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Tested by the virus
By Andrey Kulikov, Irina Shterman (Chita – Irkutsk) Elvira Novikova and Yulia Potapova
Gennady Onishchenko approved the actions of Trans-Baikal doctors.
Russia’s chief sanitary doctor, Gennady Onishchenko, visited the Trans-Baikal Krai, where the first A/H1N1 deaths had been recorded.
The head of the Rospotrebnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Consumers Protection) visited several pharmacies and hospitals, spoke with doctors and patients, and then held a private meeting with regional authorities. Additional measures of fighting the seasonal flu and SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) were discussed. Onishchenko approved the epidemic fighting methods that had been selected by the regional government.
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“The measures that have been enforced in the region are adequate in the current situation,” he said. “Quarantine, which had been introduced in schools since October 20, prohibition to hold large public events, and introduction of a mask regime, significantly reduced the number of infections. Moreover, drug supplies are constantly monitored in the region; an additional number of beds has been provided by the hospitals. So, those who are infected, have the opportunity to receive necessary treatment.”
The head of Rospotrebnadzor noted that working hours at clinics have been extended to 9:00 p.m. and shuttle buses are being used as additional emergency vehicles. According to him, these methods can successfully be implemented in other regions. And, according to the head of Rospotrebnadzor, doctors cannot be held responsible for the lethal cases (remember that three women have died from swine flu in the Trans-Baikal Krai).
“These patients were engaged in self-treatment; and, at the time they sought professional help, it was simply too late. Highly pathogenic influenza is a disease that calls for meticulous treatment.”
Swine flu vaccinations are expected to begin in early November, almost a month ahead of schedule. Representatives of the Irkutsk bacterial preparations factory – a branch of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise, Microgen – told Rossiyskaya Gazeta (RG) that the first batches of A/H1N1 vaccine are ready and are being packaged. Ten million doses are expected to be produced by the end of the year. In Irkutsk, live vaccine is being produced, which can be used intranasally. The drug immediately creates a protective barrier, because the flu virus is transmitted through airborne droplets.
In Irkutsk, the vaccine will not be found in pharmacies; instead it will be administered in clinics. The first to be vaccinated are children and pregnant women, then those who are in high-risk categories - health workers and social workers, schoolchildren and students, as well as military personnel and transport system personnel.
Meanwhile
Of the five deaths caused by the A/H1N1 virus that have been reported so far in Russia, four occurred in Siberia. As of November 2, more than 700 cases of swine flu have been recorded in the Siberian Federal District. The epidemic is spreading rapidly. Two days ago, 31 new cases were recorded in the Novosibirsk Oblast. Victims are mainly children under the age of 17.
The highly pathogenic flu arrived in Siberia from the East -- according to most experts, from China.
According to recent statistics, in the Saratov Oblast, there were 41 people infected with swine flu, most of them children. The diagnosis has been confirmed. The outbreak of the virus occurred before the school holidays. Currently, High School Number 1 and School Number 83 are under quarantine. However, the Deputy Head of Rospotrebnadzor, Galina Babich, told RG that swine flu wasn’t the reason for the quarantine, but the fact that in both schools, the percentage of SARS cases had exceeded 30%.
In Kuzbass, laboratory tests confirmed six residents to be infected with the A/H1N1 virus: five kids aged 11 to 17 years and one five-year-old child. They are all from the Tisulsky district. According to Rospotrebnadzor, 10 people sought help from the Central District Hospital in Bolshoy Berchikul, but swine flu had not been confirmed in four of the patients.
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Terror has a feminine face
Mikhail Lukanin (North Caucasus)
Half of the graduates of terrorist school are young women.
In the North Caucasus, terrorists let their presence be known – this time in Dagestan. Yesterday, in the city of Khasavyurt, special forces destroyed three militants, including one female suicide bomber. A day earlier, a local Imam was killed in the Kizilyurt district. According to Trud’s sources, among the assassins were graduates of the Caucasus terrorist school. Militants have been actively recruiting female suicide bombers by buying them from their families for $3,000.
It was revealed yesterday that a 34-year-old Imam, Tinmagomed Razmanov, of the Bavtugay village in the Kizilyurt district, was recently shot next to his mosque. He was on his way home after evening prayers when he suffered several gun shots from unidentified gunmen. The Imam died in the ambulance. Authorities were unable to capture the perpetrators.
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On the night of November 2, special forces stormed a five-story building located on Shchorsa Street in the Dagestani town of Khasavyurt. According to special forces officers, three gunmen were located in the building. Federal Security Service (FSB) officers asked the militants to surrender. In response, the gunmen opened fire – and were destroyed. One of the dead was identified as Arslan Egizbayev, leader of the Khasavyurt gang. The other was his accomplice, Amir Salimgereyev. The third member of the gang was a young woman, 20-year-old Ashura Magomedova, whose name has not previously appeared in any operational reports. She was found clutching a grenade. She had wanted to blow herself up, but did not have enough time. Trud learned that Magomedova had been training to be a suicide bomber for a large-scale terrorist attack that was to take place in Dagestan.
