Archive | June 20, 2015
Gas explosion injures Pop Star Lily Allen
Pop star Lily Allen wants you to be careful with your gas stove. The singer posted a photo of herself with minor burns to her Instagram account, Gossip Cop reports. “Please be SO careful using gas stoves at anytime but especially during festival season when ones reaction times may be a little off,” she wrote.
Courtesy of msn.com
3 Tornadoes strike two Virginia counties, USA
The National Weather Service has confirmed three separate tornadoes in two Virginia counties near the Chesapeake Bay.
The weather service office in Wakefield says the tornadoes touched down between 8:45 p.m. and shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday in Richmond and Lancaster counties. The region is known as the Northern Neck.
Meteorologist Jon McGee says the twisters each were rated an EFo, the lowest-rated tornado with winds ranging from 65 mph to 85 mph.
He said a survey team had not compiled a report yet on its findings but damage was limited to uprooted trees and snapped limbs, with no structural damage.
Courtesy of wboc.com
Hurricane Bill expected to bring thunderstorms Saturday night through Sunday
Thunderstorms are threatening to put a damper on Father’s Day on Staten Island.
Remnants of Hurricane Bill will produce heavy rainfall and thunderstorms starting around 9 p.m. Saturday and continuing throughout the day and into the night Sunday.
The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch in effect from 8 p.m. Saturday to 8 p.m. Sunday.
The service has also issued a hazardous weather outlook for Northeast New Jersey and Southeast New York, including all five boroughs.
One to 2 inches of rain are possible Saturday night and another inch is expected Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
The weather should clear up on Monday, however, when it will be sunny with a high near 86 degrees.
Courtesy of silive.com
Workshop explosion seriously injures a man in Sydney, Australia
A MAN has been rushed to hospital with serious injuries after an explosion at a mechanics business at Smithfield in Sydney’s west.
THE 42-year-old employee was left with burns to his face and body and injuries to his hands and legs after the explosion ripped through the workshop on Saturday night, police said.
He’s been taken to Liverpool Hospital where he remains in a serious condition.
Police have established a crime scene as they continue their investigations, with the matter also reported to WorkCover.
Courtesy of news.com.au
Thailand confirms its first case of MERS Virus
Health officials in Thailand have quarantined a man from Oman who was confirmed to have the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, as well as three family members who traveled with him that have not shown symptoms of the virus
The 75-year-old man is the first confirmed case of MERS in Thailand.
“We advise the public not to panic because the patient and his family members were separated since the beginning,” Public Health Minister Rajata Rajatanavin told reporters at a press conference. “Our system is ready and we are monitoring the cases closely.”
The man was going to Thailand for treatment for a heart condition. After being admitted to a hospital there for the heart condition, he began to have fatigue and trouble breathing. He’s being quarantined at the ministry of health’s infectious diseases facility. Officials are identifying all those who came in contact with him.
Thailand is the 26th country where MERS has been reported.Stephen Feller.
Courtesy of bignewsnetwork.com
Sri Lanka on ‘Red Alert’ for MERS Virus
The Health Ministry last week said the country is in a Pandemic Influenza preparedness state to meet any entry of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus into the country.
The Health Ministry’s Epidemiology Unit (EU) said that a ‘24/7 Help Desk’ manned by doctors and public health officers has been established at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) to arrest any emergency cases on arrival. Health Ministry officials including EU Director Dr Paba Palihawadana and Director General Dr Palitha Mahipala had helped set up the Desk at the BIA.
Consultant Community Physician (Quarantine) Dr Iresha Dassanayake said that contingency measures are in place if a passenger is suspected of having symptoms of the disease. In addition, she said that thermometers have been provided to check temperatures of all outbound passengers from South Korea and the Middle East.
However, as the Word Health Organisation (WHO) has not declared MERS a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), no travel ban could be imposed on South Korea or the Middle Eastern countries affected by the virus. She said leaflets with information on the disease is being distributed to all inbound and outbound passengers to and from those countries.
In addition, she said that posters and placards are displayed at the BIA to alert passengers on the symptoms of the disease and stressing the importance of passengers presenting themselves at the quarantine desk. Last week, South Korea announced its 24th fatality to the virus, with 166 confirmed cases and nearly 6,000 persons under quarantine. In the same week, Thailand recorded its first MERS victim when a 75-year-old Omani businessman was confirmed to have the virus.
Quarantine Director, Dr H.M.L.B.A. Denuwara said that last week an emergency meeting involving all stakeholders including BIA health staff, Quarantine health officers, PHIs, Immigration Officers and Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment staff was held and plans drawn for immediate action in an emergency.
