This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Pandemic concerns rising over China’s H7N9 bird flu deaths
- France’s president Hollande in scandal crisis
- North Korea warns embassies to evacuate before April 10
Pandemic concerns rising over China’s H7N9 bird flu deaths
Pandemic concerns are rising over bird flu transmission to humans
Chinese authorities have slaughtered over 20,000 chickens, ducks,geese, and pigeons form a live poultry market in Shanghai as evidencemounts that a new H7N9 bird flu virus has evolved into a form that canspread between birds and mammals. China hasconfirmed 14 H7N9 cases in humans, of whom six have died.
The current form ofthe virus is not considered dangerous, because it spreads to a humanonly in case of physical contact with an infected bird or human. Butpandemic concerns are rising because the virus is evolving, and thenext mutation may bring it to a form that can spread rapidly fromhuman to human. The mutations permit the virus to function in thelower body temperatures of mammals, as opposed to the higher bodytemperatures of birds.
There are now suspicions that the thousands ofdead pigs found in the rivers near Shanghai died of the same fluvirus. Between 20-40 million people died during the 1918-1919 Spanish Fluepidemic, considered the most devastating global epidemic in recordedworld history. Xinhua and Recombinomics
France’s president Hollande in scandal crisis
The European financial crisis has pushed the popularity of France’sSocialist president Francois Hollande to the lowest seen by in decades by any leader of the country.Hollande had promised to raise taxes on the rich and fight corruption,but his campaign was completely derailed this week when his own budgetminister Jerome Cahuzac was forced to admit that he had a secretoffshore 600,000 euro bank account that he’d been lying about itfor years. According to one analyst:
This weakens Hollande. It goes to the heart of theausterity debate. For the hard left, the charge will be that theSocialists are hypocritical: during the day they talk socialjustice, but at night they’re managing their Swiss bank accountsand shares on Wall Street.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of politicians with similar ethics, andthey’re not all Socialists. Bloomberg
North Korea warns embassies to evacuate before April 10
North Korea on Friday advised all foreign embassies in Pyongyang, thecapital city, to evacuate their staff by April 10, saying that theirsafety could be at risk in the event of a conflict after that date.Also, North Korea loaded two intermediate-range missiles onto mobilelaunchers and hid them in an unidentified facility near the eastcoast, triggering speculation that the North is ready for an abruptmissile launch.
These missiles would not be able to reach theU.S. mainland, but they could reach Japan, South Korea, and Guam.South Korea has responded by sending its destroyer warships topositions near North Korean waters, equipped with Aegis systemscapable of shooting down missiles. ABC News and Yonhap (Seoul)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, H7N9, bird flu, China, Shanghai,Spanish flu, France, Francois Hollande, Jerome Cahuzac,North Korea, Pyongyang, Aegis
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