Friday, October 28, 2011

Georgia: anthrax case discovered?

According to 1TV a 39 year old man is undergoing medical treatment at Tbilisi Hospital of Infectious Diseases with diagnosis of “Siberian Ulcer”. Siberian Ulcer is one of several colloquial names used to describe anthrax.

“The man was infected while buying the meat in the Gurjaani market.” Thankfully the man went to hospital in as soon as the symptoms became apparent and doctors claim that his health condition is satisfactory.

There was a similar case in Armenia several years ago when a 47 year old resident of the village of Akhuryan was transferred to the Gyumri clinic after being diagnosed with “Siberian ulcer”. The resident had bought the meat from the Akhuryan market.

We call on the appropriate authorities and health organizations to conduct a full and transparent investigation into the possible causes of the current infection to ensure that the source of the infected meat is identified and that the health of the general public protected.

Diseased animals can spread anthrax to humans, either by direct contact (e.g., inoculation of infected blood to broken skin) or by consumption of a diseased animal’s flesh.

Food safety is of critical concern in Georgia where food safety… [Read more...]

RD 17:34:57

Georgia: Uncertainty remains about agreement to air Ivanishvili’s press conference live on 1TV

The Georgian Public Broadcaster has confirmed that they are still willing to provide live coverage of the press conference which was called for by Bidzina Ivanishvili, but doubts remain as to whether this will take place.

A further response from Ivanishvili’s press secretary is expected soon.

The date and time which has been agreed by both parties is 4pm local time on November 1st.

RD 13:01:42

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Georgia Accepts Swiss WTO Proposal, Russia Needs Time to Respond

Sergi Kapanadze, the deputy foreign minister and Georgian negotiator, said that the Georgian side came to Geneva for the Swiss-mediated talks with Russia earlier this week with a “new proposal.”

He said that the Swiss mediators tabled “a compromise proposal” on October 26 on which Georgia had agreed.

Kapanadze says that this compromise proposal still envisages two basic components, which Georgia believes are important for transparent trade across the disputed borders – international monitoring and electronic data exchange.

He said that according to the proposal international observers will be deployed on the both ends of “trade corridors” – areas that will be defined by their geographic coordinates not by names in an attempt to keep a status-neutral approach. He declined at this stage to provide details about location of “trade corridors”.

Kapanadze expressed hope that Russia would accept the proposal too that would pave the way for its WTO membership.

Russia’s top WTO negotiator, Maxim Medvedkov, said Moscow would require several days to elaborate its position on the Swiss proposal.

“We will be able to make a response next week,” Itar-Tass news agency reported quoting Medvedkov.

RD 20:40:49

Monday, October 24, 2011

Georgia : Ivanishvili announces date for live press conference

A date has been announced for Bidzina Ivanishvili’s eagerly awaited first ever TV press conference.

Bidzina Ivanishvili’s press office said that an agreement had been reached with the public TV station that the press conference would be held on November 1st at 4pm local time, and would be aired live by GPB for about 30-40 minutes.

The public broadcaster has yet to confirm the agreement but they had previously offered to provide coverage if a press conference was arranged.

In separate statements the billionaire’s press office have again complained about pressure being applied to the billionaire’s Kartu Group, his supporters and his family members, including visits by President Mikhail Saakashvili’s National Movement activists who have been visiting employees of the Kartu Group at their homes and “advising” them to quit their jobs to avoid “problems in the future”.

In another incident one of Ivanishvili’s aides was detained for over four hours at Tbilisi airport, upon his arrival from Moscow carrying some papers connected with the revocation of Ivanishvili’s Russian citizenship, which he had previously said he was freely giving up in order to focus his time and attention… [Read more...]

RD 23:08:11

Saturday, October 22, 2011

What to do about Greece

A very illustrative flowchart from Stratfor dropped into the CE inbox this weekend…

Unknownname

As they say, the eurozone (read: Germany) has its work cut out for it.
Whichever actions Germany takes, three things are all but inevitable: an Italian bailout, a European banking crisis, and a Greek default. Any one outcome will likely trigger the other two.

This may look like a “damned if I do, damned if I don’t” type of situation, but how Berlin handles the crisis could be the difference between a weakened euro and nonexistent euro.

Disclaimer: This link to Stratfor takes you to their time-limited promotional campaign page. CE are not affiliated with Stratfor in any way and are not promoting their services here but, fair’s fair, it is their image and they deserve a return link.

RD 10:51:22

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