Category: Sci/Tech

  • Turkey, the Jews and the Holocaust

    Turkey, the Jews and the Holocaust

    Interview with Corry Guttstadt

    Turkologist Corry Guttstadt has published a comprehensive study of the behaviour of the Turkish government towards its Jewish citizens during the Holocaust. In doing so, she has investigated a chapter of twentieth-century history that has thus far been all but neglected by international Holocaust research. Sonja Galler spoke to her about her findings

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    Corry Guttstadt: “Over the course of many centuries, the Ottoman Empire was an immigration destination for Jews fleeing the Reconquista in Spain and pogroms in Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, to portray the Ottoman Empire as a ‘multicultural paradise’ is absurd and ahistorical.” | Much is made of the fact that there are approximately 20,000 Jews in Turkey today, a figure that is frequently held up as evidence of the country’s tolerant attitude towards its Jewish minority. It is often claimed that this success story began when persecuted Sephardic Jews found refuge in the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner of the modern Turkish state …

    Corry Guttstadt: Well, there are currently over 20,000 Jews in Iran too. A number alone is not necessarily a reliable indication of whether somewhere is safe or free from anti-Semitism. As far as Turkey is concerned, it is important to emphasise that only 20,000 Jews now live in the country. That’s in stark contrast to the estimated 120,000 to 150,000 that lived in the region at the end of the First World War. Both before and after the Second World War, and most particularly after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, the vast majority of Jews left Turkey. This was a reversal of the trend of previous centuries.

    Over the course of many centuries, the Ottoman Empire was an immigration destination for Jews fleeing the Reconquista in Spain and pogroms in Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, to portray the Ottoman Empire as a “multicultural paradise” is absurd and ahistorical. As non-Muslims, the Jews were subject to countless constraints. Like the Christians, they had to pay a poll tax and were obliged to behave in a submissive manner towards Muslims. Moreover, it must be said that there were numerous fluctuations in the fortunes of the Jews in the 600-year history of the Ottoman Empire.

    The period of Jewish persecution on the Iberian peninsula coincided with the expansion of the Empire, whose rulers were keen to increase the urban population. Another reason why they were happy to welcome the Sephardic Jews was because they brought with them important skills and expertise. Jews who had settled in Anatolia and in the Balkans before the Ottoman conquest, on the other hand, were forced to resettle – also for demographic reasons – and were subject to a number of considerable constraints.

    What was life like for the Jews around the time the Turkish state was created?

    Guttstadt: The foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 was the final chapter in the protracted disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, which had lost most of its territory in a series of wars against major Christian European powers. The situation for the Jews varied because unlike the Christian populations in the Balkans, they were not pursuing any separatist goals. In response to European protests about the Armenian massacre, Ottoman leaders liked to point to the Jews as a “model minority”.

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    Guttstadt reveals that the dissemination of anti-Semitic tracts in the 1930s heralded the birth of modern Anti-Semitism in Turkey | For their part, the Jews were often the target of anti-Semitic attacks at the hands of Christian minorities around this time and were, for that reason, reliant on the protection of the state. Consequently, most Jews initially regarded themselves as allies of the Kemalist movement and looked to the new Republic with largely positive expectations. These hopes were quickly dashed because despite their attempts to adapt and their declarations of loyalty, the Jews quickly became a target for the rigid nationalism of the young Republic. One of the defining policies of the young republic was the “Turkification” of state, economy, and society.

    In this light, the Kemalist leadership regarded the rights that had been granted to non-Muslim minorities in the Treaty of Lausanne as a continuation of the interference of major imperialist powers. It put non-Muslim religious communities under pressure to renounce these rights “voluntarily”. Jews were also successively driven out of a number of professions and economic sectors. This prompted many Jews to emigrate, particularly to France, but also to the USA, Italy or Germany.

    Once war broke out, how did the Turkish state, which managed to remain “neutral” until the end of the Second World War, behave towards the Jews who lived within its borders?

