Alcohol sales dip for first time in years

RC NEWS

Statistics on sales of alcohol showed a drop last year, but retailers aren’t convinced we’re drinking less.

People drank less alcohol in 2009 than the previous year – the first drop for several years.

The latest figures for first three quarters of 2009 depict a 20 percent decrease in the quantity of taxable alcohol reported sold across the board. And the average of 11.7 litres of pure alcohol bought per person for the year was 1.5 litres less than five years ago.

Brewers’ organisation Bryggeriforeningen said that beer sales within the industry dipped 8 percent for 2009 compared to the previous year, while wine sales dropped by 14 percent during the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2008.

Alcohol consumption had been gradually climbing for many years prior to 2009, according to Statistics Denmark.

But while industry businesses may lament last year’s figures, Board of Health alcohol expert Kit Broholm is one person who is pleased by the numbers.

’Nobody knows for sure why consumption has fallen. But it’s probably due to the growing focus on health and lifestyle,’ said Broholm.

’More and more people are aware of the physical and social damage caused by high alcohol consumption while trying to maintain a busy life with jobs and a family.’

Another reason, according to health experts, is that Danes are starting to embrace healthier lifestyles and exercising more.

But the nation’s largest supermarket chains, Dansk Supermarked and Coop, aren’t buying the statistics at face value. They say that more Danes are heading across the border to purchase their alcohol, and those figures therefore don’t show up in the statistics.

Although Danish supermarket giants complain about lower sales, it is because of lack of competition in Denmark that leads consumers to shop abroad in Germany and Sweden, says Erik Holm Jensen, head of border trade organisation IGG.

’Danes are at least as intelligent as other EU citizens. They follow pricing very closely,’ Jensen told news agency Newspaq.

The Copenhagem Post

As storm approaches Southern California, evacuations ordered for L.A. hillsides

Foothill areas north of Los Angeles are under a flash flood watch as another winter storm approaches, threatening burn areas with more mudslides and prompting mandatory evacuations for hundreds of homes.

Showers and thunderstorms are expected to drop between 1/3 of an inch to 2 inches of rain starting Tuesday afternoon through Tuesday night, said forecasters with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Though the storm will be patchy and "showery," forecasters said it could dump more than a half-inch of rain an hour in some areas.

Los Angeles County authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders Monday night for more than 500 residences in mudslide-prone areas in La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta and Acton. Sheriff's deputies are ordering residents to leave their homes by 10 a.m. Tuesday

A complete list of all addresses to be evacuated can be found on the Web page of the county Department of Public Works.

Evacuation centers will be set up at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, 2411 Montrose Ave., Montrose, and the Acton Community Center at 3748 Nickels Ave. in Acton, authorities said.

Crews are working to clear debris basins that filled up during the storm Saturday, when mud flows damaged more than 40 homes.

Some residents in La Cañada Flintridge have questioned whether the county's emergency notification system worked properly. 

--Tony Barboza and Robert J. Lopez

Photo: Several homes were red-tagged on Manistee Drive in La Cañada Flintridge after weekend mudslides.  Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

Aviator reaches 2,000 combat hours in flight

By Sgt. Travis Zielinski, 1st ACB, 1st CAV DIV, USD-C

CAMP TAJI, Iraq -- Ask Chief Warrant Officer Anthony Potter what it takes to reach 2,000 combat flight hours and he'll tell you it requires the support of a loving family and fellow Soldiers.

Before being a senior in high school, the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter instructor pilot from Company C, 3rd Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry, said he always knew that he wanted to fly; that he wanted to be a pilot.

So when it came time to choose a college, he made it abundantly clear aviation would be in his future.

After graduating from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University with a degree in aeronautical science, a prospective employer told the Waldorf, Md., native, he lacked maintenance experience required for the job. The comment later became the push which led Potter to the military.

Enlisting in the Army as an aircraft engine mechanic, Potter felt flying rather than fixing helicopters would be a better fit for him, so he decided to turn in a flight packet for warrant officer school.

"My maintenance platoon leader helped me put a packet together. I guess he saw the potential maybe," said Potter. "In 2000, I got picked up for warrant on the first look; it was just the luck of the draw".

Four deployments and 52 combat zone months later, Potter enjoys the notoriety of having logged 2,000 flight hours in support of various operations in the Global War on Terrorism. To date, he actually has a total of 2,700 hours.

