Related video: Neil Woodford apologises for suspending his flagship fund prior to its collapse

Neil Woodford: disgraced money manager and partner took £13.8m dividends before fund collapsed

Chief executive Craig Newman picked up £4.8m. The pair also bagged £36.5m the previous year

Disgraced money manager Neil Woodford and his business partner pocketed £13.8m in dividends in the financial year before the crisis that led to the demise of his fund empire.

The dividend haul was revealed in accounts filed with Companies House for Woodford Investment Management for the last full financial year before the suspension of the flagship equity income fund in June.

Mr Woodford received nearly two-thirds of the payout - around £9m - for the year to 31 March, thanks to his 65 per cent ownership of Woodford Investment Management.

Chief executive Craig Newman picked up £4.8m. The pair also bagged £36.5m the previous year.

It comes as at least 300,000 investors remain trapped in Mr Woodford's Equity Income Fund, which is finally being wound up from 18 January.

Woodford Investment Management is also being wound up, marking the end of the fund manager's once glittering career as a star stock picker in the UK.

Reports recently revealed that Mr Woodford and Mr Newman have flown to the Far East to meet Chinese investors in an attempt to gain backing for a new business.

The dividend payouts were made despite a dire performance by the flagship fund, which saw investors quit in droves, sparking the fund's suspension in the summer and one of the biggest investment scandals in recent memory.

The accounts show that Woodford Investment Management's pre-tax profit more than halved to £18.4m in the year to March 31 2019, from £41.7m in 2017-18.

Bottom-line profits slumped to £16.3m from £33.7m the previous year.
Read more

Neil Woodford to close investment firm after ouster from flagship fund

In the accounts filing, the firm blamed the “under-performance in the Woodford Equity Income Fund combined with a period of sustained and negative press coverage” for the fund's suspension.

The suspension came after investors tried to cash out too quickly.

Independent news email

The fund had invested in illiquid assets which were difficult to sell off quickly, making it vulnerable when investors tried to withdraw their cash.

The City watchdog has since announced that it is looking at new rules to prevent funds invested in illiquid assets from allowing daily withdrawals.

The Financial Conduct Authority is mulling changes that could mean investors who want to cash out within one day may have to take a discount on the money they want to withdraw.

Investors in the Woodford Equity Income Fund are set to receive the first payouts when it winds up soon - more than six months after it was first gated.

PA

Human bones on building site sealed off by police turn out to be 1,400 years old

Carbon dating reveals remains date back to between 635 and 685AD

Chiara Giordano

Police forensic officers at a building site in Melton Mowbray,

 Leicestershire, in October 2019 where human bones were 

found which were later dated back to 635-685AD. ( SWNS )

Human bones found on the site of a former care home during demolition have been dated back to the seventh century.

Police sealed off the site at Catherine Dalley House, in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, after workers made the discovery in October.

Specialist forensic examinations were carried out to establish the circumstances behind the findings.

However, carbon dating has now dated the bones to the Anglo Saxon period between 635 and 685AD, making them almost 1,400 years old.

The remains have been handed to Cotswold Archaeology Ltd for further research.

Detective Inspector Tim Lindley, of Leicestershire Police, said: “During the past couple of months, we have been carrying out enquiries with contractors at the site as well as with a team of archaeologists.

“This has been a lengthy process to establish the facts but carbon dating has now dated the bones to the period between 635 and 680AD.

Aerial view of police forensic tent on a building site in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, where human bones were found in October 2019 which were later dated to 635-685AD. (Tristan Potter / SWNS)

“Cotswold Archaeology Ltd will now carry out their own research into the history of this finding.”

The police cordon set up to preserve the scene has now been removed.

INDIAN NATIONALISTS CLAIMS OF VEDIC MATHS ARE EXAGGERATED, NOT NECESSARILY TRUE: AMARTYA SEN

He said exaggerated claims about Vedic maths have generated a world of fantasy educational institutions in India

Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen on Tuesday said exaggerated claims about Vedic mathematics had generated a world of fantasy in a section of educational institutions in the country, which should be resisted.

He also said the understanding that friendship helped in the creation of knowledge was particularly important in the philosophy and history of science.

"Nationalist sentiments may make a counter-claim of some kind of a secluded flourishing of science and mathematics only in their country, detached from the rest of the world and unrelated to what we can learn from others, but that is not how science and mathematics and culture ultimately proceed," Sen said.

Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen claims Vedic mathematics had generated a world of fantasy in a section of educational institutions in the country. Image credit: Wikipedia

For example, he said the view of ancient India as an island, making discoveries and inventions in splendid isolation, might be pleasing to Indian nationalists, but that understanding was fundamentally mistaken.

