines.” This provided Zhang’s motive for the conclusion of the interview:

When asked why humans do machine-like work at Foxconn, she responds, “Well, humans are cheaper.”

To some extent this reflects the outlook of the South vis-à-vis the rise of the Industrial Revolution in the North in the years leading up to the Civil War. However, in the wake of the North’s victory, it also reflects the slave-like conditions endured by those who then had to work with machines, a theme that dominated Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Sinclair’s book probably led to the rise of that joke about eating sausage without knowing how it is made. Now, however, the joke is about pretty much every piece of technology we face; and it is getting harder and harder to laugh at it (unless you are in that comfortable 1% whose only concern is return-on-investment).

Posted by Stephen Smoliar

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However, female circumcision in the country is practiced with some disparity among Mauritania’s disparate ethnic groups and regions, according to Mrs. Khdeija Mint Ahmed, the national coordinator of the National Unit for the Fight against Gender-based Violence/FGM at the Department of Women Advancement of the Ministry of Social, Family and Child Affairs.

She pointed out that the figures were revealed by a survey conducted on gender-based violence in 2007 by the unit in conjunction with the WHO.

She also said that a specific study on FGM among girls between the age of 0 and 5 is underway after which its outcomes will be published in late 2012.

Female circumcision which involves cutting parts of the genitalia of young girls, is a deep-seated cultural practice, justified by practitioners using sociological and religious grounds to maintain it.

According to some traditional beliefs, excision purifies girls, wives and mothers to-be, an explanation which derives from erroneous interpretations of Prophet Mohamed’s opinion on the issue.

For others FGM was a vital rite of passage for girls or married women whose sexual desire is necessarily curtailed to render them faithful to their husbands.

In Mauritania, the rate of female circumcision varies according to the different ethnic groups, with a 92 percent prevalence rate among the Soninke, 72 percent among the Halpulaar, 71 percent among the Moors and 28 percent for the Wolof.

The rate of excision is also related to the level of education of members of families while in rural areas the practice has reached 77 percent compared to 65 percent in urban areas.

Studies show that 7 out of the 13 regions in the country are mostly affected with a prevalence rate ranging from 98 to 88 percent, including Hodh Echarghi (94.37%), Hodh El Gharbi (97.58%), Assaba (98. 14%), Gorgol (94.71%), Brakna (88.10%), Tagant (96.07%) and Guidimakha (97.29%).

In the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, with a population of over 700,000 inhabitants, excision is practiced by 54.88% of the population.

In relation to methods of circumcision, there are no professional practitioners for such an ancient practice with only traditional midwives left to perform it at the request of parents.

Those involved in genital excision usually are ignorant of the risks for victims as far as their health is concerned aside from contravening the law which criminalizes female genital mutilation suffered by innocent and defenseless girls.

(Mauritania) By Mohamed Abderrahmane

Source African Press Agency

African News from NetNewsPublisher.com

Scherzinger is a triply-talented performer who fans all over the world know and love: from her chart-topping hit songs to her moves on the dance floor that catapulted her to become ABC’s Dancing With The Stars’ tenth season winner. This summer, Scherzinger will reach another career milestone with the release of her debut solo album, Killer Love.

“I’ve always loved changing and evolving my style in my career, and playing with new and different hair styles has been a great creative outlet for me,” said Scherzinger. “I’m honored to partner with Herbal Essences, because it’s a brand I like and admire for its celebration of self expression and for encouraging women like me to have fun with their look!”

“We’re thrilled to welcome Nicole to our Herbal Essences family,” said Kevin Crociata, Marketing Director, Herbal Essences. “Nicole is such a beautiful, talented woman who lives every aspect of her life to the fullest. Her sense of self and her zest for life is a terrific fit with the spirit of the Herbal Essences brand.”

In her new role as the global Herbal Essences brand ambassador, Scherzinger will be featured in TV and print advertising, as well as on digital properties, HerbalEssences.com and Facebook.com/HerbalEssences. The new advertising creative starring Scherzinger is scheduled to debut in July 2012.

Source: Business Wire

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How People Arrived Here:

Nicole Scherzinger herbal essences

Releasing the Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the fourth quarter, Stats SA said the unemployment rate was down by 1.1% to 23.9% down from the third quarter’s 25%.

There were 13.5 million people employed in the fourth quarter. Compared to the fourth quarter in 2010, employment increased by 365 000 in the fourth quarter of 2011.

"Comparing the same period of 2010 and 2009, this is the first growth observed on a year-on-year basis in quarter four since 2009," Stats SA’s Deputy Director General for Population and Social Statistics, Kefiloe Masiteng, said.