He sees the 2,000 hours as a symbol of not only the work he has done in Iraq, but the work done to protect his son from harm. Potter said it also symbolizes the special dates missed, to include anniversaries, birthdays and holidays, as well as his son growing up.

"I have not been home for Thanksgiving once in the last six years. I saw my son take his first steps via webcam: the potty training - I didn't have any part of that," said Potter. "It is just the little things like that that I have missed and I will never get back".

The support his wife has shown him over the years, though, has kept Potter at a point where he can focus on his mission at hand and not have to worry about affairs back home.

"I could not deal with issues out here and deal with issues back home; my wife shelters everything that is happening back home from me," said Potter. "She handles everything. She has basically been a single mom for the last four years - I have the best wife in the world".

Having been away from home for the majority of his five-year-old son's life, Potter takes every opportunity to talk with him and hopes to never take those moments for granted.

"I call my wife every night; she tells me what is going on and how my son is doing and I talk to my son as much as I can so he gets to know me," said Potter. 

Potter's first and second deployments were spent working as a medevac pilot, dealing with routine calls for patient transfers to urgent assistance of casualties resulting from a combat engagement.

"In the first nine months of being a deployed medevac pilot, my crew had done 189 urgent calls and transferred over 400 patients," said Potter. "I brought back seven dead Soldiers, and that sticks with me ... I can still see all of them".

One of the most horrific memories of his time as a medevac pilot was the aircraft washes, which had to be done on a frequent basis because of all the blood remaining inside the aircraft from their patients, said Potter.

"The year was set at a fast pace because of the short number of crews and the amount of calls - it basically became a year without sleep," said Potter. 

Despite the hard memories, Potter still has solid reasons to enjoy flying in a combat zone as compared to flying in the United States. 

"I actually like flying in Iraq better, other than the part of being shot at," he said. "To me, it is easier to fly out here; the flying is more tactical versus the technical flying in the states".

Now filling the role of an instructor pilot in an assault helicopter battalion on this deployment, Potter's duties include making sure the aviators within his company maintain their abilities to pilot a Black Hawk to the highest standards.

"My job is easy to help train these guys; they are better pilots than I was when I was at their level," said Potter. "My job is to make sure they take care of the mission, but they are the ones actually doing the mission".

Potter said the ability to help mentor younger pilots while being deployed, hopefully making them better and safer, may also allow him to move to different positions where he can spend more time with his family.

"I feel guilty about being gone for so long. I just want my son with me all the time when I am home," said Potter. "My wife tells me I spoil our son, but I can't help it because I am gone so much".

Gone or not, Potter still has high hopes for his son, as do most fathers: "I can't wait until my son is old enough to reach the pedals so I can teach him how to fly".

U.S. Army

Study Finds Emirati Teachers under Stress

Afshan Ahmed 

Young Emiratis enrolled in teacher education programmes must be taught to cope with stress to continue in the profession, according to the findings of a federal university study.

The study, conducted by three professors of the Bachelors in Education programme at the Fujairah Women’s College, Higher Colleges of Technology, gathered data based on interviews with 38 graduate teachers from the 2005 and 2007 batches.

The teachers, currently employed in primary and preparatory public schools in Fujairah, spoke of challenges they faced beyond the college classroom and in schools.

Martha Banfa, course leader at the college, said the research prompted the faculty to think of motivational strategies. “We noticed that the teachers were dealing with a lot of stress and we did not know it was a major problem,” she said.

More than half the respondents said they were not given dedicated classrooms and expressed frustration at having to relocate equipment and materials. They also spoke of difficulties in classroom management.

In another study, Dr Janet Y. Thomas, Assistant Professor in the College of Education at the Zayed University, analysed the needs of first generation of Emirati women in schools to find several pressing issues.

It was found crowded classrooms, lack of resources, administrative demands and unattractive compensation were roadblocks to successful Emiratization of teachers.

About 77 per cent of the 60 students surveyed said they were motivated to be a part of the education landscape. “Neither of their parents had received college education, so they were very concerned about the state of education in the country,” Thomas said. “We can attract them, but the problem is that we cannot retain them”.

At the National Education Research Forum in the Sharjah Women’s College, where she presented her paper on Tuesday, Thomas recommended that education leaders should consider pedagogic and curricular reforms relevant to the culture of the country.

