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Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Indian PM Reshuffles Cabinet

2011-07-12

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh carried out his much talked about reshuffle Tuesday bringing in eight new faces in the Union Council of Ministers including four in the Cabinet.

Singh has included V. Kishore Chandra Deo, Beni Prasad Verma, Dinesh Trivedi and Jairam Ramesh into the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) cabinet while dropping a few who were seen as non- performers.

Kapil Sibal has been retained as the Minister of Human Resource Development and Minister of Communications and Information Technology while two news faces - Milind Deora and Rajiv Shukla have been made Ministers of State.

Deo has been made the Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj Minister while Beni Prasad Verma Steel has been elevated as the Minister of Steel. Verma was earlier the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Steel.

The Railways Ministry has remained with the Trinamool Congress with Dinesh Trivedi getting the portfolio. Jairam Ramesh, who was the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, has been elevated as the Minister of Rural Development.

Meanwhile, the first signs of discontent over the reshuffle carried out in the Union Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday have started to surface.

Sources say Congress leaders Srikant Jena and Gurudas Kamat are unhappy with their portfolios. The duo also gave the swearing-in ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan (President's House) in New Delhi Tuesday evening a miss.

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has failed to reassure the nation with his "damp squib" cabinet reshuffle.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's much acclaimed and awaited reshuffle has proven to be a damp squib. It is a futile exercise which inspires none and in no way dispels the gloom shadowing the embattled United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said here.

Congress's ally party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party chief M. Karunanidhi Tuesday said that the reshuffle carried out by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is not over and the party will decide on its nominees after its General Council meeting on July 23.

The DMK party did not seek replacements for former telecom minister A Raja and former textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran.

"The reshuffle is not complete yet. Will comment on it after it is formally announced. We did not ask for any replacement portfolios from Pranab Mukherjee," Karunanidhi said in Chennai, state capital of Tamil Nadu.

Source: CRIEnglish.
Link: http://english.cri.cn/6966/2011/07/12/1461s648045.htm.

Iraqi tribes feud over nightingale

AMARA, Iraq, July 12 (UPI) -- A pair of Iraqi tribes in the province of Missan are feuding over a nightingale a member of one tribe allegedly stole from the other, locals say.

The Azzaman newspaper reported the theft of the nightingale has led to calls for violence from the tribe that owned the bird due to a violation of its "tribal honor."

The newspaper said surrounding tribes are attempting to smooth the ruffled feathers and prevent violence from breaking out while the chieftains of the two tribes are planning a summit to discuss the issue.

Tribe members said any settlement reached between the chieftains would have to involve the return of the bird and the payment of "a generous ransom."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2011/07/12/Iraqi-tribes-feud-over-nightingale/UPI-37451310455800/.

France to Withdraw 1,000 Soldiers from Afghanistan by 2012

2011-07-12

France will withdraw 1,000 soldiers from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, said French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday.

According to the statistics released by NATO-led International Security Assistance Force on May 16, there are about 4,000 French troops serving in Afghanistan, and most of them stationed in Kapisa.

Source: CRIEnglish.
Link: http://english.cri.cn/6966/2011/07/12/2681s647915.htm.

100 ideas for a 'new Algeria'

Citizens put ideas into action to build a better Algeria.

By Mouna Sadek for Magharebia in Algiers – 11/07/11

Fifty young economists, academics and businesspeople called an Algiers press conference on Saturday (July 9th) to unveil "100 Measures for a New Algeria".

It was the symbolic date of July 5th, however, that "Nabni" ("Our Algeria Built on New Ideas") selected to announce the recommendations. The group hopes to implement the proposals, drafted after two months of deliberations, before next years' independence decennial.

"The fiftieth anniversary of Algerian independence is an opportunity to reflect on the country's future," Nabni spokesman Abdelkrim Boudraa told Magharebia, adding that it is up to the state to implement the proposals.

The goal is to craft a vision for Algeria through 2020. Ninety-nine proposals relate to governance, public administration, health, youth empowerment, economic growth, education and training. The 100th measure envisions the creation of a center to monitor public-sector policies and the implementation of the Nabni 2020 project.

Among the suggested reforms are two-year tax exemptions for new entrants to the social security system, a merging of the economics and finance ministries, and changes affecting election lists, proxy voting and the way ballots are counted.

