health: Lincoln Tribune

الخميس، 8 مارس 2012

Lincoln Tribune

Texas executes man for killing estranged wife, her boyfriend
Landslide in southern China kills 7
Truck plunges into river in northwestern Uganda, killing 23
Roadside bomb kills 6 British troops in southern Afghanistan
UN expert says globalization of Western lifestyle spawns ‘global public health disaster’

Texas executes man for killing estranged wife, her boyfriend

Posted: 07 Mar 2012 06:32 PM PST

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (BNO NEWS) -- A Texas man was executed on late Wednesday for murdering his estranged wife and her new boyfriend in the Houston area in September 2001, officials said. He is the seventh person to be executed in the United States so far this year.

Keith Steven Thurmond, 52, was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m. local time at Huntsville Unit in Walker County. The execution by lethal injection took place about an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-minute appeal in which Thurmond's attorneys argued that his earlier lawyers were deficient.

Thurmond, who had a long history of domestic abuse, was found guilty in November 2002 of murdering his 32-year-old estranged wife Sharon Anne Thurmond and her 35-year-old boyfriend Guy Sean Fernandez at their mobile home near Magnolia in Montgomery County in September 2001.

Sharon had separated from her husband a few months before the murders and, together with their elementary school-aged son, moved in with Fernandez who lived across the street. Unhappy by the fact that his wife was living across the street with another man, Thurmond in August 2001 traveled to Sharon's mother's home to speak with Sharon.

Thurmond banged on the back glass patio door and demanded to see Sharon, but her mother told him she was not there and instructed him to leave. He returned about 15 minutes later and again demanded to see Sharon, who came to the door but did not open. Thurmond allegedly told Sharon, Fernandez and Sharon's mother "that we were all wrong in what we were doing and that Sharon was going to get hers and that he was going to get" Fernandez.

On the day of the murders, in September 2001, deputies served Thurmond with a protective order and placed his son in the custody of his wife. Thurmond became very upset, stormed across the street, and killed both Sharon and Fernandez. Their young son testified during the trial that he saw how his father shot his mother repeatedly behind Fernandez' mobile home.

While awaiting trial, Thurmond was disciplined for not wearing his armband and being disrespectful to a prison staff member. His prison privileges were revoked when he again violated the disciplinary rules, and Thurmond later threatened to kill the disciplinary officer who was involved in the case.

But as Thurmond went to trial, he blamed another man for the murders and pled not guilty. A jury, which was not aware of his history of domestic abuse, convicted Thurmond in November 2002. They then learned of his history of domestic abuse and sentenced him to death the following day.

According to court records, Thurmond was in a relationship with a woman between 1975 and 1979. About six months into the relationship, Thurmond became violent by repeatedly pushing, slapping and hitting his girlfriend. The woman, who described Thurmond as 'very controlling', testified that she was afraid to leave him.

The woman ended the relationship in early 1979 after which Thurmond visited the woman's home and sexually assaulted her at knife-point. When the victim determined that Thurmond was planning to do the same thing a couple of days later, she fled her house with her sister. When they returned, she found the lock broken and responding police officers arrested Thurmond who was inside with a 12-gauge double-barreled shotgun.

Additionally, jurors were told that, from 1981 to 1983, Thurmond was in a common-law marriage with another woman when he became violent, hitting his wife on occasion. When she told Thurmond she was leaving him, Thurmond threw her to the floor, straddled her and choked her. Thurmond kept harassing the woman until she obtained a restraining order.

Thurmond was the third person executed in Texas so far this year and the seventh in the United States. According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), Texas has executed more than four times as many people as any other state since the United States reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Landslide in southern China kills 7

Posted: 07 Mar 2012 04:17 PM PST

GUANGZHOU, China (BNO NEWS) -- Seven people have been killed after a rain-triggered landslide in southern China, county officials told state-run media on Wednesday. One person was rescued alive after several hours.

The incident happened at around 7:35 p.m. local time on Tuesday when a landslide struck a farm in the village of Likeng in Qingxin County, which is located in southern China's Guangdong province. Eight people who were at the farm were buried by the landslide.

A county spokesman told the state-run Xinhua news agency that the rescue operation lasted about ten hours, but only one adult could be found alive. The seven fatalities were identified as five adults and two children, although their ages were not immediately released.

Also on Wednesday, China's Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) and the National Disaster Reduction Committee (NDRC) announced that natural disasters affected a total of 15.17 million people in February alone, with a death toll of at least seven people. The month's economic losses mounted to 4.55 billion yuan ("719.9 million), while 9,000 people were displaced.

Landslides occur regularly in China. In September 2011, a total of 32 people were killed when a rain-triggered landslide buried two small factories in Shaanxi Province, which is located in the country's northwest. Five people were also injured.

Truck plunges into river in northwestern Uganda, killing 23

Posted: 07 Mar 2012 04:01 PM PST

KAMPALA, Uganda (BNO NEWS) -- More than 20 bodies were recovered on Wednesday after a truck carrying dozens of people plunged into a river in northwestern Uganda on late Tuesday, police said. Three people remain missing.

The accident happened at about 7 p.m. local time on Tuesday when the ill-fated truck was transporting dozens of traders from a market in the town of Zeu in Zombo district. The vehicle was attempting to cross a wooden bridge over the River Ala when a part gave away, causing the truck to tip over and fall into the river.

