King, Queen inaugurate children’s hospital

By Mohammad Ghazal

AMMAN - Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania on Sunday inaugurated the country’s first comprehensive hospital for children providing an array of paediatric specialties.

Affiliated with the King Hussein Medical Centre (KHMC), the hospital provides services in 25 medical specialties and is built on a total area of 43,000 square metres, its director Brigadier General Maen Habashneh told reporters on Sunday.

The 200-bed hospital, constructed at a cost of approximately JD33 million, is fully equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and staffed by some 450 nurses and 85 doctors.

The facility will provide medical services in different paediatric specialties such as neurosurgery, organ transplants, eye surgery and specialised surgery, Habashneh added.

The six-floor hospital also houses a fully equipped 60-bed emergency room, according to the director.

“The hospital will not only treat Jordanian children but also provide its services to children from Arab countries and there will be coordination with medical facilities in Arab states to dispatch patients to the hospital,” he added.

The facility, called the Queen Rania Al Abdullah Hospital for Children, will cater to children ranging in age from one day to 16 years, the director said.

Medics at the hospital said there will be coordination with other hospitals in the US and the UK for consultations and cooperation.

Also yesterday, during a meeting at the KHMC, the King instructed concerned entities to cooperate in implementing a project to increase the centre’s capacity to 2,000 beds.

KHMC Director Major General Abdul Latif Wreikat briefed Their Majesties on the JD333 million project to develop and rehabilitate the centre.

The plan, which is envisaged to be implemented over three stages, seeks to add 1,330 beds to the KHMC in addition to improving the overall quality of medical services offered by the centre, which receives about 1.1 million patients annually.

The first phase of the project, to be implemented between 2011 and 2013, will add 500 beds, while another 500 beds will be added during the second phase, scheduled for implementation between 2013 and 2015, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Another 330 beds will be added in the third phase from 2015 to 2018.

According to National Resources Investment and Development Corporation (Mawared) Director General Akram Abu Hamdan, work is under way to complete the designs of the project.

At the meeting, Wreikat also reviewed plans to expand state-run hospitals and medical facilities across the Kingdom’s governorates, saying the newly inaugurated children’s hospital will be a “model at the regional level”.

The King’s visit to the KHMC coincided with the 11th anniversary of the passing away of His Majesty the late King Hussein, upon whose directives the army-run medical estate was founded in 1973. February 7 also marks the day King Abdullah assumed his constitutional powers.

During a ceremony organised by the Royal Medical Services to mark the 10th anniversary last year, King Abdullah announced a campaign to renovate and develop the KHMC.

“We will contact our friends and the friends of the late King Hussein and all concerned entities across the world to secure the required funding for this project,” the King said at the time.

The Jordan Times

Unemployment rate reaches 8.1 per cent, a seven-year high

Romania’s unemployment rose for the 18th consecutive month in January, with the jobless rate reaching an almost seven-year high of 8.1 per cent, official data showed today (Mon).

In December, the unemployment rate was at 7.8 per cent, significantly higher than the 4.9 per cent it had been in January 2009.

The total number of unemployed people rose to 740,982 in January from 709,383 in December, according to National Employment Agency (ANOFM) data.

Romania has not seen a jobless rate of 8.1 per cent since March 2003, when the rate was 8.6 per cent.

Romanian Times

INTERVIEW-Nigeria growth, spending on track: finance minister

By Camillus Eboh

Nigerian government spending has not slowed in the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua and the economy is on course to grow a minimum of 6 percent this year, Finance Minister Mansur Muhtar told Reuters on Monday.

Yar'Adua has been in hospital in Saudi Arabia for more than two months being treated for a heart ailment but has not formally transferred powers to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.

He signed a supplementary 2009 budget which runs to the end of March from his sickbed but there has been concern over what will happen if he is still absent at the end of next month and is unable to sign the 2010 budget.

"I want to give you strong assurance that the growth trajectory and prospects for the Nigerian economy remain positive ... We have not relented in our efforts to steer the economy and the vice president has been actively engaged," Muhtar said in an interview in Abuja.

"We have a very positive outlook of maintaining a minimum of 6 percent GDP growth ... This is going to be fuelled basically by stimulus spending and a massive increase in spending on infrastructure embedded in the 2010 budget," he said.

Yar'Adua in November sent a 4.1 trillion naira ($27 billion) budget proposal to parliament, a 32 percent rise from planned 2009 spending. If approved, this would push sub-Saharan Africa's second biggest economy to a fiscal deficit of 4.79 percent of gross domestic product.

Sources involved in the debate have since said parliament wants to increase the planned budgetary spending further to pay for new projects in power, roads and development in the restive, oil-producing Niger Delta.

Muhtar said Nigeria's budget laws meant the government was able to start spending funds for the first quarter of the 2010 budget based on last year's assumptions even though it had not yet been passed into law, as well as spending funds brought over from last year and the 2009 supplementary budget.