Nabni sees itself as a "participatory think tank". Group members say that despite the unfolding discussions about the need to institute far-reaching changes in Algeria and make the government more modern and participatory, there have been very few proposals for specific actions to get youths involved in public debates.

The initiative is merely "a box of ideas that belongs to everyone", said Rostane Hamdi, a member of the steering committee. The group includes around 50 active members, engaged in drafting the recommendations and running the network, and 300 followers.

"We're trying to show that as Algerians, we are capable of thinking together about a better future for our country," Hamdi said.

Many internet users have participated in the discussions about the group's ideas. "I think Nabni 2012 is the result of development in terms of the maturity and awareness of Algerian society after many experiences," Fatima Hocini explained to the Nabni online forum.

Some people, however, remain skeptical as to whether the project will be applied in practice.

"It's very interesting, as long as decision-makers deign to listen carefully," Houssam Driss, 28, told Magharebia. If the authorities fail to do so, he asserted, this beautiful dream will amount to nothing.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/07/11/feature-01.

South Sudan to introduce 'pound' as currency

11 Jul 2011

Fledgling nation forms cabinet and details plan for release of new money, two days after independence from North Sudan.

South Sudan formed a caretaker government and announced on Monday it will use a new currency that features the image of the deceased founder of the nation's liberation struggle.

The new African nation became an independent on Saturday, breaking away from Sudan after more than 50 years of on-and-off war.

David Deng Athorbie, the new finance minister, said the new currency would be called the South Sudan pound and will replace the Sudan pound currently in use.

It is scheduled to arrive by cargo plane beginning on Wednesday and will go into circulation next Monday.

It will have a one-to-one value with the Sudan pound and the image of John Garang, the deceased rebel leader, will adorn one side of the bills.

The other sides would show images of the fledgling country's culture and wealth, Athorbie said, and the bills will have watermarks and other security measures.

"I must warn those people who usually print fake currency, if they attempt it they will almost certainly be caught", Athorbie said.

Birth of a nation

Impromptu street parties broke out early on Saturday when the oil-rich country became independent.

World leaders flocked to Juba to join tens of thousands of southerners at a 10-hour ceremony held in blistering heat.

On Sunday, churches were packed as southerners listened to sermons about promoting peace and unity among the country's diverse tribes.

And on Monday, although a national holiday had been declared, the government got to work.

With hands on bibles - both Arabic and English - the ministers of the semi-autonomous Southern Sudanese government were transformed into the caretaker cabinet for the new republic of South Sudan at an informal and jovial ceremony.

Cabinet composition

In between jokes made by the typically quiet and solemn President Salva Kiir, the chief justice of the Supreme Court read the fourth and fifth decrees of the new government, which dissolved the former cabinet and appointed the same 32 ministers to serve as caretaker ministers.

Several ministerial titles changed to reflect South Sudan's status as a country.

The former minister of regional cooperation is now the foreign affairs minister, while the southern army and veterans' affairs minister became the defense minister.

The decree said the ministers "shall not undertake any major policy decisions" or enter into any "major contractual obligations" during the caretaker period, whose duration has not yet been specified.

After the Cabinet was sworn in, the finance minister told a news conference that there would be difficulties in paying government salaries on time because Sudan's government had not sent an adequate supply of the northern Sudanese currency.

Gier Chuang Aluong, minster of the interior, said the government was in the process of preparing the country's passports and urged patience.

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/07/2011711145513727475.html.

Anonymous Hackers Release 90,000 Military E-mail Accounts

By Ridge Shan
Jul 11, 2011

The “hacktivist” organization Anonymous Operations posted some 90,000 military e-mail addresses and passwords, to the Pirate Bay torrent website on July 11, in what they called “Military Meltdown Monday."

The organization hacked into the networks of government contracting and consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, where they claim to have discovered “a list of roughly 90,000 military e-mails and password hashes ... 4gb of source code,” and “maps and keys for various other treasure chests buried on the islands of government agencies, federal contractors and shady whitehat companies.”

Anonymous further claims that Booz Allen was involved with several government surveillance and intelligence-gathering programs “that may be deemed illegal” and insinuate that several of Booz Allen’s executives, all former members of the Nation Security Agency, garnered illegal government favor in their private business efforts.