Also Read: Infosys Science awards: Amartya Sen awards six scientists for their contribution in their fields

"Consider the golden age of mathematics. That was not the Vedic period, contrary to what is often claimed these days. Exaggerated claims about Vedic mathematics have tended to generate a world of fantasy in a section of educational institutions in India today, which I think we should resist," the 86-year-old economist said.

It was a masterclass in the historical journey of India's interaction with the world, through the centuries, in the fields of mathematics and science by none other than Prof. Amartya Sen.https://t.co/m5nnTdtr86 pic.twitter.com/fm3Rm7wug2

— Infosys Prize (@InfosysPrize) January 7, 2020

He added that the golden age of mathematics in India was rather the classic period — the first millennium.

"The great mathematical revolution in India was led particularly by Aryabhata, who was born in 476 AD, and what Aryabhata developed initially was taken forward by other great mathematicians in India like Brahmagupta, Bhaskara and others. While deeply original, Aryabhata's mathematics was substantially influenced by the mathematical revolution that had already taken place in Greece, Babylon and Rome," Sen said.

Why China’s Gay Academics Feel They Must Stand Out or Stay Hidden

Some have won recognition and acceptance by outperforming their straight peers, but holding sexual minorities to a higher standard is neither ethical nor reasonable.

Cui LeJan 06, 2020

Cui LePh.D. studentCui Le is a Ph.D. student at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education and Social Work.

Since 2018, I’ve interviewed 40 gay men who either currently teach or have previously taught at Chinese colleges and universities. My aim was to discover what challenges they face as teachers and researchers and to find out how they cope with Chinese academia’s often hostile stance toward sexual minorities.

Unsurprisingly, many of my interviewees told me their sexual identities were a source of stress. School leaders often take an ambivalent view of LGBT staff, and those who choose to come out publicly must balance their desire to be accepted for who they are with the risk of discrimination from colleagues, bosses, and even students.

But not everyone chooses to strike this delicate balance. Some gay professors instead embrace their minority status and use it as a source of motivation. By outperforming their heterosexual colleagues, they seek to force their schools to recognize and accept their identities. While this approach can’t address the roots of homophobia in Chinese academia, some gay scholars are willing to bet — often successfully — that even prejudiced deans won’t dare touch their star faculty, regardless of their sexual orientation.

Song is a 35-year-old lecturer at a university in southwestern China. He has never married and doesn’t have any plans to come out at work. However, he also doesn’t care what his colleagues say about him behind his back, as his research is a crucial source of grant money for the school.

“If they want to speculate, then let them,” he said. “I bring in so much money to the school every year that they wouldn’t think about firing me.”
Some gay scholars are willing to bet that even prejudiced deans won’t dare touch their star faculty, regardless of their sexual orientation.
- Cui Le, Ph.D. student

Lin, who earned his doctorate in economics in Europe before returning to take a job at a Chinese university, is even more confident. He was one of only a handful of my interviewees who was completely open about his sexuality at work — he had even introduced his boyfriend to his department in the hopes of challenging their stereotypes about gay people.

Lin wasn’t concerned that his workmates or bosses would discriminate against him. “I wasn’t worried about my job,” he said. “I’m a pretty confident person. If the school didn’t want me, then I’d just leave and find a job somewhere that’s just as good as here. (My) confidence stems from my research abilities.”

Lin’s experiences give him reason to be confident. His boyfriend worked at a university in China’s southern Guangdong province, and Lin decided to find a job in neighboring Hong Kong to be closer to him. But when school leaders heard that Lin was thinking of leaving, they begged him to reconsider.

“The vice dean said my research was the best of any teachers they’d ever had,” Lin said. In an effort to persuade Lin to stay, his school found a job for his boyfriend in the area — and even made sure the new position wouldn’t require the man to take a pay cut. But Lin’s boyfriend believed staying in Guangdong would be better for his career, and Lin ultimately chose to go through with his resignation.

“Schools don’t care whether you’re gay or not,” Lin told me. But even he admits he was a special case. “I was always the most outstanding person at the school, so my sexual orientation wasn’t an issue. But if I wasn’t competent, I don’t think they would have kept me. It’s possible they would have discriminated against me, and some might have also used my orientation as an excuse to attack me.”

If a high level of research output can help reduce gay professors’ fear of discrimination and enhance their job security, the need to maintain this output can cause its own anxieties. Ma, a full professor at a university in southern China, is not out professionally, but he believes his colleagues and students can tell he’s gay. He said because of his sexuality, he demands more of himself.

“(I need to) teach good classes and carry out good research — to a higher standard than typical teachers,” he said. “That way I can get along with them (my colleagues) more confidently as equals.”

Wang is a teacher in the same school as Lin, but he believes his co-worker is a special case. “If it was someone ordinary, then it’s not certain,” he said. “If you have equal abilities, others will use it (homosexuality) to discriminate against you. Only if you’re extremely outstanding are you able to overcome this obstacle.”

