No Ebola symptoms, person discharged in Chennai

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Chennai: A hospital in the city, on Sunday, discharged a person kept under observation after no symptoms of Ebola were found but health authorities will monitor him for 21 days.

He flew in Saturday night from the west African country Guinea, said a senior official.

Speaking to IANS, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital resident medical officer A. Illango said: 'The person was kept only as a quarantine measure from Saturday night. His blood samples have been taken and sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune for testing.'

According to Illango, the person was discharged and sent to his native Theni district as he did not show any symptoms of suffering from the Ebola disease.

He said the person will, however, be under observation of the district health authorities for 21 days.

IANS

Reports say Iranian plane crashes after takeoff, killing 39

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TEHRAN: A regional passenger plane assembled in Iran crashed Sunday while taking off from the capital, killing 39 and injuring another nine onboard, according to a senior transportation official and state media.

The IrAn-140 operated by domestic carrier Sepahan Air crashed in a residential area near Tehran's Mehrabad airport. State 

TV

 said the plane's tail struck the cables of an electricity tower before it hit the ground and burst into flames. The official IRNA news agency said the plane suffered an engine failure before it went down.

Deputy Minister of Transportation Ahmad Majidi provided the casualty figures in an appearance on state TV. The channel earlier had reported that all 48 people onboard had died.

The crash happened shortly after the plane took off at 9:20 a.m. local time (0450 GMT), bound for the town of Tabas in eastern Iran.

Eyewitness Hassan Molla said he heard a roaring sound as the plane came in low overhead, one wing tilting.

'There was no smoke or anything. It was absolutely sound and in good condition' before the crash and what appeared to be multiple explosions, he said.

Members of the Revolutionary Guard worked to secure the crash site and security and rescue personnel combed the wreckage as onlookers gathered shortly after the plane went down. The plane's mangled but largely intact tail section was torn from the fuselage and came to rest on a nearby road.

State TV said the bodies of some of the victims were so badly burned that they could not be identified. They will be handed over to relatives after DNA tests are carried out to determine their identities, it said.

The IrAn-140 is a twin-engine turboprop plane based on Ukrainian technology that is assembled under license in Iran. It is a version of the Antonov An-140 regional plane and can carry up to 52 passengers.

A similar plane crashed during a training flight in the city of Isfahan in February 2009, killing five onboard, according to a report by state-run Press TV at the time.

Lawmaker Mehrdad Lahouti suggested Sunday that the earlier accident should have been a wake-up call.

'Lawmakers visited the production site of the plane and expressed concern about its (safety),' IRNA quoted him as saying. 'This company should have not been allowed to operate the plane to avoid such a bitter incident.'

An official for Sepahan Air told The Associated Press from the central city of Isfahan that the carrier is affiliated with the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company, also known as HESA. The airline was set up in 2010 and has not had any previous crashes, said the official, who refused to provide his name.

HESA has ties to Iran's Ministry of Defense and is the company that assembles the IrAn-140.

Mehrabad, located in western Tehran, is the busier of two main airports serving the capital, and primarily handles domestic flights. Most international flights use the newer Imam Khomeini International Airport.

Iran has suffered a series of airplane crashes, blamed on its aging aircraft and poor maintenance. Many of the Boeing aircraft in state-run Iran Air's fleet were bought before the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution, which disrupted ties with the U.S. and Europe.

Iranian airlines, including those run by the state, are chronically strapped for cash, and maintenance has suffered, experts say. U.S. sanctions prevent Iran from updating its American aircraft and make it difficult to get European spare parts or planes. The country has come to rely on Russian aircraft, many of them Soviet-era planes that are harder to get parts for since the Soviet Union's fall.

In March of this year, a small plane belonging to the State Aviation Organization crashed while on a test flight near the tourist 

resort

 of Kish Island, killing all four crew members.

The last major airliner crash in Iran happened in January 2011, when an Iran Air Boeing 727 broke to pieces on impact while trying an emergency landing in a snowstorm in northwestern Iran, killing at least 77 people.