In search for women
The last time a terrorist attack involving a woman took place in the republic was in October 2007, when a female suicide bomber blew herself up in a minibus near Kazbekovsky police department. Ten people were seriously injured. In neighboring Chechnya, the number of attacks involving women is continuously growing (this summer alone, there were six explosions, while in 2008, just one). On October 22, 2009 a terrorist base located in a private house in Grozny was destroyed. Two women who were in the house blew themselves up with grenades. A mini suicide belt production workshop was found in the building, along with means of self-detonation, communication and large number of Wahhabi literature. This was one of the branches of the terrorist school, which had been active in the North Caucasus since the summer of this year. Trud learned that Ashura Magomedova underwent training there.
According to Trud’s sources, in June, 2009, 30 suicide bombers graduated the terrorist school, 23 of whom blew themselves up, were killed or detained. According to Trud’s source from the Main Intelligence Directorate, at least 30 new students have been recruited to the school in September. Half of the new recruits are women aged 18-22 years.
“It is easier to recruit women to be suicide bombers than men,” Sergey Goncharov of the Group Alfa Veterans Association told Trud. “In some Muslim families, they are simply sold for $2,000 or $3,000.”
Statistics:
7 female suicide bombers blew themselves up or were destroyed during special operations in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan in June-November 2009
15 women are currently undergoing training in the terrorist school, branches of which are extended throughout private homes in the North Caucasus
$2,000-$3,000 is a one-time fee militants pay to the relatives of the young women enrolled in the suicide-bomber school.
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Programmer – terrorist
Maria Grishina (Jerusalem)
Israeli authorities found killers of Arabs and a Russian-speaking Jewish family.
In Israel, 37-year-old Jewish terrorist Yaakov (Jack) Teitel has been arrested. He is suspected of killing two Palestinians in 1997, as well as committing hate crimes against homosexuals, representatives of Israel’s leftist parties, and Messianic Jews. Teitel was detained on October 7, but the Israeli police barred making any information pertaining to the case public, fearing that publicity might prevent capturing the terrorist’s accomplices. Today, the police came to the conclusion that Teitel acted alone.
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Teitel, originally from Florida, made Israel his permanent residence in 2000. He owned a house in the West Bank settlement of Shvut Rachel. His father is a dentist who works on a US naval base. Teitel is a father of four who works from home as a programmer. He committed the killings of Palestinians in July-August of 1997, while visiting Israel as a tourist. His victims were an East Jerusalem taxi driver and a shepherd near the Palestinian city of Hebron.
Since 2000, having already become an Israeli citizen, Teitel has committed at least five terrorist acts. They include a September 2008 attack on a 73-year-old leftist professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Zeev Sternhell. An explosive device exploded near the professor’s home in Jerusalem; he sustained leg injuries. Police note that some of the terrorist’s explosives are particularly brutal. In February 2008, he sent a package to a family of Messianic Jews that was opened by a 15-year-old boy. The package contained a bomb made of nails and scraps of metal. The boy survived, but had to undergo nearly a dozen surgeries.
During the interrogation, the terrorist confessed to the August 1 attack on a gay club in Tel Aviv, in which 17-year-old Liz Trobushi and 26-year-old Nir Katz were killed. However, the police suspect that Teitel decided to take the blame while these killings were, in fact, committed by someone else.
Hatred toward sexual minorities is what gave away Teitel. He was arrested while hanging flyers directed against homosexuals and justifying the bombing of the Tel Aviv gay club. During his arrest, he tried getting rid of two bags in which two guns were later found. If proven guilty, Teitel faces life in prison. The suspect's lawyer claims that his client is mentally ill and “considers himself to be a messenger of God, who, at His request, is clearing the Earth of infidels.”
Yesterday, Israel gave permission to publish information on another criminal who, on October 17, brutally murdered a Jewish family that came from Tajikistan. This crime shocked Israel. The killer delivered multiple stab wounds to the six victims, including a six and a four-month-old child, after which he set fire to their home. The perpetrator was 39-year-old Dmitry Lakin, who, in Israel, changed his last name to Karlik (according to other sources – Kirilik). In Russia, he is wanted for other crimes, allegedly for outstanding loans. However, Israel did not extradite him to Russia. Israeli police said that Russian law enforcement agencies did not provide enough information for extradition. He came to Israel in 2004 from Chelyabinsk.
The motive for the crime was his dismissal from his job at the restaurant “Premier,” where he worked as the head waiter. The restaurant belonged to two members of the murdered family – 56-year-old Eduard Usherenko and his son, 32-year-old Dmitri (they both, including their wives, are among the victims). The suspect’s daughter also worked at the restaurant as a waitress. He was arrested in the Israeli resort city of Eilat, where perhaps he and his wife were planning on fleeing Israel by crossing the Egyptian border.
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