Year-on-year, 453 000 more people were employed in the formal sector in the fourth quarter, making it the highest year-on-year growth seen the formal sector since the end of the recession in 2009.

The formal sector job gains were driven by finance and other business services, trade and community and social services.

Masiteng said the growth in employment was good, adding that "we hope it can be maintained".

While there was growth in the formal sector, the informal sector lost 91 000 jobs year-on-year. In the third quarter, it also recorded a decline. It had shown five successive quarters of year-on-year growth before.

"This is the first time that the informal sector shed jobs in the fourth quarter year-on-year," noted Stats SA.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal had the most job gains.

Unemployment was highest among the youth – 15 to 34 years – with the unemployment rate for women continuing to be higher than the national average. Those who did not have Matric certificates made up the majority of the unemployed.

Although there was a decline in unemployment in the fourth quarter, 4.2 million people remain unemployed with 2.9 million having been looking for work for over a year or longer.

In their commentary, Nedbank economists said although the decline in unemployment was encouraging, challenging economic conditions locally and globally were expected to persist in 2012.

"This could weigh on business confidence and discourage organizations from expanding production capacity. This would restrict the pace of job creation."

Standard Bank, meanwhile, said economic conditions suggested that labor markets may remain weak: "Based on our current forecasts, the prospects in the jobs market are not encouraging, with the unemployment rate likely to follow a slightly declining trend."

Masiteng said they did see "a glimpse of hope in the first quarter".

Source: BUA News
African News from NetNewsPublisher.com

Zimbabwe and Zambia last year won the bid to jointly host the UNWTO summit to be held in the Zimbabwean resort town of Victoria Falls and neighboring Livingstone in Zambia in October 2013.

Minister Mzembi told Zimbabwe state television that UNWTO secretary general Taleb Rifai and World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) president David Scowsill will visit the two host nations from 25 February.

The visit will allow the officials to familiarize themselves with facilities in the two host towns as well as the status of current preparations ahead of the summit.

Zimbabwe announced last year that it required about $150 million to refurbish Victoria Falls Airport.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe, the refurbishment would increase the airport’s capacity to handle the anticipated large number of visitors to descend on Victoria Falls for the summit.

Among the plans is a project to construct a new 4,000-meter runway that would allow larger aircraft to land at the airport. The existing runway is only able to handle small aircraft such as Boeing B737s and Airbus A319s.

Besides the refurbishment of Zimbabwe’s airports, a lot more work is needed ahead of the tourism summit to improve the country’s road networks to resorts, information communication technology and the expansion and revamping of accommodation facilities to meet international standards.

Source African Press Agency

African News from NetNewsPublisher.com

New research by Cardiff University and King’s College London has identified the switch which releases zinc into cells, with important implications for a number of diseases.

Zinc has long been known to play a vital part in human health. Too much zinc, or too little, can cause cell death. A growing body of evidence links zinc to disease states including neurodegeneration, inflammation, diabetes and cancer.

Zinc levels in cells are controlled by protein molecules called zinc transporters. These move zinc in and out of the cell to ensure correct levels are maintained. Until now, scientists have not understood how the transporters release the zinc. The Cardiff and King’s research team have identified a switch, known as CK2, a protein which opens one transporter, called ZIP7, and allows the zinc to flow.

Earlier research by the team has already linked zinc delivery to types of breast cancer. Higher levels of intracellular zinc and the ZIP7 transporter were found in tamoxifen-resistant breast cancers. CK2 was also known to be more common in cancers which encourage cell growth. The discovery that CK2 opens ZIP7 suggests that drugs which block this release of zinc could also block cancer development. Early results from clinical trials of CK2 inhibitors suggest they are performing well.

Science Brief thanks to EurekAlert.

Read more here:
Zinc control could be path to breast cancer treatment

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The Prime Minister also opened the bidding for the new Employer Ownership pilot, inviting employers in England to apply to access up to £250m of public investment and secure more control over how skills training is designed and delivered.

He also announced that from this week, small firms will be offered an incentive of £1,500 to hire their first young apprentices. This is expected to support up to 40,000 new apprenticeships over the next year.

Prime Minister David Cameron said:

"I’m delighted to underline our commitment to strengthen our economy by helping employers take on apprentices and ensure that the UK workforce has the skills that businesses need. Under this Government apprenticeship starts are increasing at a record rate, with improvements across the age range, in all sectors, throughout the country.