In July 2009, a Russian-made jetliner crashed in northwest Iran shortly after taking off from the capital, killing all 168 on board. A Russian-made Ilyushin 76 carrying members of the Revolutionary Guard crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran in February 2003, killing 302 people aboard.

Suspected Ebola virus case in Saudi Arabia

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Riyadh: Saudi Arabia's health ministry announced Tuesday it is testing blood samples of a man who is suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus after a recent trip to Sierra Leone.

The 40-year-old Saudi man showed symptoms of viral haemorrhagic fever Monday night at a hospital in Jeddah. He is in critical condition and has been moved to a care centre with advanced isolation and infection-control capabilities, Xinhua reported citing the ministry.

Preliminary tests in a local laboratory showed negative for dengue virus and additional tests are under way to determine the source of infection, the ministry explained, adding that it would also submit samples for Ebola virus testing to an international reference laboratory at the recommendation of the World Health Organisation.

Some viral hemorrhagic fevers are found in Saudi Arabia but no confirmed case of Ebola virus has been detected in the Gulf nation, the ministry clarified.

Saudi Arabia announced in April that it was not issuing visas for the 2014 Haj and Umrah to pilgrims from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea due to the outbreak of Ebola in these countries. Medical workers are monitoring travellers at airports and seaports across the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia has suffered from rampant spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, and a total of 721 cases were registered since 2012, with 298 people dying of the disease.

Infection by the virus reduced drastically because of nationwide efforts as no new cases were registered for almost a month.

The Ebola virus disease, formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe illness with a mortality rate of up to 90 percent.

IANS

Visit visas now go online for expats in Saudi Arabia

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Riyadh: Expatriates in Saudi Arabia will now be able to renew visit visas for their relatives online under a new service announced in the Gulf nation, a media report said Tuesday.

The Saudi Arabian passport department is slated to launch the new service under the interior ministry's Abshir system Aug 11, Arab News reported citing Mohammed Al-Saad, director of public relations.

The new service has been put in place after prior testing, Al-Saad said.

The launch of the new service coincides with the department's campaign to increase awareness on its electronic services.

Al-Saad urged expatriates to make use of its electronic services to save their time and energy and reduce congestion at the passport offices across the country.

Saudi Arabia is home to around 2.8 million expatriate Indians, many of whom are blue-collar workers.

Indians form the largest expatriate community in this Gulf nation.

People can register with Abshir by visiting one of the department's offices (Jawazat) or using interactive machines available at banks, as well as at malls and international airports, the director said.

Meanwhile, expatriates in the Gulf state have appreciated the new electronic services which could cut down on the tedious process of standing in long queues at Jawazat offices.

'The registration of expats with the (Saudi Arabian) interior ministry's electronic system simplified their residency procedures, including issuance of exit and re-entry visas,' the report quoted Omar Abubacker, a business consultant, as saying.

IANS

Baked or broiled fish improves brain health

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New York: Baked or broiled fish once a week is good for your kid's brain, regardless of how much omega-3 fatty acids it contains, says a study.

'Our study shows that people who ate a diet that included baked or broiled, but not fried, fish have larger brain volumes in regions associated with memory and cognition,' said James T. Becker, a professor of psychiatry at University of Pittsburgh's school of medicine.

They found that people who ate baked or broiled fish at least once a week had greater grey matter brain volumes in areas of the brain associated with memory (4.3 percent) and cognition (14 percent).

They were more likely to have a college education than those who did not eat fish regularly.

But no association was found between the brain differences and blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids.

The lifestyle factors, in this case eating fish, rather than biological factors contribute to structural changes in the brain.

'A confluence of lifestyle factors likely are responsible for better brain health, and this reserve might prevent or delay cognitive problems that can develop later in life,' Becker noted.

Scientists estimate that more than 80 million people will have dementia by 2040 which could become a substantial burden to families and drive up health care costs.

The anti-oxidant effect of omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in high amounts in fish, seeds and nuts and certain oils, also have been associated with improved health, particularly brain health.

