Sunday, January 1, 2012

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

WHO warns of lab-produced bird flu virus

Posted:

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued an alert to warn that studies undertaken by several institutions, which generate mutations of the H5N1 influenza (bird flu) virus, could pose risks to public health.

According to media reports, a research team from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, Netherlands, created mutations of the virus that enabled it to be transmissible between ferrets.

It indicates that the virus can be transmissible among human beings while retaining its effect on ferrets. Similar studies were carried out by a joint research team from the University of Wisconsin in the US and the University of Tokyo in Japan.


NATO, police kill 15 Taliban militants in Afghanistan

Posted:

According to the Afghanistan government, in a countrywide crackdown, the Afghan National Police, Afghan National Army and international coalition forces killed 15 suspected Taliban militants and arrested 55 on Saturday.

Eighteen joint operations were launched in Kunar, Nangarhar, Kapisa, Takhar, Baghlan, Kandahar, Helmand, Wardak, Logar, Ghazni, Khost and Herat provinces, Xinhua reported, citing a government statement.

The forces confiscated 12 AK-47 rifles, five rocket launchers, three machine guns, five anti-vehicle mines, 1,280 kg opium, 164 kg hashish, four kg heroin, three radio handsets and five motorbikes.


Pakistan's parliamentary panel to summon ISI chief in memo case

Posted:

The 17-member Parliamentary Committee on National Security, which is investigating the secret memo that said Zardari feared a coup after Osama bin Laden's death, will summon Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director-general Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha and Husain Haqqani for their statements.

Haqqani, former Pakistan Ambassador to Washington, had quit in November over the memo fiasco. Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who has also been summoned, alleged that a "senior Pakistani diplomat" asked for help in getting a message from Zardari passed to then chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen.


Kim Jong-un declared supreme military commander

Posted:

Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, has been officially declared the supreme commander of the armed forces, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Saturday.

"The political bureau of the central committee of the Workers' Party proclaimed that the dear respected Kim Jong-un, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the WPK, assumed the supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army",

Pyongyang's official news agency KCNA said. North Korea just ended a mourning period for Kim Jong-Il, who died on December 17 following a heart attack.


Posted by Harshad at 7:50 AM

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