A new study examines energy inequality for income classes across 86 countries, from highly industrialised to developing ones, revealing extreme disparity in energy footprints, both within nations and globally.
Read More
https://techxplore.com/news/2020-03-international-energy-inequality.html
Views: 0
ALOR STAR: E-wallet scammers are now resorting to offering cash amounting to RM100-RM300 to those who submit their identity cards to open their e-wallet accounts
Kedah Commercial Crime Investigation Department (JSJK) head Supt Elias Omar said the scammer-appointed agents would prey on victims from low-income groups or drug addicts before asking for their identity cards to help register e-wallet accounts.
“Prior to that, the victims will be promised instant cash of between RM100 and RM300 if their e-wallet registration application is successful, thus compelling the victims to handover their identity cards willingly.
“The agent will fill out the application form using the victim’s name and identity card while the phone number and address will be filled with the scammer’s information. This is to make it easier for scammers to obtain their victim’s Transaction Authorisation Code (TAC) number and have access to the victim’s bank account,” he told a media conference here today.
He said the scammer would then contact another victim and impersonate the police or the court before directing the victim to transfer some money into an e-wallet account that was opened using an identity card obtained from the previous victim.
“The scammer will contact the victims and inform them that they are involved in a drug case and to avoid having their assets frozen, the victims will have to transfer all their money into the e-wallet accounts provided. The scammers use this e-wallet method because it is difficult for the police to detect.
“From Jan 1 to Feb 29, 25 investigation papers involving such cases have been opened involving a loss of RM600,000,“ he said.
He said up to 50 individuals had provided their identity cards for e-wallet account registration but were unaware that their identity cards and personal information have been misused by scammers out for a profit.
Meanwhile, Elias said acting on information, police have arrested two 23-year-old men who were soliciting public identification cards in early March in the Kuala Muda district.
“One of them is a scammer-appointed agent and for each successful identification card, the agent received RM50 as payment. Six mobile phones, 13 telco sim cards and six ATM cards were also seized.
“We are looking for another 34-year-old who is believed to be able to assist with the case and people with information can also contact the Kedah JSJK or the Kuala Muda JSJK. The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code,“ he said. — Bernama
Read More
https://www.thesundaily.my/local/e-wallet-scammers-offer-cash-as-latest-modus-operandi-HJ2128999
Views: 0
See for yourself in this “Day in the life” interview with Vanguard Financial Analyst Andy Maack.
Read More
https://investornews.vanguard/what-its-like-on-the-fixed-income-trading-floor/
Views: 0
KUALA LUMPUR: The government has been urged to set up a special unit or agency to record and monitor income sources and assets of lawmakers including ministers and deputy ministers as well as members of parliament.
Political analyst Prof Datuk Dr Nasrudin Mohammed (pix) said that the proposal was to ensure information or data on assets owned by these individuals to be recorded holistically and in transparent manner with the objective of upholding integrity.
“Similar to other countries where they have a special agency which is an asset regulator or a register of interests that will record and monitor assets owned by certain individuals in transparent manner,” he said.
He said this when appearing as a guest in the programme Buletin Bernama on Bernama TV today.
Nasrudin, a lecturer at the Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Shah Alam, said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) jurisdiction is to conduct enforcement and investigations on corruption, and not as an agency or entity to manage record of individuals’ assets.
He said currently the country does not have a specialised modules related to asset declaration for the purpose.
In order to establish a module or mechanism for asset declaration, it would take a while to formulate as various aspects have to be taken into account, he said.
He added that among the aspects that needed to be emphasised were the subjects (individuals involved), and those who have close relations to these individuals, should also be required to declare their assets, as practiced in developed countries.
“Even the types of assets also need to be recorded and clearly identified,” he added.
The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) guidelines can be used as a guide for Malaysia to devise a special module on asset declaration, he said.