"In effect, for the first time in Nigeria, we are actually executing three budgets this quarter," he said, noting that the cabinet had continued to award contracts in Yar'Adua's absence.

Muhtar confirmed parliament had agreed to increase the benchmark oil price assumption in the 2010 spending plans to $60 a barrel from an initial proposal of $57, saying current oil prices of around $70 would still leave a comfortable margin that would compensate for any production shortfall.

He said foreign reserves of around $43 billion were sufficient to meet all domestic and external obligations.

REUTERS

Next

Sri Lanka arrests General Fonseka

General Sarath Fonseka, the defeated candidate in Sri Lanka's presidential election, has been arrested at his office in Colombo on charges of plotting to overthrow the country's government, defence officials have said.

General Prasad Samarasinghe, a military spokesman, said the arrest related to "military offences" from Fonseka's time in the army, which ended in November when he quit and entered the presidential race.  

"General Fonseka has been arrested on charges of committing military offences," Samarasinghe said in an official statement on Monday.

The former army chief "was dragged away in a very disgraceful manner in front of our own eyes", Rauff Hakeem, Sri Lanka's Muslim Congress leader, told the Reuters news agency.

Lakshman Hulugalle, director-general of Sri Lanka's Media Center for National Security, told reporters Fonseka will face trial before a military court on charges of conspiring to overthrow the government, violate military laws and sow dissension among members of Sri Lanka's armed forces.

'Coup plot'

Al Jazeera's Minelle Fernandez, reporting from Colombo, said: "The director-general of Sri Lanka's media centre for national security, Lakshman Hulugalle, has confirmed the arrest of Fonseka by the military police.

"Hulugalle said Fonseka will face trial before a military court on charges of conspiring to overthrow the government, violate military laws and sow dissension among members of Sri Lanka's armed forces".

Many credit Fonseka with winning the war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May.

However, he fell out with Rajapaksa soon after and the pair fought a bitter election campaign. 

Fonseka was defeated by Rajapaksa last month by six million votes to four million. 

The former army chief has refused to accept his election defeat, saying his supporters were intimidated and the result fixed. He vowed to challenge them in court.

General Fonseka has been accusing the government of trying to frame him. He also alleges there is a plot to kill him. Several senior military officials, close to him, have also been purged since his defeat in the election.

The government has been seeking legal advice to bring a court martial against the general on charges of plotting to overthrow the administration.

Al Jazeera

Toyota readies global Prius recall

TOKYO/DETROIT (Reuters) - Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp said it was preparing a global recall of its new Prius model, risking a fresh dent to its battered reputation for quality and reliability.

As U.S. plants resumed production of eight models involved in an earlier safety recall, the world's largest automaker readied action on the hybrid car in Japan as early as Tuesday.

Steps to fix problems with delayed braking in certain road conditions would follow in the United States, Europe and other markets, a source familiar with the plans said.

Toyota said on Monday it restarted production at six U.S. and Canadian plants "with no issues," a week after halting work, as problems with unintended acceleration spiraled into the recall of over 8 million vehicles worldwide.

The company, which has boosted its green credentials with the low-emission Prius, has said it was discussing with safety authorities worldwide how to resolve a software glitch on the Prius.

Toyota faces further scrutiny on Wednesday, when its North America CEO Yoshimi Inaba testifies to Congress in front of the House Oversight Committee in Washington.

Transportation secretary Ray Lahood and National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration Administrator David Strickland will also testify.

U.S. safety authorities and members of the Obama administration have accused Toyota of responding too slowly to problems related to uncontrolled acceleration that have been linked to up to 19 crash deaths in the United States over the past decade.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda on Friday apologized for the earlier series of recalls. He said the company was rushing to reach a decision on the Prius and was taking the unusual step of bringing in outside experts to review quality controls.

A Toyota Motor Europe spokesman said on Monday that, to date, it had received no reports of problems with the new Prius in the region, but a decision on the next steps for the model, involving discussion with other regions, would be made "very soon."

A U.S. spokesman said the company expected to have a solution early this week but so far had not changed its stance.

Since the launch of the new Prius last May, Toyota has sold around 200,000 of the cars in Japan, 103,200 in the United States and 29,000 in Europe.

Reporting by David Bailey, Bernie Woodall, Chang-Ran Kim, Taiga Uranaka; Writing by Helen Massy-Beresford

Reuters

Trial set for man accused in fatal Tropicana stabbing

By Cara McCoy

The trial date for an 18-year-old man charged in the stabbing death of another man last year in the Tropicana parking lot has been reset.

Tanner Rosseau, of Arlington, Wash., is now set to stand trial Aug. 9 in Clark County District Court. He was arrested May 8, 2009, after a stabbing that left Gregory Dominique, 35, of Cleveland, dead. He is facing one count of murder with a deadly weapon.

When Metro Police officers responded to the scene, Dominique was found with a large cut to his abdomen and a stab wound to his leg, police said. He was taken to University Medical Center’s trauma unit, where he died from his injuries.