    Guttstadt: I think we have to differentiate here between anti-Semitism and anti-minority nationalism, which targeted not only the Jews, but other groups too. On the one hand, anti-Semitic tracts like the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion reached Turkey and were translated into Turkish in the 1930s. Following a visit to Germany, Cevat Rıfat Atilhan, who could be described as the father of Islamic anti-Semitism in Turkey, started publishing the anti-Semitic newspaper Millî İnkîlâp (National Revolution) in Istanbul, which contained anti-Semitic caricatures that had been lifted directly out of the Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer. Although this and other magazines were banned for a certain period, they mark the birth of modern anti-Semitism in Turkey.

    Both the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion and Mein Kampf have gone through umpteen new editions to this day. Nationalist measures that affected not only Jews, but also Kurds, Armenians, and Greeks, included forced resettlement, the so-called “wealth tax” – which led to the confiscation of assets of those who were not in a position to pay the arbitrarily fixed and frequently astronomical sums they were required to pay – and forced labour in camps in eastern Anatolia. Although these measures are in no way comparable with the persecution of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis, they destroyed the Jews’ faith in the Republic so utterly that the majority of the country’s remaining Jews left the country in 1947/48.

    At this time, Turkish Jews were scattered all over Europe. How did they fare?

    Guttstadt: At the start of the war, approximately 25,000 to 30,000 Jews of Turkish origin lived in Europe, most of them in France. Only about 10,000 of them still held Turkish citizenship, which became a matter of life and death during the Holocaust. There were many people who came to Europe as “Ottoman citizens”, but whose place of birth had been assigned to other states once the Empire was no more. In France, it was relatively easy to obtain French citizenship. From the start of the 1930s, the Kemalist Republic began checking the nationality of citizens living abroad and revoking the citizenship of non-Muslims in particular.

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    Ceremony to mark the opening of the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul, one of the few remaining synagogues in Turkey: “During World War II, Turkey was not a major country of exile for persecuted Jews,” says Guttstadt | This policy of denaturalisation, which the Turkish state could initially pass off as a normal consequence of the new state order, focussed primarily on the Jews during the Holocaust. In October 1942, Germany delivered an ultimatum to the Turkish government to repatriate its Jewish citizens from the states occupied by the German Reich. Above all, however, the government in Ankara wanted to prevent a mass influx of Turkish Jews and decided to use the instrument of mass denaturalisation as a means of preventing it. What proved particularly fatal in this regard was the fact that according to Turkish law, people who had either voluntarily changed their nationality or had been denaturalised were not allowed to set foot on Turkish soil ever again – even as a tourist or a refugee.

    Moreover, in 1938, Turkey passed a secret decree that forbade “foreign Jews who are subject to restrictions in their native countries, regardless of what religion they currently practice” from entering Turkey. With this decree, Turkey adopted the criteria that characterised anti-Jewish legislation in Germany and its allied countries.

    What did the Turkish government at the time know about what was happening in the countries controlled by Germany and about the fate of Turkish Jews living in those countries?

    Guttstadt: Naturally, the Germans did not tell the Turkish authorities that Jews who were not repatriated would be deported and murdered, but obscured the reality of the situation by saying that they would be “subject to the general measures applied to Jews”. However, in view of the fact that numerous Jewish aid organisations had representatives in Istanbul, Turkey was a one of the places where concrete information about the Holocaust was available. From there, journalists reported about the systematic murder of Jews.

    Jews that had escaped the concentration camps or ghettos and managed to make it to Istanbul, were questioned by aid committees and given the assistance they needed. Their reports were passed from Istanbul to other offices around the world. Both journalists and Jewish activists were undoubtedly under observation by the Turkish secret service. In March 1943, the Turkish government newspaper Ayın Tarihi reported about the mass murder of Jews in Germany. Several Turkish Jews living in Europe turned to the Turkish government for help.

    About 3,000 Turkish Jews were deported to German concentration camps during the Shoah. To what extent can Turkey be held responsible for their fate?

