WASHINGTON: Britain’s Prince Harry broke hearts in Washington’s corridors of power Thursday, showing more interest in land mines than in the excited fans who greeted him at the start of a week-long US visit.
Squeals ricocheted down the halls of the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill as the 28-year-old eligible bachelor inspected a photo exhibit set up by the HALO Trust, a charity favored by his late mother Princess Diana.
Harry, a British army officer in Afghanistan, ignored the group of ladies as he chatted with Senator John McCain, 76, a Vietnam war veteran whose wife Cindy is a HALO board member. There were no public remarks, but Harry was overheard inquiring about the price of mine detectors when he cast an eye over mannequins in cobalt blue outfits combing the polished marble floor for imaginary unexploded ordnance.
Harry is the honorary fundraising patron of HALO, the world’s biggest demining organization, which since its founding 25 years ago has unearthed more than 1.4 million land mines in 9,800 minefields around the world. Diana famously toured minefields cleared by HALO teams in Angola shortly before her death in a Paris car crash in August 1997, a year after her stormy divorce from Prince Charles, heir to the British throne. Harry paid a surprise visit to the White House, where First Lady Michelle Obama offered him afternoon tea in the company of American military veterans.
“He has a very busy schedule, but when he heard about this tea and all of you... he wanted to be here to personally thank you for your service,” she said as Harry kept a polite silence. Harry’s official schedule in Washington also included a dinner at the home of British Ambassador Peter Westmacott — scallops and roasted veal were served — and a solemn wreath-laying yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery.
Ladies swoon but Harry is all business
Ladies swoon but Harry is all business
Thai officials say 72 tigers at tourist parks died of canine distemper, allaying bird flu fears
- “There has not been an animal-to-human infection case,” Promphat said
- “If we detect any sick persons, we will prepare for a nationwide monitoring measure,” said Khanasawat
BANGKOK: The deaths of 72 tigers in two animal parks for tourists in northern Thailand shouldn’t be a major concern for the public, officials said Tuesday, because they were caused by a virus not known to affect humans, rather than bird flu.
No one has shown any symptoms so far, but authorities were nonetheless monitoring the health of people who had recently come into contact with the animals.
“There has not been an animal-to-human infection case,” Public Health Minister Pattana Promphat said at a news conference at Government House in Bangkok.
The tigers in the parks in Mae Taeng and Mae Rim districts in Chiang Mai province became sick and died during a roughly 10-day period between Feb. 8-18.
On Friday, the Chiang Mai regional livestock office announced in a statement that autopsies of the animals found genetic material of canine distemper virus, or CDV, and traces of bacterial infection, but no avian influenza type A virus, also known as bird flu.
“If we detect any sick persons, we will prepare for a nationwide monitoring measure,” said Monthien Khanasawat, director-general of the Public Health Ministry’s Disease Control Department. “This will include contact tracing and treatment as necessary.”
Monthien spoke at the news conference in an apparent effort to reassure the public that the tigers’ deaths didn’t come from bird flu, which has been resurgent in parts of Asia. Thailand saw 17 deaths among 25 infected patients from poultry-caused influenza from 2004 to 2007, according to the Public Health Ministry.
CDV, infectious for both dogs and felines, can cause stronger symptoms in cats and tigers and can be spread through bodily fluids and air. Thai authorities said that tigers in confined environments, and which are already affected by stress and inbreeding conditions, could be particularly vulnerable to the viral infection.
The remains of the tigers went through necropsies before being cremated and buried. The carcasses were properly disinfected, photographed and discarded to prevent any further use, Livestock Development Department Director-General Somchuan Rattanamangklanan said at the news conference.
But Visit Arsaithamkul, a veterinarian who took part in the tiger necropsies, expressed concern that the origins of the infections remained unclear without further investigation. In a Facebook post, he said that he suspected that as the two parks were located just 30 kilometers (18 miles) apart, the cause of infection could be food the tigers were fed that came from the same source.
He declined to elaborate when contacted by The Associated Press. Both parks, run under the name of Tiger Kingdom, remain closed. The operators didn’t immediately respond when asked for comment.
Thai authorities are still alert for the threat of a bird flu outbreak. Monthien, the Public Health Ministry director, urged Thais to be careful with their consumption of poultry after a man in a neighboring country that he didn’t name was found infected with bird flu.
The first animal-to-human transmission of bird flu was discovered in Hong Kong in 1997 before a pandemic started spreading in Asia in 2003. In Thailand, tens of millions of poultry were exterminated and consumption plunged in fear of getting infected.
