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Showing posts from January 12, 2010

Mexico still waiting for most swine flu vaccines

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 MEXICO CITY: Mexico, the epicenter of last year's swine flu outbreak, has received less than half of the 30 million vaccine doses it ordered last year, the country's health secretary said Tuesday. Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said Mexico has struggled to secure enough doses because there are no factories in Mexico producing the vaccine. Meanwhile, some countries have started to sell surplus swine flu vaccines. We had to wait in the second line to buy the vaccine, because obviously, the first shipments were for the countries that make the vaccine,'' he said. After the first case of the H1N1 virus in the world was confirmed in Mexico last April, drug makers began preparing vaccines to control a potential pandemic.

France braces for ice storm amid severe travel warnings

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 PARIS: The French capital braced for a snow and sleet storm Wednesday, banning lorries from motorways and warning of massive flight cancellations as icy conditions made for treacherous travel around northern Europe. French road authorities issued a ban against heavy commercial road traffic starting at midnight until noon on Wednesday on motorways in eight departments around Paris due to a new winter storm brewing. Conditions were expected to be especially hazardous because of icy sleet. Some 58 departments in northern and central France have been placed under an orange alert by Meteo France. At Paris's main airport, aviation authorities warned that the storm may force airlines to cancel up to half of their flights, with disruption compounded by a strike. The state civil aviation safety authority DGAC "has asked airlines to cancel from tomorrow morning at least 30 percent of their flights from Roissy (Charles de Gaulle airport), which coul