According to police reports, Rosseau and a friend, Brandon Carmack, met Dominique outside the Tropicana, which was where the two teens were staying with a group of friends who had traveled from Washington state to Las Vegas for the weekend.

Rosseau and Carmack discussed purchasing drugs with Dominique and a transaction took place, after which Carmack learned he had been left with an empty envelope, police said. A fight ensued. Rousseau, who was on the phone when the fight broke out, assisted his friend by kicking Dominique in the genitals, authorities said.

The teens thought the fight had ended, then Dominique reignited it by hitting Rousseau in the head, police said. Rousseau then stabbed Dominique several times with a folding knife before leaving the scene, police reports said.

About half an hour later, Rosseau turned himself in to an officer driving around the Tropicana looking for suspects, according to the police report.

His trial initially was scheduled to begin in October 2009, but the trial date was vacated while his attorney, James Dean Leavitt, tried to negotiate with prosecutors.

At a hearing today in front of District Court Judge Doug Smith, Leavitt said Rosseau’s family was no longer able to retain him and the public defender’s office was appointed to represent Rosseau in the case.

Rosseau, who has been free after posting $10,000 bail, flew in from Washington for today’s hearing.

Leavitt had suggested previously the stabbing was in self-defense. Rosseau suffered a concussion after being struck by a car in Washington a few weeks before coming to Las Vegas, he told police, and according to the police report, Rosseau told investigators he only grabbed the knife when Dominique began to hit him in the head.

Las Vegas Sun

Arlington National Cemetery closed to the public Monday, still open for scheduled funerals as snow continues to impact National Capital Region

By Debra Preitkis-Jones (Military District of Washington JFHQ Nat'l Capital Region)

For Monday, Feb. 8, Federal employees should check the U.S. Office of Personnel Management Web site for federal government operating status. Government employees and military personnel should contact their supervisor if they have questions about their duty status.

Also, at Arlington National Cemetery, funerals will be held as scheduled on Monday, Feb. 8, but the cemetery will be closed to the public for safety reasons.

U.S. Army

Consumers 'unconvinced' by Apple iPad, study shows

The number of people who are not interested in buying an Apple iPad has increased after the tablet's unveiling, according to shopping website Retrevo

By Claudine Beaumont, Technology Editor

Just over a quarter of those questioned ahead of the Apple event last month said they had heard that Apple might launch a tablet-style computer, but were not interested in buying one. That figure increased from 26 per cent to 52 per cent in the days following the unveiling last month.

The survey of 1,000 shoppers also highlighted some confusion among consumers about the purpose of the iPad. When asked before the launch whether, from what they'd heard about the Apple iPad, they felt they needed to buy one, 49 per cent said no, while 30 per cent said they would need to find out more about the device before making a decision. But after the announcement in January at the Yerba Buena Centre in San Francisco, 61 per cent of those surveyed now said that they did not feel they needed to buy an iPad, with 15 per cent still saying they needed more information before making a decision.

And the number of people saying they would definitely buy an Apple iPad increased by just two per cent, from three per cent before the announcement to five per cent after the tablet computer had been unveiled. The number of shoppers who were undecided remained almost the same before and after the announcement, up from 18 per cent who said they might buy one, to 19 per cent.

The Retrevo survey also revealed an apparent reluctance among many shoppers to pay more for an Apple iPad that had built-in 3G. This would make it possible to surf the internet on the device while out and about, using the 3G phone network, as well as Wi-Fi hot spots. More than half, 59 per cent, said they wouldn't pay extra for a 3G model, while 12 per cent said they would.

Analysts at Needham & Co. expect Apple to sell around two million iPads this year, and around six million in 2011. The device, which resembles a large iPod touch, received mixed reviews when it was unveiled last month, with many critics disappointed at its lack of portability and it inability to multi-task. The entry-level model is expected to cost around £500 when it goes on sale in the UK this spring.

"Whether this device becomes a big hit is anyone’s guess, but based on this study it sure looks doubtful," concluded the Retrevo survey.

Daily Telegraph

Smallest Karneval parade faces curtain call

The party could soon be over for Germany’s smallest Karneval parade unless the town of Unna in North Rhine-Westphalia can find a replacement for its retiring merry jester.

Every Weiberfastnacht for the past 54 years, Helmut Scherer has pulled his little wagon around town to celebrate the beginning of Karneval. But he has announced that next year will be his final parade due to his advanced age.

“Next year is unfortunately the last time for me. But it’s the perfect time for it, since three lucky numbers are coming together – the year 2011, it will be my 55th parade and I’ll turn 77,” Scherer said.

Sadly, the one-man party has yet to find another Jeck, or jester, worthy of taking over his tradition. But the possibility Unna could soon be without its own Karneval parade won’t stop Scherer from rolling up in front of the town hall at 11:11 am this Thursday to celebrate the so-called “Fifth Season” of the year.

DPA

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