A police official said the truck was believed to be carrying 34 people, most of them traders. Rescue teams and volunteers had recovered 23 bodies as of Wednesday afternoon, but three people remain unaccounted for. Eight people were transported to various hospitals in the region for treatment.

"I heard the vehicle sound change and we reversed as we tried to cross the bridge," one of the survivors told the Monitor newspaper. "I don't know how I survived this nasty accident." Police said the accident was most likely caused by both the decaying infrastructure of the bridge and an overloaded truck.

Road accidents are common in Uganda and the number of fatalities each year has constantly increased since 1991. According to the latest data, more than 2,800 people die in road accidents in Uganda each year.

Roadside bomb kills 6 British troops in southern Afghanistan

Posted: 07 Mar 2012 02:02 PM PST

KABUL, Afghanistan (BNO NEWS) -- Six British service members were killed on late Tuesday when insurgents detonated a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, Britain's Ministry of Defense confirmed on Wednesday. It is the worst day for British troops in Afghanistan since 2006.

The attack happened at around 7 p.m. local time on Tuesday when an improvised explosive device (IED) struck an armored vehicle in Helmand province, located in Afghanistan's south. "The six soldiers [..] were on patrol in a Warrior Armored Fighting Vehicle when it was caught in an explosion in the Task Force Helmand Area of Operations," said Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Mackenzie, a spokesman for British Forces in Helmand.

One of the soldiers was from the 1st Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment while the five others were service members from 3rd Battalion, the Yorkshire Regiment. "Details are still being confirmed and further information will be released in due course," the ministry said in a statement. "The families of the soldiers have been informed."

Few other details about the incident were released, but Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack. "All invaders onboard [the tank] were incinerated in the powerful explosion, hence the British occupational officials initially said their invading soldiers were missing and later confirmed them dead," he said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called it a 'desperately sad day' for Britain, especially for the families concerned. "It is a reminder of the huge price that we are paying for the work we are doing in Afghanistan and the sacrifice that our troops have made and continue to make," he said.

British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond also offered his condolences. "I utterly condemn those responsible for this incident who will ultimately fail to derail a mission that is protecting our national security at home and making real progress in Helmand Province," he said. "We should never forget those who have lost their lives in Afghanistan to protect our national security."

Tuesday's deaths raise the number of coalition troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year to 67, according to official figures. A total of 404 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, and Tuesday's attack represents the war's worst single loss of British life in one incident due to enemy action.

The incident on Tuesday is also the biggest single loss of British life in Afghanistan since September 2006. In that incident, fourteen British service members were killed when a Nimrod MR2 aircraft crashed in the Panjwaye District of Kandahar province. It was Britain's largest single loss of life since the Falklands War.

There are currently more than 130,000 ISAF troops in Afghanistan, including some 90,000 U.S. troops and more than 9,500 British soldiers. U.S. President Barack Obama previously ordered a drawdown of 23,000 U.S. troops later this year, and foreign combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

UN expert says globalization of Western lifestyle spawns ‘global public health disaster’

Posted: 07 Mar 2012 09:50 AM PST

NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- A United Nations independent expert on Tuesday said an international public health disaster persists as undernourishment and overweight problems have spawned from the globalization of western lifestyles.

UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food Olivier De Schutter bluntly stated that "out food systems create sick people," noting that over a billion people are currently suffering from undernourishment while another billion remain overweight or obese.

In his latest report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, De Schutter underlined that the right to food "means not only access to an adequate quantity of food, but also the ability to have a balanced and nutritious diet."

De Schutter also urged governments to uphold their responsibility in securing their citizens' right to healthy foods, identifying five priorities for putting nutrition back at the heart of food systems in both the developed and developing world.

The priorities are taxing unhealthy products; regulating foods high in saturated fats, salt and sugar; cracking down on junk food advertising; overhauling 'wrong-headed' agricultural subsidies making unhealthy ingredients cheaper than others; and supporting local food production.

"Urbanization, supermarketization, and the global spread of Western lifestyles have shaken up traditional food habits," De Schutter stated. "The result is a public health disaster," adding that governments have been focusing on increasing calorie availability, but they have often been indifferent to what kind of calories are on offer, at what prices, to whom they are accessible, and how they are marketed.

A major factor in nutrition-related illnesses, De Schutter pointed out, is the accessibility and abundance of highly-processed foods, which tend to be richer in saturated and trans-fatty acids, salt and sugars. As a result, the UN expert continued, children frequently become addicted to the junk foods targeted at them. It is also the poorest population groups in wealthy countries that are most affected by processed foods, which are often more affordable than healthy diets.

In addition, De Schutter noted that the export of such Western dietary habits had brought diabetes and heart disease to the developing world. "We have deferred to food companies the responsibility for ensuring that a good nutritional balance emerges. Voluntary guidelines and piecemeal nutrition initiatives have failed to create a system with the right signals, and the odds remain stacked against the achievement of a healthy, balanced diet," said De Schutter.

"Ambitious, targeted nutrition strategies can work," he added, "but only if the food systems underpinning them are put right."

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الخميس، 8 مارس 2012

Lincoln Tribune

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