In other words, Lin’s ability to come out and the favorable treatment he has received don’t reflect the real situation of most LGBT teachers in China. Rather, they’re privileges extended to celebrities within the research community.
For most gay university staff, their sexual orientation remains a source of stress rather than a motivational tool.
- Cui Le, Ph.D. student

For most gay university staff, their sexual orientation remains a source of stress rather than a motivational tool. Hui used to work at a university in China’s central Hunan province, where he was pessimistic about the prospects of one day coming out. “As someone of moderate talents and average qualifications, I didn’t dare come out,” he told me. “I didn’t have the courage to do it. Without the prop of academic ability, coming out would have left me at the mercy of others.”

Workplace discrimination is a serious problem for China’s gay community. Although there is no data specifically pertaining to academia, a 2018 UN report found that LGBT Chinese are less likely to come out at work than in any other context, mostly due to fears of harassment. Although none of my research participants reported experiencing discrimination, that’s largely because almost all of them refused to risk disclosing their sexual orientations.

Like many other gay teachers trying to adapt to the still-rampant discrimination in Chinese academia, the stress of remaining closeted has made things difficult for Hui. “Having such a tension deep inside is not something I want.” In the end, he opted to quit his job and move to Beijing to work for a private educational organization. For Hui, there’s much more freedom for him there. “It is freer to work outside the government-sponsored institutions. Nobody can manage me anymore.”

In some ways, the stress and pressure experienced by Chinese gay academics mirrors workplace experiences of racial minorities in Western contexts. For example, research shows that American faculty of color are expected to work harder than white faculty if they want to be treated as equals, and they feel as though they must consistently outperform their white peers.

China’s gay academics should not have to feel insecure about their professional futures just because of their sexual identities. School leaders should integrate LGBT issues into teacher training and official policy, improve teachers’ awareness of gender and sexual diversity, and avoid discriminating against candidates based on their sexual orientation.

Only when China’s campuses become queer-friendly will coming out cease to be a privilege for a select few outstanding queer academics and start to become a right available to all.

To protect the identities of the author’s research participants, all interviewees have been given a pseudonym.

Translator: David Ball; editors: Cai Yineng and Kilian O’Donnell.

(Header image: Deposit/Tuchong)

Shanghai’s daytime temperature broke an 80-year record, becoming the warmest day of xiaohan since the previous record of 21 degrees Celsius on Jan. 6, 1940.

Li You

Jan 06, 2020 2-min read

Monday was the beginning of the lunar calendar’s coldest period of the year — traditionally known as xiaohan. But many parts of eastern China, including Shanghai, were unseasonably warm.

Shanghai’s daytime temperature broke an 80-year record, becoming the warmest day of xiaohan since the previous record of 21 degrees Celsius on Jan. 6, 1940. According to the city’s meteorological bureau, the mercury rose to 21.1 degrees at noon Monday.

An increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in recent years has contributed to a warmer planet, resulting in rising sea levels, extreme weather, and changing climate conditions. The global average temperature in 2019 was about 1.1 degrees above the pre-industrial period, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Cities across China, too, have been experiencing hotter summers. The average air temperature in July 2018 was 22.9 degrees — 1 degree hotter than the historical average, according to the China Meteorological Administration.

China Weather, the forecast agency under the meteorological administration, had earlier predicted Monday and Tuesday’s maximum temperatures to hit 20 degrees in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, with minimum temperatures at around 10 degrees.

“In cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Nanchang, the highest temperature is expected to exceed 20 degrees — 10 degrees higher than the average during the same period in recent years,” China Weather said on microblogging platform Weibo. “Such warmth is very rare in January.”

China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and the effects of climate change in the country have been alarming. A 2019 government report noted that the country saw a significant increase in the annual average surface temperature between 1901 and 2018, with the last two decades becoming the warmest period since the beginning of the 20th century.

“With global warming, warm winters are becoming increasingly common,” Wu Rui, chief service officer at the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau, told Sixth Tone. “Many places, such as in Hangzhou and the Yangtze River Delta, have experienced record-breaking warm temperatures this winter.”

On Dec. 16, Shanghai’s temperature also exceeded 20 degrees, making it the highest mid-December temperature recorded in the city’s meteorological history. The Shanghai Climate Center listed the unusually warm day as one of last year’s “10 weather and climate incidents” for the city.

Shanghai’s high average temperatures between August and December have lately been on the rise, according to meteorologists. The average temperature for December last year reached 9.7 degrees, or 2.4 degrees higher than average, marking the second-highest point in recorded history.

Monday’s warm spell, however, is temporary: The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau said the temperature will plummet to a chilly 8 degrees on Wednesday.