The paper appeared in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

IANS

Banglades ferry sinks with 200 passengers aboard

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DHAKA: A ferry with about 200 passengers aboard capsized on Monday in the river Padma, near Munshiganj district, about 30 km (18 miles) southwest of Dhaka, the chief of the district administration told Reuters. Mohammad Saiful Hasan Badal, the Deputy Commissioner of the district, said 44 passengers had been rescued from the vessel, identified as the Pinak-6. No deaths had yet been reported. Teams from the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority and the army were engaged in the rescue operation.

At least 367 dead after quake hits southwest China

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Beijing: A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck southwestern China on Sunday, killing at least 367 people and leaving 1,881 injured in a remote area of Yunnan province, and causing thousands of buildings, including a school, to collapse.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered at a shallow depth of less than 1 mile (1.6 km). Chinese state media said it was felt most strongly in Yunnan as well as in the neighbouring provinces of Guizhou and Sichuan.

The official Xinhua news agency said the epicentre was in Longtoushan town in Yunnan's mountainous Ludian county.

Paramilitary policemen carrying an injured woman after an earthquake hit Ludian county of Zhaotong, Yunnan province in China

Communications have been seriously affected and rescuers have begun arriving on the scene, the report said.

Pictures posted online by state media showed troops stretchering people away and cars damaged by fallen bricks.

Many people rushed out of buildings onto the street after the quake hit, electricity supplies were cut and at least one school collapsed, Xinhua added, with more than 12,000 houses having collapsed and 30,000 sustaining damage.

Ludian resident Ma Liya told Xinhua the streets were like a 'battlefield after bombardment'.

The government is sending 2,000 tents, 3,000 folding beds, 3,000 quilts and 3,000 coats to the disaster zone, where heavy rain forecast for the coming days will add to the misery, the report said.

Ludian is home to some 265,900 people, Xinhua added.

This region of China is frequently struck by quakes, with one killing more than 1,400 in the same part of Yunnan in 1974.

A quake in Sichuan in 2008 killed almost 70,000 people.

REUTERS

Six-year-old slips into borewell in Karnataka

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Bagalkot: A six-year-old boy Sunday slipped into a dry borewell and got stuck about 100 ft-deep in Bagalkot district of Karnataka.

The incident happened in a village near Badami, about 550 km from state capital Bangalore.

'The boy (Thimanna) suddenly fell into the borewell while playing with his brother and friends in the village. The borewell was dug in June and left unattended, as there were no rains then,' S.R. Patil, district in-charge minister, told reporters at the accident spot.

The district authorities launched rescue operations with the help of police and experts from irrigation and public works departments to dig a parallel hole to rescue the trapped boy out from the dark pit.

'Oxygen is being supplied to the boy through a pipe. View of the boy through a closed circuit television camera, which was lowered to 60-80 feet underground showed his one hand and leg folded with some movement,' Patil said.

The rescue team has pressed one earth moving machine and one drilling machine to dig the hole a few feet away from the dry borewell to rescue the boy.

Keralite killed in Libya

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Pandalam: A Keralite was killed in mortar shell attack in the war-torn Libya on Sunday.

Sources said Solomon Daniel, hailing from Mattapally in Nooranad, had been working as turner at J&B Company in Tripoli for the last 10 years. The accident happened around 11 am on Sunday.

Solomon had visited his family two months ago.

The tragedy struck Solomon as he was planning to return to India in the wake of ongoing conflict in Libya. He is survived by wife Jessie and children Shyni, Shyji and Shaiju. 

No benefits for public from KSRTC, better wind it up: HC

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Kochi: It is better to wind up the operations of KSRTC since it is not offering any benefits to the public, opined the Kerala High Court.

The HC added that by providing assistance to the corporation, the taxpayers' money is being wasted.

A High Court single bench made this observation while hearing a batch of 35 petitions on non-payment of pension and other benefits to employees. 

'The arrears of the employees should be settled by selling off the assets belonging to the corporation. Even if the KSRTC wind up its operations, nothing will happen except for a minister losing his post,' it said.

The standing council, on behalf of the government, argued that the KSRTC fails to clear the arrears on time as it is running at a monthly loss of Rs 60 crore. 

This is the second time the HC is making such a statement.