He said that the Airport ambulance will be on standby for emergency transfer of patients to the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) in Colombo, where specially trained doctors and nurses provided with personnel protective equipment and special wards, have been arranged for such emergency cases.
Explaining further, he said passenger locater forms will also be distributed to all passengers on a flight with an infected passenger, and Medical Officers of Health (MOH) of the areas where those passengers live, will be monitored for two weeks, for symptoms that may be indicative of the disease.
Senior Researcher- EU, Dr Athula Liyanapathirana said the spread of the virus in South Korea has shown there is no clustering of cases and the propagation of the disease within Sri Lanka is minimal.
Courtesy of sundaytimes.lk
Landslide triggered under the Central Square of Bulgaria’s Plovdiv
A landslide has triggered under the Central Square of the second biggest Bulgaria’s city of Plovdiv. The landslide has been triggered in archaeological excavations of the Roman Forum.
The news was announced for Radio FOCUS – Plovdiv by the head of the aetiological team, Elena Kesyanova.
“We have serious concerns about possible incident. There must be urgent reinforcement of the area,” Kesyanova said.
The landslide was triggered last year, and this year’s rains have further complicated the situation, as dug out the foundations of the square. The area must be reinforced. The archaeologists have filed two signals last year, and now they again warn on the case.
Courtesy of focus-fen.net
Oil spills from Petrobras pipeline into Brazil coastal area
Oil spilled from a pipeline linking a main Atlantic Ocean terminal with a refinery near Rio de Janeiro on Friday, Brazil’s state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA said.
The spill contaminated a coastal wetland area and leaked into the ocean, a spokesman for the union representing employees at the refinery said.
The narrow coastal region where the spill occurred is in Rio de Janeiro’s Costa Verde or “Green Coast” – one of Brazil’s most beloved tourist regions and home to one of the last stands of the endangered Atlantic-Forest ecosystem.
Petrobras, as the company is known, said 600 liters (3.77 barrels) of oil leaked from the pipeline, 50 liters of which reached the ocean.
The oil spilled from a 40-inch (1.01-meter) diameter ORBIG pipeline that runs 123 kilometers (76 miles) from Angra dos Reis, where the company unloads some of its largest tankers, to the Duque de Caxias Refinery (REDUC), where much of the oil is turned into gasoline, diesel and other fuels.
REDUC, in suburban Rio de Janeiro, can process about 242,000 barrels of crude oil a day. REDUC is also a hub for pipelines linking oil terminals on Rio’s Guanabara Bay, oil and gas fields in the offshore Campos Basin and refineries further inland.
While the spill is relatively small, it is the latest in a series of refinery, pipeline and offshore-oil-platform accidents to hit the indebted and cash-strapped company.
Union officials and analysts have raised concerns that a giant corruption scandal may be hampering Petrobras’ maintenance operations. Arranging for such work has been complicated after the company banned more than 20 of Brazil’s major contractors from bidding for Petrobras projects after they were found to be involved in a price-fixing, bribery and political kick-back scheme.
Petrobras said the leak was caused by an attempt to steal fuel. The ORBIG pipeline is normally used to carry crude oil.
Also on Friday, a fire at a Petrobras fuel and crude pipeline pumping station in Atibaia, in Sao Paulo state, took two hours to control, the company said in a statement.
On Saturday, June 13, an attempt to make an illegal connection to what thieves thought was a water pipe, led to the a rupture in a gas pipeline near REDUC, the union said. No on was hurt in any of the accidents.
Courtesy of news.yahoo.com
Panic As Fire Rages On At Oil Spill Site in Bayelsa, Nigeria
Residents of Ossiama, Ogboinbiri, Okpotuwari and neighbouring communities in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State are currently living in fear as fire continues to rage at a fresh oil spill site in the area.
The fire was said to have been discovered by the locals two days ago. The oil spill that led to the fire incident was said to have occurred on a pipeline operated by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) in the area. Community sources said the actual cause of the spill could, however, not be ascertained.
The fresh spill site is close to another spill site that was clamped on April 23, 2015, and which is yet to be cleaned up.
A community source who craved anonymity said a joint investigation visit (JIV) conducted on the devastated site of the April 23 incident indicated that the fire was caused by equipment failure. According to the source, since the JIV exercise was conducted, neither Agip officials nor the personnel of the regulatory agencies, which include the Ministry of the Environment, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), have re-visited the impacted site. He fumed that remediation has also not been carried out on the affected environment of the impacted communities, adding that the crude oil slick could spread fast into the surrounding swamps, farms, farmlands, creeks and rivulets during the current rainy season.
Courtesy of allafrica.com
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