Shafaa Al Menhali, a student of the Bachelors of Education programme at the Abu Dhabi Women’s College, said: “We need more Emirati teachers, who can (introduce) both a progressive and cultural model in education”.

Khaleej Times

Nigerian deputy to act as president

Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria's vice-president, has been empowered by the country's parliament to take over as head of state in the absence of the nation's ailing president.

Both houses of the national assembly on Tuesday voted to install Jonathan as acting leader, until Umaru Yar-Adua declares he is fit enough to return.

"The vice-president ... shall henceforth discharge the functions of the office of the president, commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the federation, as acting president," the Senate motion said.

But it was not immediately clear if the parliamentary vote had legal sanction, with no provisions in the constitution for the national assembly to take such a step.

'Coup plot'

Festus Keyamo, a constitutional lawyer, said the move was illegal.

"What they have done amounts to a coup plot. It is a desperate decision by desperate politicians who were trying to save their face," Keyamo told the AFP news agency.

Nigeria's constitution says the president must make a written declaration that he is on vacation or unable to carry out his duties before a transfer of power can take place.

Yar'Adua has been receiving treatment for a heart condition in Saudi Arabia since last November.

The senate said it based its decision on a January 12 interview with the BBC, in which the president said he would return to work once his doctors cleared him.

"We came to the conclusion that the president, through his declaration transmitted worldwide on the BBC, has furnished this parliament with irrefutable proof that he is on medical vacation ... and has therefore complied with the provision of section 145 of the 1999 constitution," David Mark, the senate president, said.

"The last 78 days have been very challenging to us as a nation ...however we have examined all options available to us and today rightly concluded it is necessary to take this stance to allow this country to move forward," he said.

Yar'Adua's absence has caused a cease-fire with fighters in the oil-rich Niger Delta to unravel and had left no one formally in charge of the nation of 150 million.

Al Jazeera

Russia hopes for positive relations with Ukraine's new leadership

Russia on Tuesday congratulated Viktor Yanukovich on his victory in Ukraine's presidential election, saying that it hoped for better ties with his government.

"We hope that relations with the new Ukrainian government will be positive and efficient," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

President Dmitry Medvedev and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill congratulated Yanukovych earlier on Tuesday.

"Medvedev has congratulated Yanukovych on the completion of the election campaign, which was given a high assessment by international observers, and his victory in the presidential election," the Kremlin said in a statement.

The Ukrainian Central Election Commission has not officially announced the results of the election, but 99.95% of ballots counted, opposition leader Yanukovych has an insurmountable 3.47% lead over his opponent, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Tymoshenko has not conceded defeat, however, and her camp signaled they would contest the outcome of the polls.

The Kremlin was quick to congratulate Yanukovych in 2004, when initial results gave him victory over Viktor Yushchenko in an election that international observers declared flawed.

Demands for a recount triggered the "Orange Revolution," led by Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, which forced a rerun of the second round of the election that was won by Yushchenko.

MOSCOW, February 9

RIA Novosti

City Steps Up Efforts to Protect Homeless From Cold

By Natalya Krainova

Just a few weeks ago, Anatoly Varvyansky still had feet.

But in the midst of the recent cold snap, he made an ill-fated decision. "I met a friend, we drank," he confessed reluctantly in a recent interview from his bed in a local hospital.

After passing out drunk in the streets of Moscow, where he makes his home, someone stole his boots, Varvyansky said. His frostbitten feet could not be saved. Amputation was the only option.

Varvyansky is one of the dozens of casualties of frostbite and hypothermia hospitalized daily in Moscow during the winter months. Like Varvyansky, most of these victims are among the thousands of homeless living on the streets of Moscow.

But thanks in part to increased efforts by City Hall and private charity organizations to protect the homeless from the cold, the human toll of freezing temperatures in Moscow appears to be declining.

Hypothermia deaths in Moscow have declined steadily over the past decade, from 1,130 deaths in 2001 to 359 in 2008, according to latest available data from the city health department.

The reports on the department's web site do not indicate the reasons for the decline or how many of the victims were homeless. But Andrei Pentyukhov, City Hall's point man for providing social services to the homeless, said his team has intensified its efforts to combat cold-related injuries in recent years, including both weekly foot patrols and daily car patrols to find potential victims before it is too late.

These patrols offer homeless people immediate medical assistance and, if necessary, transport to a hospital or homeless shelter, Pentyukhov said. Some are later moved to homes for the disabled or elderly, he said.