"By making apprenticeships a gold standard option for ambitious young people, we are sending a message that technical excellence is as highly valued as academic prowess. And by focusing investment where it is most needed to deliver sustainable growth and offering real ownership of vocational training to employers, we are equipping businesses with the skills they need to rebalance our economy and distribute opportunity more widely."

Skills Minister John Hayes said:

“Clarity of policy and certainty of purpose in Government has delivered a record number of apprenticeships and driven up standards at every level. We must now go further to create new pathways to excellence for the brightest and best young people and help employers to secure the high-quality skills they need. Our mission is to put practical training on a level playing field with academic study, creating a highly skilled, creative workforce that can take on the best in the world.”

Data released onJanuary 31 confirms record growth in apprenticeship starts, with some 457,200 starting an apprenticeship in the full 2010/11 academic year. This represents a 63.5 per cent increase on 2009/10 figures. Growth took place at all levels of learning, for all age groups, and across all sectors and all regions. According to the National Audit Office, every £1 of public investment in apprenticeships delivers a return of £18 to the wider economy.

Recent reforms to the apprenticeships program include measures to raise quality standards, cut bureaucracy for employers and deliver more advanced training at ‘A’ level equivalent and above.

Source: nds.coi.gov.uk
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This report presents the results of a survey given to companies that make up the “independent” sector of popular music in Spain, in order to obtain a “picture” of the situation in which the sector finds itself and to analyze its trends. “We have to consider that, by the numbers, they are the biggest producers and distributors of recorded music and, together with the self-published artists, they are responsible for 80% of the new recordings that are currently released in the Spanish market”, state the researchers, Luis A. Albornoz and J. Ignacio Gallego, of the Journalism and Audiovisual Communication Department of the UC3M, who presented the results of this study at the III Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación (AE-IC) (Third International Congress of the Spanish Association of Communication Research), held recently Tarragona. Nevertheless, as the study indicates, the independent firms have only a marginal economic weight in the highly transnationalized local market, as it is dominated by the major labels, which generate the greatest volume of sales. For example, in 2011, the share captured by the big multinational music labels (Universal, Sony, Warner y EMI) reached 88% of physical record sales in Spain and 97% of digital sales, according to the sector’s association, Promusicae.

According to the results of the research, most of the country’s independent record companies are very small companies, with one to three employees, who perform a variety of tasks, from recording music to managing artists’ careers. “One of the main changes we have seen is that these companies have become publishing houses, that is, they manage the intellectual property rights of many of their composers and performers”, says Professor Albornoz. In short, through the so-called “360 degree” contracts, they try to add together the income generated by the sale of phonograms, their artists’ music sales and image rights and the organization of live performances.

Science Brief thanks to EurekAlert.

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Independent record companies are committed to innovation

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Eric Scott Hamilton, 40, of Carrollton, Ga., also was sentenced by U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs in Greenville, S.C., to three years of supervised release following his prison term. In addition, Hamilton was ordered to pay $124,944 in restitution to the U.S. Department of Defense. Hamilton pleaded guilty on Aug. 10, 2011, to a criminal information charging him with two counts of conspiracy to steal public property.

According to court documents and information presented at his plea hearing, Hamilton was stationed from May to September 2008 at Camp Fallujah, Iraq, where he was in charge of a military storage yard containing electrical generators and other equipment for use by USMC units in Iraq. Hamilton admitted that while he was stationed at Camp Fallujah, he entered into a scheme with a USMC officer to facilitate the theft of electrical generators from the base by private Iraqi contractors. Hamilton admitted that he identified the generators to be stolen, painted markings on them to designate them for theft by Iraqi contractors, and facilitated access to the storage yard by the contractors’ trucks to load and remove the generators. Hamilton also entered into a separate scheme with a private Iraqi contractor to facilitate that contractor’s theft of electrical generators from the base. Both of these theft schemes continued after the USMC closed Camp Fallujah in approximately October 2008 and relocated personnel there to Camp Ramadi, Iraq. According to court documents, Hamilton was assigned at Camp Ramadi from October to December 2008.

In pleading guilty, Hamilton admitted that he received more than $124,000 in payments from the USMC officer and the Iraqi contractor in return for facilitating the theft of at least 55 generators from Camps Fallujah and Ramadi. Hamilton received the funds through cash payments in Iraq, checks issued to Hamilton’s wife in the United States by the USMC officer’s wife and wire transfer payments to a bank account in the United States. Hamilton sent home approximately $43,000 of the cash he received from the thefts at Camp Fallujah by concealing it among American flags contained in foot lockers that he mailed from Iraq to his wife. The investigation in this case continues.

Source: Department of Justice
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