    Guttstadt: The Germans are responsible for depriving these people of their rights and for their persecution and murder. In view of current attempts in Germany to rewrite history again and in view of the German “victim” debate, I refuse to qualify German responsibility in any way. Turkey could have repatriated a much greater number of Jews and opened its borders to refugees. Despite the fact that aid organisations offered to assume the costs that would ensue, the Turkish government generally refused. That being said, Turkey was certainly not the only country to adopt a passive stance.

    However, until such time as the Turkish archives are opened, we can only speculate about domestic discussions and criticism of the official policy towards the Jews. We must remember that the Turkish regime at the time was dictatorial; there was a one-party system; the press toed the regime line and was subject to strict censorship. The Jewish community was also completely intimidated and impoverished by the measures taken in the 1940s.

    The official Turkish line is that Turkey was a safe harbour for Europe’s Jews.

    Guttstadt: Because of its close ties to Germany, Turkey actually had extensive opportunities to save Turkish Jews living abroad. Isolated Turkish diplomats frequently grasped these opportunities. In Paris, for example, Turkish consuls brought about the release of a number of incarcerated Turkish Jews. Turkish consuls in Milan and Vienna also protected individual Jews. Even though these acts were not always performed for purely humanitarian reasons – some consuls may have used their influence to line their pockets – it shows the great latitude they had. In many cases, it was enough to confirm the Turkish citizenship of a Jew to prevent him or her from being deported.

    The hiring of German Jewish academics at Turkish universities is often mentioned as a humanitarian act. What is your view?

    Guttstadt: It is true that from the autumn of 1933 onwards, a considerable number of German Jewish academics and artists found jobs in Turkey, where they played an outstanding role in building up new universities, hospitals, theatres etc. Even though they were not received for humanitarian reasons, but for reasons of utility, the Turkish government gave these people work, in most cases allowed their families to follow them to Turkey, and protected them against persecution by the Nazi regime. Nevertheless, Turkey was never a major country of exile for persecuted Jews. In terms of numbers, the few refugees that were allowed to enter the country do not appear in any pertinent statistics.

    Interview conducted by Sonja Galler

    © Qantara.de 2009

    Corry Guttstadt: Die Türkei, die Juden und der Holocaust (Turkey, the Jews and the Holocaust) Verlag Assoziation A, Berlin-Hamburg 2008. 520 pages, 26 euros.

    Letter to the EditorAdd a comment Qantara.de

    Interview with Ishak Alaton
    “Turkey Needs a Mentality Revolution”
    Ishak Alaton is one of Turkey’s most influential businesspeople of Jewish extraction. Hülya Sancak spoke to him in Istanbul about the current political situation in Turkey and minority rights for Jews, Kurds and Armenians in the country

    German Jews in Exile in Turkey
    “Haymatloz” in Istanbul and Ankara
    When the Nazis took power in 1933, hundreds of thousands of German Jews fled the country. Some of them ended up in Turkey, which was a neutral state and safe haven up until the end of World War II. Ursula Trüper recounts their story and that of the Ruben family

    Jewish Life in Istanbul
    The Guardians of Hope
    Istanbul was once a centre of Jewish life. Now 20,000 Sephardi Jews still live in the city. The writer Mario Levi recreates the spirit of time past in his books, which is also nurtured by a businessman and a linguist. Kai Strittmatter has been exploring Jewish life in Istanbul

    Sixty Years of Turkish-Israeli Relations
    Partnership in the Shadow of a Threat
    Turkey and Israel mark the sixtieth anniversary of their diplomatic relations this year. Theirs has been a fruitful if conflict-ridden relationship. But there has been more than just the desire to make peace between the Israelis and the Arabs. Jan Felix Engelhardt looks back at the start of the relationship Published: 29.05.2009 – Last modified: 30.05.2009

  • Report: Turkish Peace Activists Hack Into US Army Servers

    Report: Turkish Peace Activists Hack Into US Army Servers

    Anti-U.S. Hackers Infiltrate Army Servers

    unhackExclusive: Defense Department investigators subpoena records from Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo in connection with ongoing probe.

