ONE NEWS

Monday, February 08, 2010 SYDNEY: Papua New Guinea's cholera outbreak has spread to 2,000 people, a World Health Organization official said Monday as he warned that poor water sanitation was making the disease hard to contain. The country's first cholera outbreak in 50 years emerged in northern Morobe province last July and within months had spread along the north coast to Madang and East Sepik, WHO representative Eigil Sorensen said. "We have seen the ongoing transmission in all these three provinces at the moment so it is gradually spreading," Sorensen said. "We have now more than 2,000 confirmed cases of cholera." Sorensen said the number of deaths so far remained modest at fewer than 50, but the disease continued to spread due to poor water supplies and as infected people, including those with no symptoms of the sickness, travelled around. "The problem is that it's spreading to new areas and so we cannot say there has been any contai...

Monday, February 08, 2010 WASHINGTON: US’s northeast was hit by a devastating winter storm today that dumped several feet of snow around Washington DC and caused widespread chaos. The gigantic weather system, predicted to be one of the largest storms on record in the region, effectively brought the US federal government to a halt. Workers were sent home early on Friday and it was unclear whether federal offices would reopen tomorrow. Government advisors suggested all residents of the city stay indoors and the underground train system stopped running in many places. "Stay in unless you absolutely have to be out," said John Lisle, of the district department of transportation. Flights were also badly hit, with hundreds of cancellations and several airports closing. Washington's international airport, Dulles, was using just one runway. Hundreds of thousands of people were also left without power in the storm's wake after fallen trees hit power lines. The sudden...

Monday, February 08, 2010 WASHINGTON: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she would consider a run for president in 2012 if the situation was right for her family and the nation. In an interview recorded Saturday and broadcast on television on Sunday," Palin said she would run "if I believed that; that is the right thing to do for our country and for the Palin family." "I think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country," Palin said, later adding: "I won't close the door that perhaps could be open for me in the future." The interview was recorded before her keynote address Saturday night at what was billed the first national Tea Party convention. Palin, who had little national profile before running unsuccessfully for vice president on Sen. John McCain's Republican ticket in 2008, remains a leading GOP draw and an unofficial symbol of the Tea Party movement of conservative disconte...

Monday, February 08, 2010 MIDDLETOWN: Five people were killed and 12 injured Sunday in a gas explosion at a US power plant, according to preliminary figures, the local mayor said. "We know that 12 individuals have been injured. Five individuals are known to have lost their lives," the mayor of Middletown in Connecticut told a news conference. However officials cautioned that they did not yet know how many people were in the as-yet unfinished power plant and therefore they could not immediately account for everyone who may have been present during the explosion. Terrorism had been ruled out, according to the mayor, saying the accident happened during a testing procedure in the unfinished plant.

Sunday, February 07, 2010 SAO PAULO: Hundreds of Brazilians and Chinese immigrants gathered in a plaza in Sao Paulo on Saturday to celebrate the lunar New Year with Samba and dragons. Although the year of the tiger only begins on February 14, Brazil's Chinese community decided to move up their celebrations because most people travel during Carnival. A legitimate dragon and lion dance - a symbol of good luck and prosperity - marked the festivity held in the heart of Sao Paulo's Asian downtown neighborhood of Liberdade. Samba dancers and singers added a Brazilian touch to the traditional Chinese party that welcomes the year of the Tiger. The Chinese embassy estimates there are 200,000 Chinese living in the country, of which 90 percent live in Sao Paulo. Brazilian school teacher Dina Correia said the event helps people learn more about Chinese culture. "It is was very beautiful. It's the first time I see it and I'm loving it. It's great because we lea...

Sunday, February 07, 2010 TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday told Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation to start work on producing nuclear fuel for a Tehran research reactor, casting renewed doubt on the prospects for an international swap deal. Ahmadinejad's announcement is likely to irritate Western powers who want Iran to send most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad in return for higher-refined fuel for the Tehran reactor. Iranian officials have repeatedly said the Islamic Republic can make fuel enriched to 20 percent itself if there is no agreement on obtaining the material from abroad. "We had told them (the West) to come and have a swap, although we could produce the 20 percent enriched fuel ourselves," Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech. "We gave them two-to-three months' time for such a deal. They started a new game and now I (ask) Dr Salehi to start work on the production of 20 percent fuel using centrifuges,...

Sunday, February 07, 2010 LAGOS: Zambia's Lukando Nalungwe on Saturday emerged the winner of this year's Face of Africa competition held in Nigeria's commercial port city of Lagos. The event was hosted by African television entertainment company M-net, and was attended by Nigerian politicians and a number of African celebrities. "I don't we don't believe this is a beauty pageant, I guess this is competition, so it is very different from a beauty pageant so, there was not controversy, there was no conflict," said Biola Adekanbi, Director M-net Africa. Eight years ago the country's bid to host the Miss World contest was mired in controversy. Islamic groups were angered by the event being hosted in a country where Muslims make up around half the population, while contestants from several countries pulled out in protest over a Nigerian Sharia court's decision to sentence a woman who gave birth to a child outside wedlock to death by stoning. T...