Melbourne emerges world’s swine flu capital: Repo

With cases of H1N1 virus soaring in Melbourne, the city has emerged as the “swine-flu capital of the world”, a report said on Saturday.

Australiaat present has 1,006 confirmed cases of swine flu, of which 874 were detected in the state ofVictoria concentrated mostly in the north and west of its capital Melbourne, according to the health department.

The latest figures from the World Health Organisation says that the US has 11,131 confirmed cases of swine flu and Mexico has 5,029, ‘The Australian’ newspaper reported.

“With the state’s comparatively small population, this means swine flu occurs in about one in 9,139 Victorians -- more than double the one in 21,860 Mexicans with the virus and triple the one in 27,295 people with swine flu in the US”, the report said.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said on Friday that the increased number of confirmed swine flu cases inVictoria was a credit to the government´s testing procedures.

“Now that is actually a compliment to Victoria’s health system, and I don’t think it should be turned on its head to indicate there is some other reason for its spread,” she said.

Following a directive of National Health Protection Committee, other states and territories this week implemented voluntary quarantine measures for children returning from Victoria or greater Melbourne.

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Ukrainians injured as police dismantle Kiev 'tent city'

At least 10 demonstrators have been injured in clashes with Ukrainian police and another 100 detained in the capital Kiev after authorities began dismantling a makeshift "tent city" protesting against corruption. The tent city was set up in October by supporters of Mikheil Saakashvili, a former president of Georgia who has become an opposition politician in Ukraine. Saakashvili, a critic of corruption in Ukraine, was deported to Poland in February. He said he was "kidnapped" by Ukrainian authorities and removed from the country against his will. Andriy Kryshchneko, police chief of police, said at the camp on Saturday that "two court decisions" allowed authorities to search and dismantle the camp. Police said that explosives and other weapons were found at the scene

PayPal wants report from Sri Lanka: Sampath, three other banks to introduce service

Though the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) was first to introduce PayPal to Sri Lanka through the Sampath Bank, it is revealed that three other banks too have been now earmarked by the CBSL. A senior official from the CBSL told AdaderanaBiz, “We were to first introduce PayPal through the Sampath Bank. However, we now plan to introduce this service to the country through four banks. We also plan to gradually involve the rest of the banks in the country.” While the CBSL is discussing with the PayPal branch in India to introduce the service to Sri Lanka, PayPal’s Indian arm has reportedly requested a report on Sri Lanka’s exports. The senior CBSL official told AdaderanaBiz that they would be submitting such a report and hence the introduction of PayPal to Sri Lanka would face a slight delay. Though cash cannot be remitted to Sri Lanka through the world renowned PayPal money transfer service sending money from Sri Lanka is possible even now.

ASSIGNING OF PREFERENTIAL NUMBERS FOR LG POLLS COMPLETED

The Election Secretariat announced that assigning preferential numbers for candidates of the Local Government election to be held for 67 bodies has been completed. Preparations are currently underway to hold the polls under the 2010 electoral register, Additional Elections Commissioner W.P. Sumanasiri said. The electoral register of the year 2010 is scheduled to be certified on June 31.

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