Anonymous preceded the release with multiple lead-up tweets from several of their affiliated twitter accounts. One account, “anonymouSabu,” formerly part of the LulzSec hacking group, claims that this is the first of “two of the biggest releases for Anonymous in the last 4 years,” and sent a warning to the intelligence community, stating “Everyone brace. This is literally explosive.”

Another account, “YourAnonNews”, states that “today’s #AntiSec release will without any doubt be the biggest release so far.”

“AntiSec” or operation Anti-Security, was a collaborative effort between hacker groups LulzSec, Anonymous, and various others to attack and steal confidential information from major governments and corporations, and expose perceived corruption and abuse of power. LulzSec disbanded in late June, its members reintegrating with their original foundations in Anonymous.

The websites and networks of numerous companies and government organizations have already been attacked in the name of AntiSec. Anonymous believes that their efforts are simply a form of civil disobedience, calling their tactics “peaceful protest." The government, meanwhile, has been actively trying to track down and arrest its members.

Anonymous made headlines last year when they attacked MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal after the companies had suspended payments directed to the information leaking website WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/technology/anonymous-hackers-release-90000-military-e-mail-accounts-58945.html.

Scientists discover underwater volcanoes in the Southern Ocean

LONDON (BNO NEWS) — A group of scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has discovered a dozen underwater volcanoes in the ocean waters around the remote South Sandwich Islands, which is a British overseas territory.

The scientists made the discovery using ship-borne sea-floor mapping technology during two research cruises in 2007 and 2010 on the British Antarctic Survey ship RRS James Clark Ross. Their discovery in the Southern Ocean was not announced until Monday.

The scientists found a total of twelve volcanoes beneath the sea surface – some up to 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) high. They found five kilometers (3.1 miles) diameter craters left by collapsing volcanoes and seven active volcanoes visible above the sea as a chain of islands.

“There is so much that we don’t understand about volcanic activity beneath the sea – it’s likely that volcanoes are erupting or collapsing all the time,” said Dr. Phil Leat of BAS at the International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences. The discovery could lead to a better understanding about why volcanoes erupt or collapse underwater and what their potential is for creating hazards such as tsunamis.

“The technologies that scientists can now use from ships not only give us an opportunity to piece together the story of the evolution of our Earth, but they also help shed new light on the development of natural events that pose hazards for people living in more populated regions on the planet,” Leat added.

Not a lot is known about underwater volcanoes, and it is unclear how many exist. The Kolumbo submarine volcano in the Aegean Sea erupted in 1650, sending pyroclastic flows across the sea surface to the shores and slopes of Santorini, a nearby Greek island. It left some 70 people killed and also triggered a tsunami that damaged islands in the region.

Monday, July 11th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/18760/scientists-discover-underwater-volcanoes-in-the-southern-ocean/.

Indonesia's Mount Lokon erupts, disrupts air traffic network

MANADO, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) — Indonesia’s Mount Lokon, which is located on the northern tip of the island of Sulawesi, on Monday erupted, officials said, who also warned air traffic networks.

Indonesian Transportation Ministry’s Public Communication Center chief Bambang S. Ervan said volcanic ash reached 50,000 feet into the air after its latest eruptions, Antara news agency reported. Bambang also warned air traffic networks to avoid flying through the area and to take extra precautions.

In its ‘Notice to Airman,’ the Transportation Ministry established the eruption’s danger zone of 10 Nautical Miles, or some 18.52 kilometers (11.5 miles) from Mount Lokon. Meanwhile, local authorities said about 7,000 inhabitants, who reside near the foot of Mount Lokon, namely those in the Kakaskasen and Kinilow areas, will be evacuated starting Tuesday morning.

Residents had been advised to evacuate the area since Monday night, as Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency’s (BNPB) Data Center Chief Sutopo Purwon Nugroho said officials had established Lokon’s evacuation zone to at least 3.5 kilometer (2.2 mile) radius from its crater. He also urged resident to be aware of further eruptions, possible lava flow through a river, which flows down from Lokon’s peak, as well as dust, sand, and rock rains.

Tuesday’s evacuation will be carried out with dozens of school buses, cars, and trucks, which have already been lined up at the local search and rescue agency. Three evacuation centers are also being prepared in which several tents have been set up.

