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Sunday, June 5, 2005

Switzerland is voting today on their quarterly federal referenda over same-sex partnerships and the Schengen/Dublin treaty. Both proposals were popular initiatives made by the Swiss people.

The first question is whether same-sex partnership should be legalised throughout the country. Already the cantons of Geneva and Zürich allow same-sex partnerships, however this proposal will cover the country including the conservative north-eastern cantons of Graubünden and Appenzell. In fact Appenzell Innerrhoden only allowed women the vote at cantonal level in 1990 by the Federal Tribunal of Switzerland.

Essentially, this proposal will allow gays and lesbians the right to have joint taxes, pensions and inheritance. To qualify, partners must both live together and formally commit themselves six months in advance to running a household and supporting and aiding one another.

The second proposal will make Switzerland be a member of the Schengen treaty and participate in the “open-borders” scheme. Supporters say it would encourage tourism and make visiting much easier, especially after the row over Swiss-German border a few months ago. Together with the Dublin treaty, it would make Switzerland join a bilateral agreement to stop asylum seekers having to seek asylum in Switzerland after claiming asylum in an agreement country such as Germany or France.

Opponents say this proposal will set Switzerland on a slippery slope into the European Union, not give Switzerland the right to its own borders and compromise the country’s strict and engrained neutrality.

Out of the big 4 main parties, the centre-left Social Democrats, the liberal-right Free Democrats and the centre-right Christian Democrats have said yes to both proposals. However, the populist-right Swiss People’s Party have said no to both proposals

Results will start being available today in the early evening.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

A 54-year-old German farmer who lost both arms in a farming accident six years ago has become the first patient to receive a complete double arm transplant. The patient, whose name has not been released, underwent the operation at the Klinikum rechts der Isar, part of the Technical University of Munich (Technische Universität München), last week; he is said to be recovering well.

The operation lasted 15 hours and was performed by a team of 40 specialists in Plastic Surgery, Hand Surgery, Orthopedics and Anesthesiology, under the direction of the head of the Plastics and Hand Surgery department, Prof. Hans-Günther Machens, Dr. Christoph Höhnke (Head of Transplants, Senior Physician; Plastics and Hand Surgery) and Prof. Edgar Biemer, the former Chief of Plastic Surgery at the Clinic.

In a press statement released by the clinic, it was revealed that the patient had been thoroughly physically checked and had psychological counselling prior to the surgery to ensure he was mentally stable enough to cope with the procedure. Since completion of the surgery, the patient has been on immuno-suppressant drugs to prevent rejection of the new limbs.

Following the surgery, the press release from the clinic’s press manager, Dr. Tanja Schmidhofer, included the following statement:

Without the immuno-suppressant drugs given to the patient, the risk of there being a Graft-versus-Host Reaction or GvHR, would have been significant due to the upper arm containing a large amount of bone marrow, consisting of ICC’s or Immuno-Competent Cells, which would have triggered a near total rejection of the new limbs. A GvHR is a condition which results in the cells from the transplant attacking the immune system of the body.

Indications from the clinic suggest that the double attachment went well, although it could be up to 2 full years before the patient is able to move the arms.

The donor arms came from an unnamed teenager, who is believed to have died in a car accident.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously approved Resolution 1701 calling for a “full cessation of hostilities” in the Israeli-Lebanon war and for international and Lebanese troops to replace Israeli troops in south Lebanon.

The UN decree comes on the heels of an Israeli government decision to expand its offensive in Lebanon. Sources say that Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert will bring the UN resolution to cabinet for discussion on Sunday. Daniel Ayalon, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, said that his government was likely to agree to the resolution.

“I do not want to preempt the Cabinet decision, but the language as I see it now — and I’m being careful — if the language of the resolution doesn’t change, I view this resolution very positively and, of course, the crux is implementation,” Ayalon said. “If this resolution will be enforced, then we solve the problem of Lebanon,” said the Israeli envoy.

Hezbollah officials have not responded to the UN action. The Lebanese cabinet meets Saturday to discuss the resolution.

Lebanese leaders have cautiously welcomed the resolution which had been delayed for almost a week due to negotiations over its wording. U.N. Ambassador Nouhad Mahmoud of Lebanon said; “The Lebanese are not comfortable with the Israeli distinctions of what is defensive and what is offensive.”

The resolution calls for Hezbollah to end its attacks on Israel and for Israel to end “offensive military operations” in Lebanon. It also raises the strength of the UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, the United Nations Interim Force (Unifil), from 2,000 to a maximum of 15,000, and gives it an expanded mandate to enforce the ceasefire. A portion of the UN language expanding that force’s Chapter 6 mandate reads: “Acting in support of a request from the government of Lebanon to deploy an international force to assist it to exercise its authority throughout the territory, authorizes Unifil to take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind… “

The U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, responding on Friday during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to the difference between a UN Chapter 7 mandate, and the current mandate for Unifil in Lebanon said:

So this force has a big mandate, it has a robust mandate, it has a mandate that will allow it to defend itself and to defend that mandate. But it’s never been the expectation that this force is going to disarm Hezbollah. That will have to be done by the Lebanese……Chapter 7 is very often used when a government is not prepared to accept a force. Lebanon is prepared to accept this force, but this is an absolutely robust mandate. This, by the way, is what helped the Israeli government. They were concerned earlier about the mandate. After we talked about this enhanced mandate in the revised resolution, I think the government of Israel saw that it met their needs.

Israel is to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon as UN and Lebanese troops are deployed. The resolution outlines plans for the disarmament of Hezbollah and for a settlement of the Israeli-Lebanese border.

The UN also called for the unconditional release by Hezbollah of two Israeli soldiers it captured on July 12th, precipitating the conflict.

123 Israelis, including 40 civilians, and 861 Lebanese, mostly civilians, have been killed in the 31-day old war.