The patrols also distribute lists among the homeless with addresses for the city's eight shelters, which can accommodate about 1,500 people, Pentyukhov said.

Life for Moscow's homeless is, of course, not easy. But it gets much more difficult when the frost hits.

Several years ago, homeless people could warm up in the stairwells or basements of apartment buildings or seek refuge in manholes leading to central heating pipes, said Alexander Kabardin, who has lived on the streets of Moscow for seven years.

Now almost every apartment building has a door code, the basements are locked, and the manholes have been welded shut, said Kabardin, who also had parts of his frostbitten legs amputated in the same hospital ward as Varvyansky.

Most of the homeless who seek refuge in shelters are those who have no permanent registration or who are formally registered in Moscow but have been kicked out by relatives. These people receive help in seeking employment and permanent housing.

"If a person wants to lead a normal life, a shelter will help him get out of his dire circumstances," Pentyukhov said.

Authorities are capable of reducing the number of homeless people, but legislation is needed to foster cooperation between state agencies tasked with assisting those on the street, said Natalya Kuznetsova, who oversees assistance for the homeless at the charity organization Miloserdie, or "Mercy." Tackling alcoholism nationwide, as President Dmitry Medvedev has vowed, and boosting economic development in the regions is also crucial, Kuznetsova said.

Many of the homeless in Moscow are migrants from poorer Russian regions and former Soviet republics who came here to work but ended up losing their jobs and documents.

They have homes in their native regions but no means to return.

Varvyansky, 45, said he actually has a place to live in his native Ukraine but that he has lived on the streets of Moscow for the last six months after he quit his construction job in the Moscow region and had his documents stolen.

"I would have returned home if I could," he said.

The Moscow Times

Three arrested for killing of Swedish soldiers

Three men have been arrested in Afghanistan on suspicion of being connected to the deaths of the two Swedish soldiers near Mazar-e Sharif on Sunday, according to a report in the Expressen newspaper.

"The police believe that they could have a connection to the man who shot," the newspaper's correspondent reports from the Swedish Camp Northern Lights in Mazar-e Sharif.

"The police are talking as if they are terrorists, but can not say which group they belong to before the investigation is completed," the correspondent reports.

The plane due to carry the slain soldiers home to Sweden has been delayed. 

The plane had been due to carry 28-year-old Captain Johan Palmlöv and 31-year-old Lieutenant Gunnar Andersson home from Afghanistan on Tuesday and had been scheduled to land at around 6pm local time at Ärna airport near Uppsala.

Due to adverse weather conditions in Afghanistan the plane was not able to take off, according to a Swedish military statement on Tuesday morning.

"As soon as the weather allows the plane will take off from the German airforce base Marmal outside of Mazar-e Sharif".

A farewell ceremony will be held for the Swedish officers in the chapel at Camp Northern Lights just prior to their departure to give their fellow soldiers the chance to pay their respects.

A further homecoming ceremony will be held at Ärna airport on arrival.

In the two days following the death of the officers and their Afghan interpreter Shahab, the Swedish forces in Afghanistan have been working intensively to offersupport to those soldiers that remain stationed in the war-torn country.

In a statement on the Swedish military's website, it is underlined that support from Sweden has been important in this work.

"We are grateful for the support given by friends and acquaintances and from the Swedish people," said Lieutenant Mattias Isaksson, rifle company platoon commander.

"It gives us extra strength to carry on with our important work. Johan's and Gunnar's deaths should not be in vain," Lieutenant Colonel Gustaf Wallerfelt continued. 

Swedish public opinion remains in favour of maintaining troops in Afghanistan despite Sunday's death, a new Sifo poll published in the Aftonbladet newspaper on Tuesday shows.

Almost half of the Swedish population, 46 percent, think that the troops should stay with 35 percent stating that the 500-strong Swedish ISAF-led force (FS18) should be brought home. 19 percent expressed no opinion.

The changes on a previous poll from 2009 are only marginal.

Of the parliamentary political parties, only the Left Party has expressed open opposition to the deployment.

Palmlöv, Andersson and Shahab were part of the patrol which came under fire on Sunday near a police station, 40 kilometres west of Mazar-e Sharif, near the village of Gurgi Tappeh.

Soldiers in the patrol have confirmed that their attacker was dressed in an Afghan police officer's uniform. His identity is the subject of the military police investigation.

TT/Peter Vinthagen Simpson

The Local | Germany