Bacteria found on suspected imported Spanish cucumbers in Germany

BERLIN (AFP) – Germany on Monday held crisis talks amid reports that at least 14 people have died and hundreds are ill in an outbreak of a highly virulent strain of bacteria found on imported cucumbers.

Oman Air awarded the Silver Award for the Best Marketing Campaign 2010

28 September 2010

Oman Air

Corporate Communications & Media

Oman Air, the national airline of the Sultanate of Oman, has been awarded the Silver Award for the Best Marketing Campaign 2010, held by

Ash clouds in Europe and its impact on Oman Air flights

Corporate Communications & Media

Oman Air
18 April 2010

During its daily assessment meeting, Oman Air senior management reviewed the status regarding the ash cloud covering parts of Europe and its impact on airport closures and flight cancellations. The closure of airspace and the European destinations Oman Air services continues to be in force. As previously announced, the smoke and ash the volcano is sending pose a significant safety threat to aircraft.

An official Oman AirOman AirOman Air's spokesperson said this morning, "European air controls are still maintaining the closure of most European air space. We at Oman Air are in touch with our stranded passengers and are keeping them updated on the status of flights and airports. The situation is being closely monitored on a continuous basis. The team will meet again tomorrow morning to assess developments, if any" the spokesperson added.

All passengers are advised to check the status of their flight before leaving for the airport. Oman Air will endeavour to keep you informed as the situation evolves. Passengers travelling from Muscat to the UK, France or Germany, or from those countries to Muscat, on Friday 16th April or Saturday 17th April should contact Oman Air. For further information call: Oman: +968 2453 1111; UK: 08444 822309; France: +33 (0)1 47 64 21 50; Germany: +49 69 58300710.

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http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20100418102542/Oman%20Air%20Flight%20disruption%20

Positive mood in Oman

By OLIVER KLAUS

oliver.klaus@dowjones.com

The Sultanate of Oman may not have the massive oil reserves neighboring Saudi Arabia is known for, nor extravagant projects such as palm-shaped artificial islands that have put Dubai on the map. Instead, the Arab Gulf state is betting on cycling to catch the world's attention.

Thousands of posters—displayed prominently across the streets of the sleepy capital, Muscat—announced the descend of the world's cycling elite to this nation of 2.9 million as it staged the first-ever Tour of Oman, a road cycling race organized by the local municipality in partnership with the International Cycling Union and Tour de France.

The inaugural race, which ended Feb. 19, had 16 of the 20 teams participating in the Tour de France battling it out for the title of Tour of Oman 2010. After six days and a total distance of 687 kilometers in different parts of the country, which is located in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula and about the same size as Poland, Swiss Fabian Cancellara of Team Saxo Bank claimed the overall victory of the race's first edition.

"The event aims to showcase the many natural sceneries we have in Oman," says Saif bin Suba'a Al Rashaidi , director general of the Muscat municipality. "It is also to show that Oman is able to organize such a high-profile sports event. We're fully responsible for organizing the tour, from A to Z."

The event adds to an overall positive mood in Oman, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. The sultanate, one of six Arab Gulf states that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council that also includes Saudi Arabia, has emerged from last year's economic turmoil relatively unscathed.

"We managed to avoid the setbacks of the global financial crisis and the crisis in some parts of the Gulf here by having very conservative policies for our banking sector," says Hamood Sangour Al Zadjali, executive president of the Central Bank of Oman.

"We did not allow our banks to invest in these toxic investments nor to keep a lot of funds outside the country," Mr. Al Zadjali says. Moreover, he adds, the central bank controls the amount of money the seven domestic banks can invest outside the country and their exposures to foreign exchange and to the stock and real-estate markets, both inside Oman and outside.

"These really conservative and prudent policies helped our banks to protect them from any setback from these problems, which we have seen other major international banks are exposed to," says Mr. Al Zadjali in his office in Muscat's Ruwi district.