    Paul McDougall
    InformationWeek

    A known computer hacking clan with anti-American leanings has successfully broken into at least two sensitive Web servers maintained by the U.S. Army, InformationWeek has learned exclusively.

    Department of Defense and other investigators are currently probing the breaches, which have not been publicly disclosed.

    The hackers, who collectively go by the name “m0sted” and are based in Turkey, penetrated servers at the Army’s McAlester Ammunition Plant in McAlester, Okla., and at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Transatlantic Center in Winchester, Va.

    The breach at the McAlester munitions plant occurred on Jan. 26, according to records of the investigation obtained by InformationWeek. On that date, Web users attempting to access the plant’s site were redirected to a Web page that featured a protest against climate change.

    On Sept. 19, 2007, the same hackers electronically broke into Army Corps of Engineers’ servers. That hack sent Web users to www.m0sted.net. The page, at the time, contained anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric and images, records show. It currently appears to be an Internet landing spot that features airline reservation links.

    Beyond the redirects, it’s not clear whether the group was able to obtain sensitive information from the Army’s servers.

    The hacks are the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation by Defense Department officials and members of the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Office and Computer Emergency Response Team. Investigators have executed records search warrants against Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), Google (NSDQ: GOOG), and other Internet service and e-mail providers as part of their efforts to unmask the hackers’ true identities.

    Investigators believe the hackers used a technique called SQL injection to exploit a security vulnerability in Microsoft’s SQL Server database to gain entry to the Web servers. “m0sted” is known to have carried out similar attacks on a number of other Web sites in the past — including against a site maintained by Internet security company Kaspersky Lab.

    The hacks are troubling in that they appear to have rendered useless supposedly sophisticated Defense Department tools and procedures designed to prevent such breaches. The department and its branches spend millions of dollars each year on pricey security and antivirus software and employ legions of experts to deploy and manage the tools.

    Equally troubling is the fact that the hacks appear to have originated outside the United States. Turkey is known to harbor significant elements of the al-Qaida network. (!) It was not clear if “m0sted” has links to the terrorist group.

    Defense Department officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the case.

    InformationWeek Analytics has published an independent analysis on what executives really think about security. Download the report [on the website] (registration required).

    Source: www.informationweek.com,

  • Learn Turkish in Turkey

    Learn Turkish in Turkey

    Dear Madam / Sir,

    dedamenDEDAM is the language research and teaching center by Dokuz Eylul University. Its objective is to teach not only Turkish but also other foreign languages in a modern and authentic way in technologically equipped classrooms.

    DEDAM aims to be acknowledged both nationally and internationally as a center at which Turkish and other modern languages are taught and the language studies are conducted. This language institute faces the cultural policy challenges of globalisation and develops innovative concepts for a world made more human through mutual understanding, where cultural diversity is seen as an asset.

    The Turkish courses are made up of six levels: A1, A2 (elementary); B1, B2 (intermediate) and C1, C2 (advanced). The learners enrolled in the program are first given a placement test.

    At DEDAM, the language program involves courses which targets to improve four language skills (i.e. listening, reading, writing and speaking), which contributes to intercultural communication.

    DEDAM also offers extra curricular activities such as daily excursions, film shows and critical reading activities in order to familiarize students with the target culture.

    When the students have completed the course, they will be given a certificate for the successful completion of the level of the course they have attended.  

    For more information, contact: DEDAM.

    Best regards,

    DEDAM
    dedam(at)deu.edu.tr

    Course Period

    29 June – 28 August
    29 June- 31 July
    13 July- 14 August
    17 August-18 September

  • Can Hotmail lose its Domain Name?

    Can Hotmail lose its Domain Name?

    Yes they can, if they do not pay renewal fees. Luckily Turkish registrar does not sell it to anyone else.

    When you visit  this is what you see.

    hotmailen

    türkçe için tıklayın  

    This domain name is suspended by “.tr” Domain Name Administration. Your domain name might be suspended due to a financial or an administrative cause! 

