tagged w/ humanitarian disaster
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The Syrian regime is conducting a campaign of unrelenting repression against people wounded in demonstrations and the medical workers trying to treat them, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today.
While MSF cannot work directly in Syria, it has collected testimonies from wounded patients treated outside the country and from doctors inside Syria. The testimonies, collected from several people from various parts of the country, point to a crackdown on the provision of urgent medical care for people wounded in the ongoing violence in Syria.
"In Syria today, wounded patients and doctors are pursued, and risk torture and arrest at the hands of the security services," said Marie-Pierre Allié, MSF president. "Medicine is being used as a weapon of persecution."
Most of the wounded do not go to public hospitals for fear of being arrested or tortured. When a wounded person is admitted to a hospital, a false name is sometimes provided to hide his or her identity. Doctors will provide false diagnoses to help patients elude security forces, which search for patients with wounds consistent with those sustained in protests and demonstrations.
"It is critical that the Syrian authorities reestablish the neutrality of healthcare facilities," said Marie-Pierre Allié. "Hospitals must be protected areas, where wounded patients are treated without discrimination and are safe from abuse and torture, and where medical workers do not risk their lives by choosing to comply with their professional code of ethics."
The injured are largely treated in clandestine treatment facilities by doctors trying to fulfill their commitment and duty to provide medical assistance. Improvised health clinics have been established in apartments, on farms, and elsewhere. Simple rooms outfitted as makeshift operating theaters, known as "mobile hospitals," are used for surgical procedures. Hygiene and sterilization conditions are rudimentary and anesthesia is in short supply. Furthermore, the mere possession of drugs and basic medical materials, such as gauze, is considered a crime.
"The security services attack and destroy the mobile hospitals," said a doctor who requested anonymity. "They enter houses looking for drugs and medical supplies."
Security is the key concern for doctors working in the parallel underground networks. In the prevailing climate of terror, treatment must be provided rapidly since medical workers and patients must constantly change location to avoid detection.
"We are constantly being pursued by the security forces," said another physician. "Many doctors who treated wounded patients in their private hospitals have been arrested and tortured."
It is extremely difficult to treat major trauma cases and provide post-operative care. Furthermore, the clandestine health workers cannot obtain blood from the central blood bank, which is controlled by Syria’s Ministry of Defense -- the only blood supplier in the country.
Only a few wounded patients have managed to find refuge in neighboring countries, where they can receive proper—albeit delayed—medical care.
"I was wounded in the thigh and the soldiers caught me,” recounted a patient treated by MSF. “They beat me on the head and on my wound, but I managed to get away with help from people in the neighborhood. In the end, I found someone who could treat me—a nurse, not a doctor. He didn't even have anesthetic."
Under the current circumstances, MSF’s assistance to Syrians requiring medical care is limited. For months, MSF has been seeking official authorization to aid the wounded in Syria, so far without success. The organization is treating patients outside Syria and is supporting doctors' networks inside the country, through the provision of medicine, medical supplies, and surgical and transfusion kits.The Syrian regime is conducting a campaign of unrelenting repression against people... more
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By RUSSELL GOLDMAN | ABC News
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad defiantly denied any suggestion that he has ordered a bloody crackdown against protesters who are demanding that he resign, and claims instead that most of the people who died in the unrest were his supporters and troops.
Assad, whose regime has been condemned by the West, the Arab League and former allies, dismissed suggestions that he step down and scoffed at sanctions being imposed on Syria.
His defiant stance was on display in an exclusive interview with ABC News' Barbara Walters who confronted the Syrian dictator in Damascus with stories and evidence of civilians being tortured and killed, some of them children.
"People went from house to house. Children were arrested. I saw those pictures," Walters said to Assad.
"To be frank with you, Barbara, I don't believe you," Assad said.
Walters asked Assad about the case of Hamza al-Khateeb, a 13-year-old boy detained by Syrian forces after a protest whose lifeless body was returned to his parents shot, burned and castrated. The boy's death galvanized protesters, and photos on the internet inflamed world opinion.
Assad Tells Barbara Walters Violence Is By Terrorists, Not His Troops
Assad denied the boy had been tortured. "No, no, no. It's not news," he insisted. "I met with his father, the father of that child and he said that he wasn't tortured as he appeared in the media."
The tide of pro-democracy protests sweeping the Arab world reached Syria in mid-March and news of violent clashes between protesters and government agents have leaked out of this tightly controlled dictatorship and on to the Internet. The bodies of the dead, some of them children, have been found bearing the marks of torture.
According to a United Nations report released last week, more than 4,000 people have been killed and the country is embroiled in an undeclared civil war, an assessment Assad dismissed with the question, "Who said that the United Nations is a credible institution?"
In an unprecedented condemnation of a fellow Muslim nation, the Arab League recently threatened sanctions, and last month one-time ally Turkey called on Assad to resign the presidency, an office he's held since 2000.
In his interview with Walters, his first sit down with an American journalist since the protests began, Assad denied he ordered a crackdown and blamed the violence on criminals, religious extremists and terrorists sympathetic to al Qaeda he claims are mixed in with peaceful demonstrators.
He said the victims of the street violence were not civilians protesters battling decades of one-party rule, he insisted.
"Most of the people that have been killed are supporters of the government, not the vice versa," he said. The dead have included 1,100 soldiers and police, he said.
Assad conceded only that some members of his armed forces went too far, but claims they were punished for their actions.
"Every 'brute reaction' was by an individual, not by an institution, that's what you have to know," he said. "There is a difference between having a policy to crackdown and between having some mistakes committed by some officials. There is a big difference," said Assad.
"But you have to give the order," countered Walters.
"We don't kill our people… no government in the world kills its people, unless it's led by a crazy person," Assad said.