Although it emerged last year that three of the country's banks—including local heavyweight Bank Muscat—have some exposure to debts gone bad at Dubai conglomerate Dubai World and Saudi family business Al Gosaibi, Omani banks are in better shape than their regional peers. A $2 billion facility made available by the government in 2009 to local banks remained largely untapped, according to Abdulmalik Al Hinai, undersecretary for economic affairs at the national economy ministry.

Moody's Investors Service on Feb. 18 cited the comparative strength of Oman's financial sector as one reason behind the upgrade of the country's sovereign rating, and kept a stable outlook on the banking system.

The positive mood is also reflected in the performance of the local bourse, the Muscat Stock Market, which is up 6.7% since the beginning of the year, outperforming its GCC peers.

Oman is the largest Arab Gulf oil producer that's not a member of OPEC. Although it isn't blessed with the vast hydrocarbon riches to be found in some of its northern neighbors and its crude reserves are harder to access, Oman managed to pump 860,000 barrels a day of crude in 2009, up from 812,000 barrels in 2008, according to Nasser bin Khamis Al Jashmi, undersecretary of the oil and gas ministry.

The resulting higher-than-planned oil revenues helped finance a 12% year-on-year increase in government spending in 2009, says the national economy ministry's Mr. Al Hinai, and limit the impact of the financial crisis on the local economy. Real gross domestic product is set to grow 3% this year.

"The government projected an oil price of $50 (a barrel) in this year's budget and we expect the price will hover between $70-80, which will really give some confidence to business in the country and will also generate additional revenues for the government to spend," the central bank's Mr. Al Zadjali says.

A forecast budget deficit of 800 million Omani Rials ($2.1 billion) "should be wiped out" if crude prices remain at this level, he adds.

To be sure, despite an ongoing strive for greater economic diversification, Oman remains heavily reliant on its oil sector. The country's non-oil sector contributed only about 21% to government revenues in 2008.

"How are you going to decouple from your oil revenues?" asks Joice Mathew, senior research manager at Muscat-based brokerage United Securities.

Tourism it is hoped will bolster revenues in coming years, helped by events such as the Tour of Oman and the 2010 Asian Beach Games, which will take place in Muscat in December.

In the capital's souk, the traditional market located in Muttrah on the waterfront promenade, Mahassan Al Mahari is beaming with optimism. In his cornershop, he sells Arabian Oud perfumes. The number of tourists—traditionally higher at this time of the year due to the cooler climate—is higher than last year and sales are good, he says.

"There are many tourists here now, from the U.K., Germany and other European countries, and from Gulf countries," Mr. Al Mahari adds. Maybe their numbers will increase further when the Tour of Oman returns in 2011. Mr. Al Rashaidi of the Muscat municipality says he's optimistic that the race will be back.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703315004575073422581147064.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Swine Flu Vaccines are Dangerous

By F. William Engdahl

Global Research, September 13, 2009

Vaccines which have been approved by the responsible government authorities for vaccination against the alleged H1N1 Influenza A Swine Flu have been found to contain nano particles. Vaccine makers have been experimenting with nanoparticles as a way to “turbo charge” vaccines for several years. Now it has come out that the vaccines approved for use in Germany and other European countries contain nanoparticles in a form that reportedly attacks healthy cells and can be deadly.

In 2007 researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) announced in an article in the journal, Nature Biotechnology, that they had developed a “nanoparticle that can deliver vaccines more effectively, with fewer side effects, and at a fraction of the cost of current vaccine technologies.” The article went on to describe the effects of their breakthrough: “At a mere 25 nanometers, these particles are so tiny that once injected, they flow through the skin’s extracellular matrix, making a beeline to the lymph nodes. Within minutes, they’ve reached a concentration of DCs thousands of times greater than in the skin. The immune response can then be extremely strong and effective.” 1

There is only one small problem with vaccines containing nanoparticles—they can be deadly and at the least cause severe irreparable health damage.

