Singapore confirms first H1N1—related death
Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE: A 49—year—old H1N1 patient, with multiple health problems, died on Saturday afternoon. The Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a statement that he died of a heart attack, contributed by severe pneumonia and H1N1 infection.
The victim, who had diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol, was admitted to Changi General Hospital on July 16 after four days of flu—like symptoms.
MOH added that a 55—year—old man, also with multiple health problems, is the latest H1N1 patient to be admitted to intensive care.
He was tested positive for H1N1 after being admitted into Singapore General Hospital’s (SGH) intensive care unit.
He went to SGH on July 17, complaining of shortness of breath and fever, and was admitted after investigations showed that he had suffered an acute heart attack. The patient is currently in stable condition.
MOH said while the majority of H1N1 cases remains mild, the virus can cause complications and even death in high—risk individuals with underlying medical conditions.
Individuals in the high—risk group are advised to seek prompt medical attention if they suffer flu—like symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat and runny nose.
Members of the public who develop influenza—like illness can visit their nearest Pandemic Preparedness Clinic or their GP clinics for initial assessment and treatment.
If symptoms are severe, such as breathlessness and chest pains, members of the public are advised to call 995 immediately for an emergency ambulance.
— CNA/so
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Singapore’s key exports decline at a much slower pace in June
Channel NewsAsia - Saturday, July 18
SINGAPORE: Singapore’s key exports contracted for a straight 14th month in June, although the decline was at a slower pace than the month before.
Non—oil domestic exports decreased by 11 per cent, compared to the same period a year ago. When compared to the previous month, exports fell by 5.2 per cent, reversing the gain seen in May.
After a strong performance in April and May, the pharmaceuticals sector saw a pullback in June. Shipments grew by just 1.1 per cent on—year — down significantly from the more than 40 per cent jump the previous two months.
Economists said this may weigh on the months ahead.
Philip McNicholas, economist, IDEAglobal, said: "Unless it explodes again this July, that’s going to drag on the entire reading."
Meanwhile, the key electronics sector remains weak. Exports fell by 21.5 per cent from a year earlier due largely to weak shipments of semiconductors, personal computer parts and telecommunications equipment.
But there is optimism that the worst may well be over.
Leon Perera, group managing director, Spire Research and Consultancy, said: "We expect that electronics demand should pick up at the end of the third quarter or early part of fourth quarter because there is pent—up demand that is going to come into the system. There are cyclical reasons why electronics will trend upwards, but it’s still weak at the moment."
"Looking at the absolute numbers for the region, they’ve actually been pretty flat... suggesting perhaps that things have bottomed out," said Mr McNicholas.
Overall in June, shipments to all of Singapore’s top ten markets fell in May, except for Taiwan. The one bright spot is the US as exports there fell by a smaller 5.2 per cent — much better than the 35.2 per cent decline in May.
What the decline shows, analysts said, is that despite some positive numbers, there is still no clear indication of a sustained recovery. Going forward, we can expect to see fluctuations in terms of jagged trend lines over the next three to four months.
Singapore’s monthly exports numbers are closely watched because the economy is heavily dependent on trade.
— CNA/so
- wong chee tat :)
Firefox 3.5.1 Fixes Critical Security Flaw
Peter Cohen, Macworld.com
Friday, July 17, 2009 8:40 AM PDT
The Mozilla Corp. has released Firefox 3.5.1, a new version of their Web browser. The new release corrects a security problem the company acknowledged earlier this week as "critical." Firefox is available for free download from the Web site.
Firefox 3.5.1 corrects the security flaw identified in Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2009-41: a problem with the software's "Just-In-Time" (JIT) compiler used for JavaScript. A crash could result in an exploitable memory corruption problem that could, under certain cases, be exploited by an attacker to run arbitrary code, like malware.
Several stability improvements have also been made. Mozilla first outlined plans to release Firefox 3.5.1 earlier this month.
Firefox 3.5.1 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
- wong chee tat :)
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