Editor: Bibek Bhandari.

(Header image: A couple in summer clothes crosses the street in Shanghai, Jan. 6, 2020. Shi Yangkun/Sixth Tone)

• environment
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Earliest Wuhan Pneumonia Symptoms Observed Dec. 12, Authorities Say

Fifty-nine people in the central Chinese city have been infected with an as-yet-unidentified pathogen — though SARS has been ruled out.

Zhang Wanqing Jan 06, 2020 3-min read

The number of people infected with a mysterious viral pneumonia in Wuhan has climbed to 59, with the first patient exhibiting symptoms as early as Dec. 12, the city’s health commission announced Sunday. Though the virus has not yet been identified, several causes — including SARS, as many in the country feared — have been ruled out.

Seven of the infected individuals are in critical condition, down from 11 in the commission’s previous statement Friday. No deaths from the pneumonia have been reported.

In addition to severe acute respiratory syndrome — a disease that killed over 700 people in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Chinese mainland in 2002-2003 — several other viruses including bird flu, regular flu, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) have also been eliminated as potential causes.

Wuhan authorities first acknowledged over two dozen cases of the unexplained illness on Dec. 31. As of Sunday, 16 people had been hospitalized with pneumonia in Hong Kong after returning from Wuhan, according to the special administrative region’s Centre for Health Protection. The day before, Singapore’s health ministry said that a 3-year-old who had returned to the city-state after traveling to Wuhan had contracted respiratory syncytial virus, a common cause of childhood pneumonia, and was quarantined but in stable condition.

Meanwhile, China’s health officials and state-run media outlets have said little about the possibility of infections spreading to other cities on the mainland.

However, according to Ma Jin, director of the School of Public Health at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, this should be seen as an encouraging sign. “China’s epidemic prevention system works like this: Once a hospital receives a suspected case, it will report to the health commissions immediately — so if there are any more infections in other cities, the public should know about it,” Ma told Sixth Tone.

The Wuhan Health Commission’s most recent statement includes a seven-point action plan for dealing with the outbreak. It says that 163 people who came into close contact with the infected individuals had been put under medical observation, and that the South China Seafood Wholesale Market — where the first infections are believed to have occurred — had been shut down for “further hygiene investigations.” The health authority added that it is still trying to identify the pathogen and determine the exact origin of the infections.

Amid online backlash over the Wuhan government’s initial response to the infection, which some felt was slow and inadequate, local police announced the next day that eight people from the city had been taken into custody for “spreading rumors” about the disease that many online feared might be SARS.

In a statement Monday, the World Health Organization said Wuhan authorities had been providing information about the outbreak to the WHO’s China office since Dec. 31. “The symptoms reported among the patients are common to several respiratory diseases, and pneumonia is common in the winter season,” the WHO said. “However, the occurrence of 44 cases of pneumonia requiring hospitalization clustered in space and time should be handled prudently.”

The WHO suggested that there could be an “exposure link to animals,” given that several of the initial infections occurred in vendors at the seafood market, which also sells poultry and meat. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy in Minnesota, told the U.S. health news website Stat that the virus likely comes from birds or animals and not seafood.

With the first day of the Spring Festival holiday — during which around 400 million Chinese people travel to their hometowns to be with family — just weeks away, there is some concern that the pneumonia cluster in Wuhan may become a national rather than a local problem. But Director Ma says it’s possible to improve one’s chances of staying safe, too.

“Spring Festival will increase the possibility of infection for sure,” he said. “However, there are ways for people to prevent it — for example, by washing hands often and avoiding sharing food with others.”

Contributions: Ni Dandan; editor: David Paulk.

SARS, MERS ruled out in China pneumonia cluster

by NEWS DESK

January 5, 2020

By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

Health officials in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, China are reporting (computer translated) a total of 59 patients with unexplained diagnosis of viral pneumonia have been reported as of Jan.5, including 7 critically ill patients.

Image/WHO Twitter

No fatal cases have been recorded. All patients are receiving treatment in isolation. 163 close contacts are under medical surveillance.

Among the 59 patients, the earliest onset of the cases was December 12, 2019, and the latest onset was December 29.

An epidemiological survey showed that some patients were operating households in Wuhan South China Seafood City (South China Seafood Wholesale Market). As of now, preliminary investigations have shown no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission and no medical staff infections. Respiratory pathogens such as influenza, avian influenza, adenovirus, infectious atypical pneumonia ( SARS) and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) have been excluded . Pathogen identification and cause tracing are still underway.

Singapore report 16,000 dengue cases in 2019, Pneumonia case with travel history to Wuhan

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) risk assessment today, there is limited information to determine the overall risk of this reported cluster of pneumonia of unknown etiology. The reported link to a wholesale fish and live animal market could indicate an exposure link to animals.