Nanoparticles, promoted in the mass media as the new wonder revolution of science, are particles that have been produced vastly smaller than deadly asbestos particles which caused severe lung damage and death before being outlawed. Particles at a nano size, (nm = 0,000000001 Meter) fuse together with the membranes of our body cell membranes and, according to recent studies in China and Japan, continuously destroy cells once introduced into the body. Once they interact with the body’s cellular structure, they cannot be removed. Modern medicine euphemistically terms the phenomenon, a continuing infectious reaction.

Since the asbestos scandal, it has been established that particles in size a millionth of a meter, because of their enormous attractive force, penetrate all cells, destroying all those they come into contact with. Nanoparticles are far smaller than asbestos fibers.

Beijing Tests confirm deadly effects on humans

The fact that WHO, the European Medicines Evaluation Agency, the German Robert Koch Institute and other health bodies today would permit the population to be injected with largely untested novel vaccines containing nanoparticles says more about the powerful pharma lobby in Euiropean politics than it does about the sanity or moral integrity of the civil servants responsible for health of the general public.

The September 2009 issue of the respected European Respiratory Journal, made public on 19 August, and available since 21 August online, contains a peer-reviewed article with the title, “Exposure to nanoparticles is related to pleural effusion, pulmonary fibrosis and granuloma.”

The article describes tests carried out in 2008 at the elite Beijing Chaoyang Hospital on seven young women. All seven, ages 18-47 had been exposed to nanoparticles for 5–13 months in their common workplace. All were admitted to the hospital with shortness of breath and pleural effusions, or excessive fluids surrounding the lungs, inhibiting breathing. None of the seven had ever smoked and none were in any special risk group. Doctors carefully tested for every possibility and confirmed that the lung problems had a common origin—regular inhalation of nanoparticles in their factory. They had been exposed to Polyacrylat nanoparticles.

The tests confirmed the nanoparticles had set off a “super-meltdown” reaction in the patients. Despite all heroic efforts of doctors, two of the seven died from the lung complications. 2

In their report, the scientists concluded something so alarming it is necessary to quote at length:

“Immunological tests, examinations of bacteriology, virology and tumour markers, bronchoscopy, internal thoracoscopy and video-assisted thoracic surgery were performed. Surveys of the workplace, clinical observations and examinations of the patients were conducted. Polyacrylate, consisting of nanoparticles, was confirmed in the workplace. Pathological examinations of patients' lung tissue displayed nonspecific pulmonary inflammation, pulmonary fibrosis and foreign-body granulomas of pleura. Using transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticles were observed to lodge in the cytoplasm and caryoplasm of pulmonary epithelial and mesothelial cells, but are also located in the chest fluid. These cases arouse concern that long-term exposure to some nanoparticles without protective measures may be related to serious damage to human lungs.“3

To date Animal studies and in vitro experiments show that nanoparticles can result in lung damage and other toxicity in animals, but no reports on the clinical toxicity in humans due to nanoparticles prior to the Beijing study had been made.

The Beijing Chaoyang Hospital study has now conclusively confirmed that nanoparticles cause lung damage and other toxicity in humans as well. At this point in time, when two of the approved vaccines planned to be mass distributed in Germany and elsewhere contain nanoparticles, failure of the relevant responsible public health and epidemiology officials to order an immediate emergency freeze on distribution of any vaccine containing nanoparticles can only be considered tantamount to criminal negligence. Hopefully the responsible authorities will react in time to avert a possible human health catastrophe orders of magnitude worse than the worst case of Swine Flu reported to date.

F. William Engdahl is author of Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order. He may be reached via his website, http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/

Notes:

1 EPFL, Bioengineering researchers from the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, have developed and patented a nanoparticle that can deliver vaccines more effectively, with fewer side effects, and at a fraction of the cost of current vaccine technologies, accessed in www.azonano.com/nanotechnology%20news.asp?catid=13.

2 Song Y, Li X, Du X, Exposure to nanoparticles is related to pleural effusion, pulmonary fibrosis and granuloma , European Respiratory Journal, 9/2009, 34(3): 559-567.

3 Ibid.

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http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15092