Earlier, BNPB raised the volcano’s alert level status after Mount Lokon, which is 1,500 meters (4,921 feet) high, increased its volcanic activity. Since 12:40 a.m. local time, it spewed varied amounts of ash until erupting at 3:50 p.m., producing a thick brownish volcanic ash cloud, North Sulawesi Volcanic Monitoring Post Farid Ruskanda Bina said.

Farid said the exact height of the the ash cloud could not be determined because the eruption was fresh. He did underline, however, that the eruption was big.

Nonetheless, Sutopo called on residents to keep calm and follow indication announced by local officials and not believe rumors. Lokon is located some 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away from Manado, Sulawesi’s second-largest city, and is located on the island’s northern tip, where large and small ash clouds have been seen. The latest ash cloud can be seen north of the mountain covering Jalan Tinoor, Warembungan, and may be heading towards Manado.

Dozens of active volcanoes in Indonesia are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, known for frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Next to Mount Lokon is its volcanic twin, Mount Empung, just 2.2 kilometers (1.3 miles) away.

One of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes is Mount Merapi, which located in the island of Java near Jogjakarta, the country’s second-most visited area after Bali. Last year, more than 300 people were killed in a series of eruptions between October and November that also displaced over 300,000 people.

Monday, July 11th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/18765/indonesias-mount-lokon-erupts-disrupts-air-traffic-network/.

Jordan considers Iranian offer after Egypt gas disruptions

AMMAN (BNO NEWS) — Jordan said on Monday that it cannot longer rely on Egyptian gas after repeated pipeline attacks, Ammon News reported.

The Jordanian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khaled Toukan said Jordan is considering an Iranian offer to supply natural gas to the Kingdom as a means of overcoming its current energy crisis. He said Iran submitted a letter to Jordan expressing its willingness to supply natural gas, but no prices have yet been floated.

Toukan added that Jordan is also considering a number of new options for natural gas, including supplies from Russia and Qatar. The minister earlier said that Jordan will not rely on Egyptian gas as its primary source for generating electrical power because of frequent interruptions in the supply, which has amounted to 82 days since the start of 2011.

The Iranian ambassador in Amman, Mustafa Zadeh, said that Jordan has not yet replied to his country’s offer which was submitted more than a month ago. He added that details of quantity and pricing would be negotiated once the Jordanian government responds.

Egypt and Jordan earlier agreed to raise the 2012 supply to 220 million cubic feet. On Friday, Toukan told Jordanian television that an initial agreement to review gas prices had been signed between Egypt and Jordan.

Pipelines carrying natural gas to Israel and Jordan have been blown up three times since February, forcing a shutdown in gas flow. The latest incident was on 4 July and repairs to the pipeline are expected to be complete by the end of this week.

Monday, July 11th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/18768/jordan-considers-iranian-offer-after-egypt-gas-disruptions/.

Germany's controversial Saudi tank deal

Heidenheim, Germany (UPI)
Jul 11, 2011

German politicians are defending the government's controversial decision to sell tanks to Saudi Arabia under terms of a $2.5 billion armaments contract.

The Saudis want to buy 200 German-made Leopard II main battle tanks built by Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann and Rheinmetall, Heidenheimer Zeitung reported Monday.

Christian Democratic Union foreign policy adviser Roderich Kiesewetter said that, while there was a "lack of transparency" in the proceedings, "national security interests" meant that "it would be harmful to our country when things were revealed that are still in negotiation. We must ensure the security of Israel."

The CDU is the party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Saudi purchase of German armor would represent a significant diversification of arms purchases by Saudi Arabia, which currently fields about 1,000 main battle tanks of U.S. and French manufacture.

The deal has surprised some CDU officials.

"Normally you'd expect at least Israel would object if Saudi Arabia got a delivery of tanks," CDU member and Arabic affairs expert Joachim Hoerster said. "That was always the case in the past and that's why no arms went there before.

"But the geopolitical situation in the Middle East has evidently changed so much that Israel has no comment on all this -- and that speaks volumes by itself."

German-Saudi relations have been expanded since the first visit of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to Saudi Arabia in October 2003.

The Leopard 2A7+ tanks weigh 68 tons and were unveiled to the public during last year's Eurosatory defense industry trade show in Paris.

The German contingent of the U.N. peacekeeping force operated a number of Leopard 2A4s and 2A5s in Kosovo in 1999.