Nasruddin said the move (asset declaration) would strengthen the people’s confidence in the integrity of the leaders especially the ministers.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, at the first Cabinet meeting of the new government, ordered all Cabinet members to declare their assets and they were given a month to do so as part of government commitment to combat corruption. — Bernama
Read More
https://www.thesundaily.my/local/special-unit-should-be-established-to-record-lawmakers-income-assets-analyst-CC2127598
Views: 0
LONDON: Football Association chairman Greg Clarke has reportedly told the Premier League he does not believe the domestic football season will be completed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Premier League suspended all fixtures at an emergency meeting on Friday. Matches in the English Football League, FA Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship are also on hold.
“It was unanimously decided to suspend the Premier League with the intention of returning on April 4, subject to medical advice and conditions at the time,“ the Premier League said in a statement.
Clarke said at the meeting that he did not think it was feasible for the season to be completed, according to a report in the Times.
The virus is not expected to peak in Britain for many weeks, raising doubts over an early April re-start for the Premier League.
The Times said it is understood that Brighton and Hove Albion chief executive Paul Barber also questioned the brevity of the suspension.
Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, is reported to have said it would at least allow time to consider the potential consequences and debate the possible solutions.
The decision was taken after Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi tested positive for Covid-19.
Arteta welcomed the move to put the season on hold.
“Feeling better already,“ he tweeted. “We’re all facing a huge & unprecedented challenge. Everyone’s health is all that matters right now.”
Liverpool are 25 points clear at the top of the Premier League with nine games remaining, chasing their first English top-flight title for 30 years.
If results had gone their way this weekend they could have wrapped up the title at Everton on Monday but manager Jurgen Klopp said he supported the move to suspend football.
He said in a club statement: “If it’s a choice between football and the good of the wider society, it’s no contest. Really, it isn’t.”
Financial hit
Football clubs at all levels face enormous losses if the season is not completed.
One senior figure in broadcasting told the Times: “The commercial reality for the Premier League and (European governing body) UEFA is that if they don’t complete their seasons then they are in breach of their broadcasting contracts.
“You would have broadcasters from all around the world saying, ‘In that case we are not paying for the season.’ For the Premier League you are talking around £3 billion (RM15.75 billion) income a year from overseas and domestic TV rights. There would also be financial implications if the competitions were squeezed so fewer matches were played.”
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire told the BBC that clubs, especially in the lower divisions, would be hit hard by the disruption.
“I think many clubs are going to struggle significantly,“ he said. “Many clubs are surviving on a match-to-match basis and are reliant on the loyal few thousand turning up.
“We have to consider the staff at clubs, they are reliant on the income they get from football clubs to pay their own bills as well.”
The Premier League clubs are reportedly due to meet again next Thursday.
There are matches taking place on Saturday in the National League – the fifth tier of English football – but a number of games have been postponed, including the Yeovil v Barnet fixture.
“We currently have four staff that are showing symptoms of Covid-19 who are following government advice and self-isolating,“ Barnet said in a statement.
“As a consequence, we have taken measures to put all first-team staff into self-isolation.” — AFP
Read More
https://www.thesundaily.my/sport/premier-league-may-not-finish-says-fa-chief-DC2127566
Views: 0
The tables below list Vanguard mutual funds and ETFs (exchange-traded funds) that will distribute quarterly income dividends in March 2020.
Read More
https://investornews.vanguard/upcoming-capital-gains-information/
Views: 0
Frontline health workers represent the lifeblood of many healthcare systems in low- and middle-income countries around the world. Often overworked and underpaid, these workers operate outside hospital settings to meet the community’s poorest people where they live and work, ensuring healthcare initiatives impact the families that need them most.
Read More
Views: 0
The World Health Organization’s new action plan to speed up universal access to safe blood and blood products pulls together existing recommendations and recommends new improved ways of working. It’s the start of a four-year collaborative effort to improve blood transfusion and blood-based therapies in all countries.