Outbreak News Merchandise

At present, with the support of the state and Hubei Province, Wuhan has adopted the following main prevention and control measures:

• First, it is to treat patients with all its strength.
• The second is to carry out isolation treatment for all cases.
• The third is to continue to conduct relevant case searches and retrospective investigations in medical institutions throughout the city.
• The fourth is to carry out close contact tracking seriously, implement medical observation on the close contacts that have been tracked according to regulations, and have not found any abnormal symptoms such as fever.
• Fifth, we will take measures to suspend the market for South China Seafood City, and carry out environmental sanitation and further hygiene investigations.
• Sixth, actively carry out epidemiological investigations.
• Seventh, cooperate with the state and province to carry out pathogen identification (including nucleic acid detection and virus isolation and cultivation) and trace the cause of the cause, and prevention and control work is proceeding in an orderly manner.

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=WUTAN

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CHINA

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=SARS

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PANDEMIC

30 Edmontonians believed dead in Iran plane crash

Several of the victims were students or faculty at the University of Alberta

CBC News · Posted: Jan 08, 2020 7:28 AM MT | Last Updated: 20 minutes ago

A newlywed couple, a family of four and a mother with her two daughters were among more than two dozen Edmontonians killed when a Ukrainian passenger plane crashed minutes after takeoff Wednesday from Tehran's main airport.

Payman Parseyan, a member of the Iranian-Canadian community in Edmonton, said he knew many passengers who were on board Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752

All 176 people on board the Kiev-bound Boeing 737 were killed.

Reuters is reporting 30 of the dead were from Edmonton, almost half of the 63 Canadians identified by officials so far as having died in the crash. Many of the known victims from Edmonton have associations with the University of Alberta.

"We lost a significant portion of our community," Parseyan told CBC Radio's Edmonton AM. "Everybody in Edmonton that's of Iranian descent will know somebody that was on that flight."

'Shocking to the whole community'

Arash Pourzarabi and Pouneh Gorji, both in their mid-20s, were graduate students in the U of A's computer science program. They had travelled to Iran for their wedding, said Reza Akbari, president of the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton.

He said he heard the couple was accompanied by four friends who travelled with them to celebrate the wedding.

"It's devastating and shocking," Akbari said. "It's a tragic moment."

Akbari said a group chat on the app Telegram has become a lengthy memorial, with people from the Iranian community sharing stories about those who have been lost. 

"When you go from top to the bottom, it's hard to believe — all these wonderful people ... these people who really were actually impactful in our community, they're not among us anymore. And in one incident all of them are gone."

Akbari said he knew eight or nine of the victims, and knew two of them well. He said he expects the grief will spread well beyond the Iranian community.

"I have no doubt that there's so many people in Edmonton, regardless of their cultural background, they know them because there's doctors, university professors, among these people. It's just tragic."

• UPDATED
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U of A engineering professors Pedram Mousavi and Mojgan Daneshmand, and their daughters, Daria and Dorina, were killed, said Masoud Ardakani, associate chair of the University of Alberta's electrical and computer engineering department.

Daria, born in 2005, attended Allendale School, and her sister, Dorina, born in 2010, attended Windsor Park School.

Dr. Shekoufeh Choupannejad, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the Northgate Centre Medical Clinic in Edmonton, and her two daughters, were also killed, Parseyan said. 

Both daughters are U of A students. Saba Saadat was studying medicine; her sister, Sara, was a clinical psychology student.

Parseyan said many international students can't travel to the United States, so they travel through European connections.

University professors Pedram Mousavi and Mojgan Daneshmand, along with their daughters, from left, Daria and Dorina, are among the dead, a University of Alberta spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. (zaghtweet1/Twitter) (zaghtweet1/Twitter)

Information was shared among Iranians in Edmonton through a chat group, and once manifests were released, names were cross-referenced and confirmed, he said.

A community group of about 100 people has formed to make arrangements for families of the victims, Parseyan said.

"Edmonton's Iranian community isn't Canada's largest Iranian community, but we are working together to ensure all members of the community are supported during this difficult time."

• LIVE BLOG
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According to 2016 census statistics, the Edmonton area had 4,630 people who identified as being of Iranian origin.

Canada as a whole had 210,405 people who listed Iran as their country of ethnic origin — or one of multiple countries of ethnic origin — in that census.

The largest Iranian populations are in southern Ontario, B.C. and Quebec, with the biggest communities in:

• The Toronto census metroplitain area: 97,110;
• The Vancouver area: 44,355;
• The Montreal area: 23,410.

Families search for more info

Parseyan said members of the community learned about the crash while watching the news of Iran's missile attacks against two airbases in Iraq housing U.S. and coalition forces that took place a few hours before the crash.