The Leopard 2A7+ is a versatile main battle tank, as it was specifically designed to operate in both low- and high-intensity conflict situations.

The Leopard 2A7+ contains upgraded modular armor, among other things providing all-round protection against RPGs as well as mines, options specifically designed to improve the survivability of the tank in urban operations.

Its munitions handling capabilities have also been upgraded as well as its observation systems.

Germany's Leopard tanks have proven to be one of the country's most sought after arms exports. Purchasers include Austria, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

The proposed Saudi sale is taking political overtones, as media reports are beginning to surface about the two munitions companies' past political donations to German progressive political parties, including the CDU, over the past decade.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Germanys_controversial_Saudi_tank_deal_999.html.

12 dead in blasts at Cyprus base, navy chief killed

Mari, Cyprus (AFP)
July 11, 2011

Huge blasts in a seized Iranian arms cache at a Greek Cypriot naval base in southern Cyprus killed at least 12 people on Monday, triggering power and water outages likely to last months.

The commander of Cyprus's navy, Andreas Ioannides, was among the dead, as was the commander of the Evangelos Florakis base, Lambros Lambrou, police and the National Guard said in a joint statement.

Four other members of the armed forces and six firefighters also died.

The early morning explosions devastated the adjacent Vassiliko power station in what Commerce Minister Antonis Paschalides called a "tragedy of Biblical dimensions" for the small Mediterranean island.

The plant produces almost 60 percent of the country's electricity supply.

Massive damage was caused to homes in the nearby village of Mari, forcing the evacuation of its 150 residents, the village headman told AFP.

Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said 62 people were injured, two of them seriously, and announced three days of official mourning.

Defense Minister Costas Papacostas and Greek Cypriot National Guard commander Petros Tsaliklides resigned at an emergency cabinet meeting, Stefanou said.

The defense ministry had held talks last week about storage conditions after National Guard chiefs reportedly expressed concerns about the arms cache being kept in the open as temperatures touched 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

"Decisions were taken on protecting the material but unfortunately this was not possible as time ran out," Stefanou said, promising a "thorough investigation."

The official CNA news agency said the death toll could rise as a number of people were missing.

It said the bodies of four of the 12 dead were taken to Nicosia General Hospital for identification, and that 20-year-old twin brothers were among the dead.

Firefighters were called to tackle a small fire in the storage area at the base at 4:24 am (0124 GMT) and the explosions followed at 5:50 am (0250 GMT), public radio reported.

An AFP correspondent saw magazine casings, shrapnel and other debris from the explosion littered throughout Mari. Windows and doors were blown in, some roofs had collapsed and structural damage was widespread.

Debris was hurled as far as three kilometers (two miles) from the seat of the blast in the naval base between Mari and the fishing village of Zygi to the west, the correspondent reported.

Hundreds of trees on nearby hillsides were flattened by the shock wave and several generator buildings and fuel tanks at the Vassiliko plant were reduced to shells.

Virtually every window was blown out in Zygi, a village whose seafront fish restaurants are popular with locals and tourists alike.

-- Debris flying through the air --

-----------------------------------

"It was about 5:40 am, it was one massive explosion. We thought it was a plane crash. Luckily our windows were open and they weren't blasted in," lawyer George Michaelides, a Zygi resident, told AFP.

The main motorway connecting Nicosia with the island's second-largest city Limassol runs less than a kilometer (half a mile) from Vassiliko, and motorists reported debris flying through the air.

Before handing in his resignation, Tsaliklides told public radio the blasts struck among containers of Iranian munitions seized from Cypriot-flagged vessel the M/V Monchegorsk in January 2009.

It was intercepted in the eastern Mediterranean en route to Syria, and after repeated searches its cargo was eventually seized.

A UN Security Council panel concluded in March 2009 that the shipment was in clear violation of an arms embargo against Iran under UN sanctions imposed over Tehran's controversial nuclear program and the weapons were put into storage.

President Demetris Christofias visited the blast scene and expressed his condolences to the victims' families.

"The material damage can be repaired, but lives do not come back," he said.

Electricity Authority of Cyprus Chairman Charis Thrassou warned it would take a long time to repair the Vassiliko plant and that an emergency rationing plan would be put to ministers.