Safe blood saves lives in all sorts of circumstances, not least in emergency and epidemic settings. Blood transfusion and blood products are critical for birth delivery for both the mother and baby; the survival and quality of life of patients suffering from life-threatening conditions such as haemophilia, thalassemia, immune deficiency and cancer; treating severe injuries and carrying out medical and surgical procedures.
But progress in blood safety and availability has been slow in many parts of the world, placing patients’ safety at risk and putting undue pressure on health workers. Progress is also mostly restricted to developed countries. Out of the approximate 118 million blood donations collected globally, 42% are collected in high-income countries, home to 16 % of the world’s population. And one out of four low-income countries do not test all donated blood, while 54% of countries do not have surveillance systems to securitise the supply chain from blood donor to patient.
Challenges include: slow implementation of national blood policies and weak blood regulatory systems; insufficient number of voluntary blood donors (who are considered the safest donors); poor quality management of screening tests, blood grouping and compatibility testing; inappropriate clinical use of blood; insufficient national funding for blood safety.
To address these, WHO has set out six key objectives for all countries and in particular those with weak blood systems:
The Organization looks forward to working with partners worldwide to implement the plan, improve blood supply particularly in the low and middle-income countries where this is so urgently needed, and save lives. The plan will run from 2020-2024.
Read More
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/26-02-2020-who-steps-up-action-to-improve-access-to-safe-blood
Views: 0
Vaccination, screening, treatment and palliative care are the key interventions of WHO’s Draft Global Strategy towards the Elimination of Cervical Cancer as a Public Health Problem,
the fourth most common cancer in women.
On World Cancer Day, new estimates show that this strategy could save more than 62 million girls and women from a cervical cancer death and prevent 74 million cases within the next 100 years – but only if these interventions are used effectively
together.
These estimates, published by the WHO Cervical Cancer Elimination Modelling Consortium (CCEMC) in The Lancet, are based on the draft strategy’s targets to achieve a global coverage of 90% vaccination, 70% screening and 90% treatment by 2030.
Developed by Member States, UN agencies and other partners, the draft global strategy seeks to redress the unequal burden of cervical cancer around the world. Nine in 10 cervical cancer deaths occur in low and lower-middle-income countries, where
women lack access to health services.
As Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s Director-General has said, “It doesn’t have to be this way. Cervical cancer
is one of the most preventable and treatable forms of cancer, as long as it is detected early and managed effectively.”
This new analysis compares the impact of vaccination, screening and treatment of cervical pre-cancer lesions as single or combined interventions. Focusing on 78 countries where cervical cancer mortality is highest, the results clearly show that no
single intervention will be sufficient to reduce levels of cervical cancer in the next 100 years to below the elimination target of 4 cases per 100,000 women per year.
Acting immediately on all three fronts is crucial.
Vaccinating girls against cancer-causing types of human papillomavirus (HPV) before the age of 15 is the foundation for bringing every country’s incidence rate of cervical cancer down to the agreed elimination level.
Right now, however, vaccination is not enough. As a single strategy, vaccination targets would only deliver a 0.1% reduction in cervical cancer mortality by 2030. Scaling up screening and treatment of cervical pre-cancer lesions at the same time would
reduce mortality by more than one third, or 300,000 deaths, in the same period.
The evidence shows that when all adult women are screened for cervical cancer at least twice, at ages 35 and 45, abnormalities are more likely to be detected before they become cancerous. When cancer has developed, screening increases a women’s
likelihood of early and successful treatment, as well as palliative care if recovery is no longer an option.
Meeting these triple-intervention targets would be a major contribution to target 3.4 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a one-third reduction in premature mortality from non-communicable diseases by 2030.
WHO’s global strategy towards eliminating cervical cancer aims to set the world on the right track by 2030, but it is just the beginning.
At this pace, global elimination of cervical cancer is not predicted until 2120.
While high HPV vaccination coverage is the primary prevention intervention, ensuring every woman has two cervical screenings in her life would accelerate elimination by 11 – 31 years, depending on the country.