    If your domain name is suspended due to a financial cause: 
    The payment contact of your domain name must log in to the “nic.tr” system and make the overdue payment(s) by following the “Payment Enquiries and Operations” link under the “Quick Navigation” menu.

    You can visit the “Previous Payments of Domain Name” link under the “Payment Operations” menu in order to verify whether there is any overdue payment for your domain name.

    If your domain name is suspended due to an administrative cause: 
    Please contact us via the “I Need Support ” link under the “Help-Support ” menu in order to obtain further information on the subject matter. 

    Please note that you must have a registered nic-handle to be able to follow the foregoing link. Therefore, please register a nic-handle first by following the “Nic-Handle Registration” link under the “Quick Navigation ” menu if you do not have one.

    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  • ‘Too late’ to contain swine flu

    ‘Too late’ to contain swine flu

    Infection control experts are scrambling to respond to outbreaks of swine flu in Mexico and the US, and suspected cases elsewhere.

    HOW SWINE FLU OUTBREAK EMERGED

    Flu viruses in different species
    Flu viruses mutate over time causing small changes to proteins on their surface called antigens. If the immune system has met particular strain of the virus before it is likely to have some immunity; but if the antigens are new to the immune system, it will be weakened. The flu currently making headlines is a strain of H1N1 influenza A virus, which affects birds, some mammals and humans.
    Flu virus mutation
    The influenza A virus can mutate in two different ways; antigenic drift, in which existing antigens are subtly altered, and antigenic shift, in which two or more strains combine. Antigenic drift causes the slight mutations year on year in the flu strains that normally affect humans. As a result humans have partial, but not complete, immunity. By contrast, the new strain of H1N1 appears to have originated via antigenic shift in Mexican pigs.
    Antigenic shift in pigs
    The name “swine flu” is a slight misnomer as it is believed pigs acted as a mixing pot for several flu strains, containing genetic material from pigs, birds and humans. Some of the antigens involved in the new strain have never been seen by the immune systems of almost all humans, so the new strain has the potential to cause a pandemic.
    Virus transmission to humans
    The new virus has made the jump from pigs to humans and has demonstrated it can pass quite easily from human to human. This is why it is demanding so much attention from worldwide health authorities. The virus passes from human to human like other types of flu, either through coughing, sneezing, or by touching infected surfaces. However, not much else is yet known about how the virus acts on humans.

    BACK 1 of 4 NEXT  
    What is swine flu?

    Swine flu is a respiratory disease, caused by influenza type A which infects pigs.

    There are many types, and the infection is constantly changing.

    Until now it has not normally infected humans, but the latest form clearly does, and can be spread from person to person – probably through coughing and sneezing.

    What is new about this type of swine flu?

    The World Health Organization has confirmed that at least some of the human cases are a never-before-seen version of the H1N1 strain of influenza type A.

    SWINE FLU Symptoms usually similar to seasonal flu – but deaths recorded in Mexico It is a new version of the H1N1 strain which caused the 1918 flu pandemic Too early to say whether it will lead to a pandemic Current treatments do work, but there is no vaccine Good personal hygiene, such as washing hands, covering nose when sneezing advised

    H1N1 is the same strain which causes seasonal outbreaks of flu in humans on a regular basis.

    But this latest version of H1N1 is different: it contains genetic material that is typically found in strains of the virus that affect humans, birds and swine.

    Flu viruses have the ability to swap genetic components with each other, and it seems likely that the new version of H1N1 resulted from a mixing of different versions of the virus, which may usually affect different species, in the same animal host.

    Pigs provide an excellent ‘melting pot’ for these viruses to mix and match with each other.

    How dangerous is it?

    Symptoms of swine flu in humans appear to be similar to those produced by standard, seasonal flu.

    These include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue.

    Most cases so far reported around the world appear to be mild, but in Mexico lives have been lost.

    How worried should people be?

    When any new strain of flu emerges that acquires the ability to pass from person to person, it is monitored very closely in case it has the potential to spark a global epidemic, or pandemic.