"Many were expecting their friends and [family] members to come back ... [and] were well aware what flight they were on," said Parseyan, a former president of the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton.

He said one person who knew a passenger on the plane had called him and asked him for more information.

• UPDATED
  63 Canadians among dead after Ukrainian plane crash in Iran, airline says

• 'Deepest condolences': Foreign officials, governments express sorrow over plane crash in Iran

"He called and said, 'Hey, is there any chance there's a second flight to Kyiv, this is a mistake? This can't be real.' He's devastated."

Parseyan said the news is difficult for an Iranian community already concerned about ongoing aggression between Iran and the United States

'This is a terrible day'

In a statement issued Wednesday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said he is "deeply saddened" by the news of the plane crash and extended sympathies on behalf of the provincial government.

"Alberta has been enriched by a small but dynamic and highly educated Iranian community," Kenney said. "This is a terrible day for them, and I am sure that all Albertans join me in expressing our condolences to the entire community, which is affected by this disaster."

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson issued a statement Wednesday.

• UPDATED
  What we know so far about Boeing plane that crashed in Iran

"I was heartbroken to hear this morning of the devastating news," Iveson said. "While no words can erase the pain this crash has caused, I, on behalf of Edmontonians and your city council, would like to offer the families and friends who have lost a loved one in this tragedy our deepest condolences.

"Edmonton is in mourning today — our community has suffered a terrible loss."

David Turpin, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Alberta, also expressed his sorrow in a statement

"Words simply cannot express the loss I know we all are feeling," Turpin said. "On behalf of the University of Alberta, I wish to extend our deepest condolences to the families, friends, colleagues and loved ones of the victims of this tragedy. 

"This is a devastating loss for the University of Alberta. Ours is a closely interconnected community, and we grieve with everyone touched by this terrible loss— friends, classmates, roommates, professors, students, mentors, and colleagues. The University of Alberta's flags will be lowered to half-mast in recognition of this tragedy."

Turpin said counselling and other services are available to students, staff, faculty, and others in the community.

The disaster was the largest recent loss of life among Canadians since an Air India flight blew up in 1985 over the Atlantic Ocean, killing 268 Canadians.

The plane crash marks the single largest loss of life of Edmontonians. A tornado that tore through parts of the city in 1987 killed 27 people.

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A New, Unidentified Virus Is Causing Pneumonia Outbreak in China, Officials Say

By Nicoletta Lanese - Staff Writer 

So, what is it?

(Image: © Shutterstock)

The unidentified viral illness that has sickened dozens in the Chinese city of Wuhan is not severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), according to local health officials.    

In the early 2000s, an outbreak of SARS swept the globe, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing more than 750, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The epidemic began in China and hit the country harder than any other, so when an unknown form of pneumonia recently emerged in Wuhan, it stirred rumors of a second SARS outbreak. Now, local health officials have officially crossed SARS off the list of potential culprits, according to The New York Times. 

Officials also confirmed that the mystery illness is not Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), bird flu or an adenovirus. 

As of Sunday (Jan. 5), 59 people in Wuhan have been diagnosed with the unidentified disease, presenting with symptoms of fever, body aches, breathing difficulties and lung injury. The total number of infected people is up from the 44 cases reported last week. 

In addition, 21 people who recently visited the city were hospitalized in Hong Kong between Dec. 31 and Jan. 6, according to a report from the Hong Kong health department. The city will also ramp up efforts to spot feverish passengers traveling through its international airport and on its high-speed rail system, according to the report. Health authorities in Singapore are also on the alert for infected travelers and recently quarantined a young girl after her trip to Wuhan. She was later diagnosed with a common viral illness, according to the Singapore Ministry of Health.  

Rumors of a potential SARS outbreak gained traction online earlier this month, but Chinese authorities have since censored the hashtag #WuhanSARS and are now investigating eight people in Wuhan who allegedly spread misleading information about the outbreak on social media, The New York Times reported. The government failed to adequately inform the public and international health agencies during the historic SARS epidemic, which may explain the reaction of Chinese citizens to this new illness.  

"I have to emphasize this is a new disease, and no one on earth has gone through this before," Leo Poon, a public health expert at the University of Hong Kong, told The New York Times. "I hope this pathogen is a less harmful one so it would not cause a major epidemic similar to SARS. It would be a nightmare for all of us."

As of yet, no health workers have contracted the mystery illness, which may indicate that the virus has not begun to spread between people, Wang Linfa, an expert on emerging infectious diseases at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, told the Times. "We should not go into panic mode," he said.  

• 10 Deadly Diseases That Hopped Across Species 
• 27 Devastating Infectious Diseases 
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Originally published on Live Science. 

