MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

FIBS Breaking News

Headlines:
Health; BFBS; Lan Chile; GAP; Ozone; Africa; OED; Comp.

Health

The Director of Health and Social Services told the HMSC on Tuesday that the policy on Medical Treatment Overseas needed to be clarified.

He said there was quite strong anecdotal evidence to support the claim that a small number of patients take advantage of the system and end up getting FIG to pay for their holiday flights.

Mr McGregor Edwards proposed that MTO flights and costs should be fully funded, as long as the patient flies North on the flight before their treatment. And comes back again as soon as it's finished and they are fit to fly.

If the patient requests a referral to coincide with their holiday, or takes a holiday either side of the treatment, the flights should not be paid for by Government. He also proposed that periods of recuperation, which don't affect fitness to fly, should be spent in the Falklands, rather than in the UK at FIG expense.

The paper was considered by the Committee, who decided that things should continue as they are for the moment. Mr McGregor Edwards added that they were anxious not to restrict access to MTO flights for people who need them.

Delay

As BFBS television watchers will be aware there is a fifteen-minute delay to the schedule.

Station manager Richard Hutchinson says that technicians are working on the problem and the problem should be solved soon.

The delay stems from the problems encountered by the fierce winds on Saturday that moved the satellite dish 3mm resulting in the loss of the signal.

Lan Chile

Staying on the theme of Saturday's windy weather another service that was affected was the LAN Chile flight.

Concerns were raised by a couple of members of the public as to whether the plane should have landed at all and what the regulations were regarding civilian landings at MPA.

Media Ops at MPA investigated these concerns and said that there are in fact no set regulations for civilian aircraft landing at a military airfield.

If the weather is bad the final decision to land rests with the Captain of the aircraft. The only time that the MPA tower can intervene is when the runway is unusable due to ice or water contamination.

GAP

Take a Walk on the World side says the Observer. According to the newspaper the Falklands are one of the Top Ten destinations for a Gap year.

They say that around fifty thousand 18 year olds will leave the UK after receiving their A level results, either to take a break from academic study or to get over the pain and rethink their options.

They say that gappers can follow in the footsteps of Prince Harry and go to the most popular destination, Australia or they can go seal spotting in the Falklands.

There are five male students set to come to the Islands. Sukey Cameron at FIGO says that two of these will be going to Goose Green, one to Swan Inlet, One to Philomel and the last to West lagoons farm and Saunders Island.

All five are to meet at the London Office on the 4th September for a briefing session before flying to the Islands on the 4th October.

Ozone

The hole in the ozone layer appears to be growing.

According to a disturbing report by two teams of scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division and Bureau of Meteorology after they carried out a joint survey at Davis Station in Antarctica.

AAD atmospheric scientist Dr Klekocluik says that it's too early to predict if the hole would grow to a record size as the final result wouldn't be known until mid or late September. But says that it looks like it's trending towards the size reached in 2000 when the hole covered an area about three times the size of Australia.

Africa

Capture seems imminent for the suspected toothfish poacher that has been evading capture for nearly two weeks.

Mercopress report that the SA Agulhus has finally set sail from Marion Island and is heading at full speed to join the Australian patrol boat which is in hot pursuit of the Viarsa.

They say that although the South African authorities agreed to assist in the chase vicious weather kept the vessel port bound.

It's estimated that it will take the South African ship three or four days to reach the two vessels.

The patrol boat is within three hundred miles of the fleeing ship, which is now one thousand two hundred miles south of Cape Town.

Conservationists estimate that if illegal poachers aren't stopped and they continue to harvest the fish, over fishing will cause the Patagonian toothfish to become commercially extinct by 2007.

Squid

Mercopress also reports that this year's frozen squid supplies are likely to be considerably lower than last year.

The total supply for 2003 is estimated to be around four hundred and fifty thousand tonnes. This is ten percent down on last year and the lowest volume in sixteen years.

In Japan the National Federation of Fishing Co-operatives predicts that South Atlantic product will be down fourteen percent from last year's total. North Pacific and Peru Jumbo squid may be as much as fifty three percent lower, at just thirty five thousand tonnes.

OED

Thirty thousand new words and phrases have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary this week.

The latest edition features expresions made popular by TV programmes, such as "boom boom", "lovely jubbly" and "bada bing". The onward march of technology has also provided a few examples, including "cyberslacker", "hacktivist" and "egosurf".

Fashionable expressions that originated in America are also included, notably "nerd", "bad hair day" and "bootylicious".

Comp

The Falklands newest advertising Website has taken off.

Susie Hansen from Main Point says that it has proved to be very popular so much so that they are having a Lucky Dip competition to raise money for charity.

Anyone can take part all you have to do is send your one pound entry fee to Susie and your name will be put in the draw.

All names will be placed in the hat and the first name drawn out will win a fifteen pound gift voucher from Falkland farmers. To find out more why not visit the site. Just in case you've forgotten the address it's www.falklandsadvertiser.co.uk

Susie says that they will be having competitions on there most months to raise money for local charities and would like to thank everyone who donated prizes.