    FLU PANDEMICS 1918: The Spanish flu pandemic remains the most devastating outbreak of modern times. Caused by a form of the H1N1 strain of flu, it is estimated that up to 40% of the world’s population were infected, and more than 50 million people died, with young adults particularly badly affected
    1957: Asian flu killed two million people. Caused by a human form of the virus, H2N2, combining with a mutated strain found in wild ducks. The impact of the pandemic was minimised by rapid action by health authorities, who identified the virus, and made vaccine available speedily. The elderly were particularly vulnerable
    1968: An outbreak first detected in Hong Kong, and caused by a strain known as H3N2, killed up to one million people globally, with those over 65 most likely to die

    The World Health Organization has warned that taken together the Mexican and US cases could potentially trigger a global pandemic, and stress that the situation is serious.

    However, experts say it is still too early to accurately assess the situation fully.

    Currently, they say the world is closer to a flu pandemic than at any point since 1968 – rating the threat at three on a six-point scale.

    Nobody knows the full potential impact of a pandemic, but experts have warned that it could cost millions of lives worldwide. The Spanish flu pandemic, which began in 1918, and was also caused by an H1N1 strain, killed millions of people.

    The fact that all the cases in the US and elsewhere have so far produced mild symptoms is encouraging. It suggests that the severity of the Mexican outbreak may be due to an unusual geographically-specific factor – possibly a second unrelated virus circulating in the community – which would be unlikely to come into play in the rest of the world.

    Alternatively, people infected in Mexico may have sought treatment at a much later stage than those in other countries.

    It may also be the case that the form of the virus circulating in Mexico is subtly different to that elsewhere – although that will only be confirmed by laboratory analysis.

    There is also hope that, as humans are often exposed to forms of H1N1 through seasonal flu, our immune systems may have something of a head start in fighting infection.

    However, the fact that many of the victims are young does point to something unusual. Normal, seasonal flu tends to affect the elderly disproportionately.

    Can the virus be contained?

    The virus appears already to have started to spread around the world, and most experts believe that containment of the virus in the era of readily available air travel will be extremely difficult.

    Can it be treated?

    The US authorities say that two drugs commonly used to treat flu, Tamiflu and Relenza, seem to be effective at treating cases that have occurred there so far. However, the drugs must be administered at an early stage to be effective.

    Use of these drugs may also make it less likely that infected people will pass the virus on to others.

    The UK Government already has a stockpile of Tamiflu, ordered as a precaution against a pandemic.

    It is unclear how effective currently available flu vaccines would be at offering protection against the new strain, as it is genetically distinct from other flu strains.

    US scientists are already developing a bespoke new vaccine, but it may take some time to perfect it, and manufacture enough supplies to meet what could be huge demand.

    A vaccine was used to protect humans from a version of swine flu in the US in 1976.

    However, it caused serious side effects, including an estimated 500 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome. There were more deaths from the vaccine than the outbreak.

    What should I do to stay safe?

    Anyone with flu-like symptoms who might have been in contact with the swine virus – such as those living or travelling in the areas of Mexico that have been affected – should seek medical advice.

    But patients are being asked not to go into doctors surgeries in order to minimise the risk of spreading the disease to others. Instead, they should stay at home and call their healthcare provider for advice.

    Although the Foreign and Commonwealth Office says people “should be aware” of the outbreak, it is not currently advising people against travelling to affected areas of Mexico and the US.

    What measures can I take to prevent infection?

    Avoid close contact with people who appear unwell and who have fever and cough.

    General infection control practices and good hygiene can help to reduce transmission of all viruses, including the human swine influenza. This includes covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, using a tissue when possible and disposing of it promptly.

    It is also important to wash your hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of the virus from your hands to face or to other people and cleaning hard surfaces like door handles frequently using a normal cleaning product.

    If caring for someone with a flu-like illness, a mask can be worn to cover the nose and mouth to reduce the risk of transmission. The UK is looking at increasing its stockpile of masks for healthcare workers for this reason.

    But experts say there is no scientific evidence to support more general wearing of masks to guard against infections.

    Is it safe to eat pig meat?