If no action is taken, cervical cancer deaths will rise almost 50% by 2030. Approval of the draft global strategy at the WHO World Health Assembly in 2020, and investment in mechanisms to deliver it, is vital.
As the new World Cancer Report shows, only 18% of countries that currently provide screening for cervical cancer reached the recommended target of more than 70% coverage. An estimated 55% of low-income countries that reported offering
cervical cancer screening generally lack accessible radiotherapy or surgery services.
Elimination of cervical cancer is possible within the lifetime of today’s youngest girls, but the clock starts now and every intervention counts.
Read More
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/04-02-2020-to-eliminate-cervical-cancer-in-the-next-100-years
Views: 0
The World Health Organization (WHO) today spells out the need to step up cancer services in low and middle-income countries. WHO warns that, if current trends continue, the world will see a 60% increase in cancer cases over the next two decades. The greatest increase (an estimated 81%) in new cases will occur in low- and middle-income countries, where survival rates are currently lowest.
This is largely because these countries have had to focus limited health resources on combating infectious diseases and improving maternal and child health, while health services are not equipped to prevent, diagnose and treat cancers. In 2019, more than 90% of high-income countries reported that comprehensive treatment services for cancer were available in the public health system compared to less than 15% of low-income countries.
“This is a wake-up call to all of us to tackle the unacceptable inequalities between cancer services in rich and poor countries,” says Dr Ren Minghui, Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage/ Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases, World Health Organization. “If people have access to primary care and referral systems then cancer can be detected early, treated effectively and cured. Cancer should not be a death sentence for anyone, anywhere.”
Yet, progress in poorer countries is achievable. WHO and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) are releasing two coordinated reports on World Cancer Day (4 February), in response to government calls for more research into the scope and potential policies and programmes to improve cancer control.
“At least 7 million lives could be saved over the next decade, by identifying the most appropriate science for each country situation, by basing strong cancer responses on universal health coverage, and by mobilizing different stakeholders to work together”, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO.
WHO highlights a wide range of proven interventions to prevent new cancer cases. These include controlling tobacco use (responsible for 25% of cancer deaths), vaccinating against hepatitis B to prevent liver cancer, eliminating cervical cancer by vaccinating against HPV, screening and treatment, implementing high-impact cancer management interventions that bring value for money and ensuring access to palliative care including pain relief.
“The past 50 years have seen tremendous advances in research on cancer prevention and treatment,” says Dr Elisabete Weiderpass, Director of IARC. “Deaths from cancer have been reduced. High-income countries have adopted prevention, early diagnosis and screening programmes, which together with better treatment, have contributed to an estimated 20% reduction in the probability of premature mortality between 2000 and 2015, but low-income countries only saw a reduction of 5%. We need to see everyone benefitting equally.” The challenge will be for countries to select treatments balancing considerations including cost, feasibility and effectiveness. Each government is tasked with choosing the appropriate innovative cancer therapies, while recognizing that established treatments, many of which are very effective and affordable, can provide benefits for cancer without causing financial hardship.
World Health Organization
Report on Cancer: Setting priorities, investing wisely and providing care for all
The report aims to set the global agenda on cancer, mobilize stakeholders and help countries set priorities for investing in cancer control and universal health coverage. It introduces the principles, tools and current priority cancer control interventions in the context of the current and future cancer burden and opportunities.
International Agency for Research on Cancer
World Cancer Report “Cancer research for cancer prevention”
The report focuses on prevention and offers the most comprehensive overview of relevant research available to date, ranging from descriptive etiology, cellular and molecular biology, toxicology and pathology through to behavioural and social science. Key chapters include discussions on the impact of inequalities in cancer, vaccination and screening, genomic individual susceptibility to cancer and the finer identification of those at risk, which may allow ‘precision cancer prevention’.
Read More
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/04-02-2020-who-outlines-steps-to-save-7-million-lives-from-cancer
Views: 0