Hong Kong to add mystery respiratory illness to reportable diseases

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Disease has sent 59 people to the hospital in the mainland Chinese city of Wuhan

The Associated Press · Posted: Jan 07, 2020 

Secretary for Food and Health, Prof. Sophia Chan, speaks about response measures to prevent and control a mysterious infectious disease. (Andy Wong/Associated Press

Hong Kong's health chief said Tuesday that a respiratory illness whose cause remains unknown will be added to an official list of diseases that medical practitioners are required to report to the government.
The disease — an unidentified form of viral pneumonia — has sent 59 people to the hospital in the mainland Chinese city of Wuhan, in central Hubei province. As of Sunday, seven were in critical condition, while the rest were stable. Municipal authorities have ruled out SARS, the severe acute respiratory syndrome that killed 700 people in 2002 and 2003.

In Hong Kong, a total of 15 patients were being treated Sunday for symptoms including fever and respiratory infection after recent visits to Wuhan. It is not clear whether they have the same illness as the Wuhan patients

Speaking at a news conference, the health chief, Sophia Chan, said the "severe respiratory disease associated with a novel infectious agent" will be added to a list of reportable infectious diseases in Hong Kong's Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance.

The regulation enables the government to take stronger measures against the spread of certain diseases, such as tuberculosis and chicken pox. Actions under the ordinance could include enforcing quarantines or limiting the movement of people who are suspected to have infections.

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"Under the amendment, medical practitioners will have to report suspected cases as well as carry out appropriate investigations and follow-ups to the Center for Health Protection under the Department of Health," Chan said.

The U.S. Consulate General in Wuhan issued a health alert Tuesday for the pneumonia outbreak, warning travellers to Wuhan to avoid animals, as well as animal markets and products.

Dr. Gauden Galea, WHO Representative to China, said public health officials in China "remain focused on continued contact tracing, conducting environmental assessments at the wholesale market, and investigations to identify the pathogen causing the outbreak."

WHO is closely monitoring the event and communicating with counterparts in China, Galea added in a emailed statement

Precautions for travellers

Currently, there are no suspected cases in Canada or involving Canadians overseas, Anna Maddison, a spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said.

Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, is keeping in close contact with her provincial and territorial colleagues, the agency said. PHAC officials are also in close contact with federal partners, the World Health Organization and other international partners.

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Maddison pointed to systems to identify, prevent and control the spread of infectious diseases including a global public health intelligence monitoring system that scans the world's open source media

"No matter the destination, travellers should always take precautions against respiratory and other illnesses while travelling, and seek medical attention if they become ill."

During their trip, Canadian travellers to Wuhan city are encouraged to:

• Avoid high-risk areas such as farms, live animal markets, and areas where animals may be slaughtered.
• Avoid contact with animals (alive or dead), including pigs, chickens, ducks and wild birds.
• Avoid surfaces with animal droppings or secretions on them.

Travellers should also wash their hands often, and practise proper cough and sneeze etiquette.

People are encouraged to tell their health-care providers about their travel if they become ill after returning to Canada. 

Toronto Pubic Health said the overall risk to residents is considered very low.

"Given that Toronto Pearson International Airport is an international travel hub, Toronto Public Health is actively monitoring this situation, along with provincial and national health agencies," the department added in a release.

With files from CBC News

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EXTERNAL LINKS

Pneumonia of unknown cause – China, World Health Organization
Wuhan Health Commission updates

Wuhan ‘pneumonia’: Hong Kong health chief under pressure to seek more information from mainland authorities amid silence on latest patient numbers
Lawmakers grill health secretary Sophia Chan for 2½ hours on the government’s response to the pneumonia situation in Wuhan
Hong Kong’s public hospitals admitted eight more people who had been to Wuhan in the past two weeks and presented with symptoms of either fever and respiratory infection or pneumonia
Phila Siu,Elizabeth Cheung,Lilian Cheng
Published: 12:17pm, 8 Jan, 2020

Lawmakers had questioned whether Hong Kong had enough stocks of masks in the event of an outbreak. Photo: Winson Wong

Hong Kong’s health minister on Wednesday came under pressure to seek more details on the mystery Wuhan pneumonia outbreak from the mainland Chinese government, as lawmakers expressed concerns that authorities there had not released updates on patient numbers since Sunday.