CNA reported him as saying billions of euros may be needed to repair the facility.

On a hilltop overlooking Vassiliko, a steady stream of sightseers arrived to see the destruction for themselves.

"The place is completely wiped out," said one teenager surveying the scene through binoculars.

Power outages have already hit large swathes of the island.

The loss of supply also prompted the closure of desalination plants which had allowed the gradual abandonment of summer water rationing over the past two years.

The Nicosia Water Board announced that consumers in the capital would now be supplied with water for just 12 hours in every 48.

"The government calls on all the people to cooperate to tackle all these difficulties," government spokesman Stefanou said.

At the island's main international airport in Larnaca, morning flights were severely disrupted after the blasts. Flights later returned to normal, but passengers had to cope with severely reduced air conditioning.

There was no immediate word on damage to naval vessels, but officials spoke of "devastation" at the base.

The Greek defense ministry flew a team of explosives experts to Cyprus to aid investigations, following a request from the government in Nicosia.

CNA said the US State Department had also offered assistance.

The Cyprus Stock Exchange All Share Index was down 7.63 percentage points on Friday's close.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/12_dead_in_blasts_at_Cyprus_base_navy_chief_killed_999.html.

Superbug horror -- scientists discover gonorrhea superbug that defies all known antibiotics

Tuesday, July 12, 2011
by: S. L. Baker

(NaturalNews) The danger of superbugs -- infectious germs that are resistant to a host of Big Pharma's drug arsenal -- a growing and deadly problem in the 21st century. For example, as NaturalNews covered earlier this year, the U.S. meat supply is contaminated with disease-causing bacteria, including the superbug variety.

And hospitals are now breeding grounds for the antibiotic resistant germs. In fact, the heartbreaking truth is that newborn babies are acquiring these superbug infections at an alarming rate in neonatal units.

But while superbugs are resistant to most antibiotics, a new superbug strain has been found that is completely resistant to every antibiotic . That's the finding of an international research team who just announced their discovery -- a superbug form of gonorrhea -- at the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease Research (ISSTDR) currently underway in Quebec City, Canada.

In a statement to the media, Dr. Magnus Unemo of the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria, warned that the new strain is likely to transform a common and once easily treatable infection into nothing less than a global threat to public health. Dr. Unemo, Dr. Makoto Ohnishi and their colleagues have identified a variant of the bacterium which causes gonorrhea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, that has never been documented before. And, as the researchers analyzed this new strain, (called H041, for short) they found genetic mutations in the bacterium that have resulted in a fearsome superbug that shows what the scientists called "extreme resistance" to all cephalosporin-class antibiotics -- the only drugs that, until now, have remained effective in treating gonorrhea.

"This is both an alarming and a predictable discovery," Dr. Unemo said in the media statement. "Since antibiotics became the standard treatment for gonorrhea in the 1940s, this bacterium has shown a remarkable capacity to develop resistance mechanisms to all drugs introduced to control it."

"While it is still too early to assess if this new strain has become widespread, the history of newly emergent resistance in the bacterium suggests that it may spread rapidly unless new drugs and effective treatment programs are developed," Dr. Unemo continued.

The new superbug strain is especially dangerous because gonorrhea is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases on the planet. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of cases in the U.S. alone is around 700,000 annually.

It's a particularly insidious STD because it doesn't immediately produce symptoms in around half of infected women and approximately 2 to 5 percent of men. When symptoms occur, they include a burning sensation during urination and a discharge of pus from the genitals. If it is left untreated -- or, in the case of the new strain, can't be treated, gonorrhea can cause serious, irreversible health complications in both sexes, including skin, blood, joint and heart problems leading to death.

Not only can infection with gonorrhea result in chronic pelvic pain and ectopic pregnancy, it can cause infertility in women (and, to a lesser degree, in men). It also increases the risk of HIV transmission. Babies born to mothers infected with gonorrhea are at high risk for developing serious blood and joint infections and may be blind, too.

While the discovery a new strain of gonorrhea superbug is worrisome, don't panic. Remember that your first line of defense is safe sex and a healthy immune system bolstered by good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. In addition, you can search the NaturalNews archives for natural approaches to fighting superbugs without relying on Big Pharma's drugs.

Source: NaturalNews.
Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/032970_gonorrhea_superbugs.html.