    Yes. There is no evidence that swine flu can be transmitted through eating meat from infected animals.

    However, it is essential to cook meat properly. A temperature of 70C (158F) would be sure to kill the virus.

    What about bird flu?

    The strain of bird flu which has caused scores of human deaths in South East Asia in recent years is a different strain to that responsible for the current outbreak of swine flu.

    The latest form of swine flu is a new type of the H1N1 strain, while bird, or avian flu, is H5N1.

    Experts fear H5N1 hold the potential to trigger a pandemic because of its ability to mutate rapidly.

    However, up until now it has remained very much a disease of birds.

    Those humans who have been infected have, without exception, worked closely with birds, and cases of human-to-human transmission are extremely rare – there is no suggestion that H5N1 has gained the ability to pass easily from person to person.

    Where can I get further advice?

    Further information and advice on swine flu can be found at websites of leading health and research organisations around the world. The World Health Organisation gives background information on the virus. The UK’s Health Protection Agency advises the public about what to do if returning from an affected area. NHS Choices outlines how swine flu is different from other flu. The US government’s Centre for Disease Control is counting the number of cases in the US.

    You can also track the spread of swine flu reports using unofficial sources. Healthmaps maps viruses using news reports. Social media guide Mashable lists some ways to track the virus . Links to useful websites are being shared on Twitter , the micro-blogging service.


    Read answers from an expert to some of your questions on swine flu

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  • Experts Say Water Could Become As Valuable As Oil

    Experts Say Water Could Become As Valuable As Oil

    Environmental activists watching a global forum on water said in the near future that water could become as precious of a commodity as oil and will likely become big business as water scarcity increases, Reuters reported.

    Sunday marked the end of International World Water Day, an annual United Nations event that began in 1993 to promote sustainable management of fresh water resources.

    The event is held every year to recognize water as an absolute human need, as human beings can live as long as 30 days without food but only seven without water.

    Limited or no access to clean water effects more than a billion people worldwide and 2.5 billion are without water for sanitation. Dirty water is also responsible for some 80 percent of all borne disease.

    This year’s World Water Forum in Turkey noted that clean, fresh water supplies are waning due to a warming world.

    Jonathan Greenblatt, a professor at the University of California-Los Angeles who advised the Obama transition team on civic engagement and national service, said that as climate change accelerates and we see a changing hydrological cycle and diminishing access to resources, there are direct human impacts that are water-related.

    He added that if sea levels rise as scientists predict, coastal regions might see increased salination of aquifers that affect access to fresh water as sea levels rise.

    Desertification is occurring directly outside such areas as central China, with desert-like conditions coming to areas that were once fertile.

    Greenblatt said water must be part of the agenda of legislators and policymakers in the same way that climate change has.

    The World Health Organization reported there was a high return on investment in clean water projects, as every $1 spent on water and sanitation can bring economic benefits averaging between $7 and $12.

    The WHO report showed that health care agencies could save $7 billion a year, employers could gain 320 million productive days a year for workers in the 15-to-59 age range, there could be an extra 272 million school attendance days annually and an added 1.5 billion healthy days for children under the age of five.

    The Natural Resources Defense Council said in its blog that an investment of $11.3 billion a year could yield a payback of $83 billion a year in increased productivity and health.

    The council’s Melanie Nakagawa wrote: “As many have pointed out in this week’s debates, this payback makes a very strong argument in favor of promoting safe water and sanitation in these difficult financial times.”

    The conservation group WWF International said the water forum does not go far enough in making this a top agenda item.

    James Leape, the group’s director general, said in a statement that the well-managed or restored river systems that cope best with the climate change impacts we are seeing now are yet to come.

    “This is clearly an issue of water management, but the ministerial declaration flowing from the World Water Forum is more a collection of platitudes than a plan for action,” he added.

    Susan Keane, a public health expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Reuters she doesn’t believe the world needs a “water day” to be reminded of the water shortages facing our future.

    “I don’t know why anyone should need to be reminded of this, because it’s so obviously important and so obviously solvable,” Keane said.