The lawmakers tabled urgent questions on the outbreak as in the 24 hours to noon on Wednesday, Hong Kong’s public hospitals admitted eight more people who had been to Wuhan in central China in the past two weeks and presented with symptoms of either fever and respiratory infection or pneumonia.
This brings the total number of suspected cases in Hong Kong to 38, though 21 patients have been discharged.
Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee was grilled for 2½ hours in the Legislative Council on the government’s response to the pneumonia situation in Wuhan.
Hong Kong officials increase powers in fight against Chinese ‘pneumonia’
8 Jan 2020

Some lawmakers said Chan must press the mainland authorities for the genetic map of the Wuhan virus so Hong Kong experts could help look into the disease in case of an outbreak locally. The Hong Kong government also needed to ask the mainland side whether other cities or provinces had also been infected, they said.
The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said on Sunday that 59 people had been infected with the unidentified strain, seven of whom were in a critical condition.
“That was from its last update on January 5. Today is already January 8,” Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan said. “Do you have ways to really find out how many cases there are on the mainland at present, in particular in Wuhan? Can you obtain the genetic map?”

The commission said on Wednesday night that eight people with the virus had been discharged from hospital.
No other mainland government agencies had offered any updates.
A source said the mainland health authorities were likely to announce results of the investigation on the virus in around a week.

Some of the patients infected with the unknown pneumonia have been treated in Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan. Photo: Jun Mai
The World Health Organisation’s office in China, which said on Sunday it was closely monitoring the disease in Wuhan, offered no updates when asked on Wednesday.

The Hong Kong government on Wednesday made it mandatory for all medical practitioners to notify the authorities of anyone suspected to have contracted the unidentified strain.
This was done by gazetting a bill to amend the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance, to include with immediate effect “severe respiratory disease associated with a novel infectious agent” as a statutory notifiable infectious disease. The law empowers officials to put patients in mandatory quarantine
The government has also stepped up checks on visitors coming from Wuhan by train or plane.
Other lawmakers, including the Democratic Party’s Helena Wong Pik-wan, were concerned whether there were also cases in other Chinese cities. They urged the minister to find out as there was no such information.
Wuhan pneumonia not Sars, but virus unidentified as more hospitalised
7 Jan 2020

Civic Party lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki, a urologist, said he had talked to public hospital doctors who told him the government knew hardly anything about the Wuhan pneumonia. That made it difficult for doctors to provide the best treatment to those who developed symptoms after returning from Wuhan recently, Kwok added.
The health secretary replied that the governments of Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland had in 2005 signed an agreement to notify each other if any major public health incidents were discovered. The government had been in close contact with the mainland authorities and the mechanism had been working well, she stressed.
She believed the mainland would tell the Hong Kong government if such pneumonia cases were found outside Wuhan, adding she would continue to ask the authorities for more information about the disease.
Mystery pneumonia infects at least 59 people in Wuhan, China
Health services sector lawmaker Joseph Lee Kok-long challenged the government’s earlier announcement that the number of isolation beds in public hospitals could be raised from the current 480 to 1,400 in 72 hours.
According to the latest figures, 15 out of 17 public hospitals had over-occupancy rates in medical wards as of midnight on Tuesday, ranging from 103 to 131 per cent, because of the higher number of diseases triggered by winter weather.
On this, Chan insisted the increase could be done in 72 hours. But she admitted there was “significant room for improvement” regarding the overcrowding in hospitals.
Hong Kong set to add mystery pneumonia to list of notifiable diseases
7 Jan 2020

Pro-government lawmakers, including Wilson Or Chong-shing, had concerns as to whether there were enough stocks of masks in the event of a local outbreak. Chan said public hospitals had enough masks to last three months. The government had talked to pharmacies, which said more stocks would arrive in the city in one to two weeks.
The Hospital Authority said on Wednesday it was exploring the feasibility of deferring non-emergency surgeries and services among the measures at public hospitals to centralise resources and manpower to cope with suspected cases related to the Wuhan pneumonia.
Meanwhile, infectious diseases expert Professor Yuen Kwok-yung from the University of Hong Kong suspected the unidentified virus that led to the Wuhan outbreak was a coronavirus strain from bats.
That was because the Wuhan cases were not found with bird flu, flu or other known viruses, but the infections were suspected to be linked to game meat.
“Bats still carry around a dozen coronavirus strains,” Yuen said. “There is a reason for us to speculate that the virus spread from bats to some wild animals, and then jumped to humans.”

A student at PolyU developed a fever and persistent cough after returning from Wuhan and was taken to hospital. Photo: Handout
He said viruses of a few major infectious diseases in the past, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) in 2003 and Middle East respiratory syndrome, which started in 2012, were also traced back to bats.
“Theoretically, it is also possible for bats to spread the virus to humans directly. But very few people eat bats. However, many people eat masked palm civet and other wild animals,” Yuen said.
Separately, a third Hong Kong education institution, Polytechnic University, has reported that a student developed a fever and persistent cough after returning from Wuhan recently.
The case was reported to the government on Tuesday night and she was in a stable condition on Wednesday. The dormitory where she lived had been sterilised, PolyU said.
Additional reporting by Linda Lew
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=WUTAN
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CHINA 
SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=SARS 
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