At another point he said, "There was no command to kill or be brutal."
More at the link/full video.
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN | ABC News
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad defiantly denied... more
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More than 90 people were counted dead Tuesday from heavy rains pounding Central America after Guatemala reported more people swept away by raging floodwaters and Costa Rica found four drowned.
An estimated 700,000 people were displaced by floods and landslides following as much as 120 centimeters (47 inches) of rain in the past week in some areas -- three times the monthly average this season -- officials said.
In Guatemala, five more deaths were reported, including four swept away, bringing the death toll to 34 over the past week in a nation that has been hit particularly hard in 2011 by flooding and heavy rains, officials said.
The mayor of the northern Guatemala community of Mixco, Amilcar Rivera, reported the four new deaths and warned the toll may rise further.
US Ambassador Arnold Chacon said the diplomatic mission would offer the use of six helicopters used in anti-narcotics efforts for search and rescue operations in Guatemala. The envoy said $50,000 in humanitarian aid would also be offered.
In Costa Rica, Red Cross officials reported four people had drowned across the country, with the victims attempting to cross swollen rivers.
Authorities have gone on high alert across the mountainous region, home to 42 million people, as the rains have shown no sign of abating.
The unusually heavy rainfall came as the region was pounded from one weather system from the Pacific and another from the Caribbean.
El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes warned late Monday that his country was facing a "major emergency," with 32 dead, three missing and some 32,000 people evacuated, saying the rainfall exceeded that caused by past hurricanes.
"The intensity of the rainfall, the duration of the phenomenon and the extent of the affected territory presents us with a major emergency," he said.
Another 13 deaths were reported in Honduras and eight in Nicaragua, according to local officials, with the overall toll expected to rise as reports from isolated villages begin to trickle in.
Officials also fear further casualties from fresh mudslides, shortages of basic goods in isolated towns and disease spawned by the stagnant water.
Hard-hit El Salvador has launched a worldwide appeal for humanitarian assistance due to the intense rain.
More at the linkMore than 90 people were counted dead Tuesday from heavy rains pounding Central... more
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Typhoon Roke brought evacuation orders, downpours and fears of floods to southern Japan today as it began to traverse the country on a course towards the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.
More than 400,000 people have been advised to evacuate because of Roke, public broadcaster NHK said. That's in line with evacuation numbers for typhoon Talas earlier this month, which dumped record rainfall on southern Japan, causing mudslides and floods that killed 67 people and left 26 missing.
The eye of Roke, which is categorized as "strong" by the Japan Meteorological Agency, was about 1,016 kilometers (631 miles) southwest of Tokyo at 1 p.m. local time today and packing wind speeds of 40 meters per second. The typhoon is forecast to take three days to pass over Japan and its storm warning area is due to cover most of the country in that time, according to the meteorological agency's website.
Roke, due in Fukushima prefecture in 48 hours, may hinder work to control leakage of water into the basements of the Dai- Ichi reactor buildings, which contained 102 million liters of radioactive water as of Sept. 13, according to Tokyo Electric estimates. Roke may drop 150 millimeters of rain on Fukushima within 24 hours, likely in short, heavy downpours, Kenji Okada of the Japan Meteorological Agency said by phone today.
Since July, when Tepco said it achieved its phase-one goal of keeping reactors cool and reducing the amount of radiation being emitted, much of the utility's work has focused on decontaminating highly radiated cooling water that ran off into basements and trenches around the damaged reactors.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/20/bloomberg_articlesLRT4QP6KLVRE.DTL#ixzz1YV7ITK36
http://theglobalherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/typhoon-roke.jpg
More on the linkTyphoon Roke brought evacuation orders, downpours and fears of floods to southern... more
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Outbreaks of measles and cholera are striking down Somali children already weakened by hunger, resulting in dozens of new fatalities. News of the fast-spreading diseases has caused alarm among aid workers, who are struggling to deal with the humanitarian crisis brought on by the severe drought and conflict in Somalia.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled into overflowing refugee camps in recent months in search of food and sanctuary, but many more remain in rebel-held famine zones where aid agencies have only limited access.
The World Health Organisation said on Friday that Somalia was experiencing a cholera epidemic. Linked to dirty water, poor sanitation and crowded settlements, the intestinal infection causes dehydration and is often fatal.
In just one hospital in Mogadishu, there have been 4,272 recorded cases of acute watery diarrhoea, a key indicator of the risk of cholera, causing 181 deaths. Most of those who have died were aged under five. Laboratory tests conducted on a sample of the cases this week suggested 60% of the infections were cholera.
While Somalia has experienced seasonal cholera outbreaks in recent years, this one is much worse. "The number of cases is two or even three times what was there last year," Dr Michel Yao, WHO's public health adviser, said in Geneva on Friday. "So we can say that we have an epidemic of cholera going on."
Yao said that the risk of the disease spreading was high since people were still moving around in search of food aid. At least 100,000 Somalis have fled to Mogadishu from the countryside in the last two months. An even greater number have travelled to sprawling drought-affected refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. In Kenya's Dadaab settlement, about 1,400 Somalis arrive every day, pushing the number of recorded refugees past 400,000. A further 38,000 people still await registration.
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Famine conditions exist in two large regions of Somalia, as well as three smaller areas, including parts of Mogadishu where there are large concentrations of displaced people. Other regions of southern Somalia are expected to be declared famine zones in the next month or two.
The aid effort in Mogadishu was eased slightly last week when most of the al-Shabab militias withdrew following an offensive by African Union troops and pro-government forces. The Islamists claimed that the move was strategic, and said their fighters would adopt guerrilla tactics from now on rather than trying to hold ground in Mogadishu against the better-equipped AU peacekeepers.
But the rebels have been rocked by divisions due to their handling of the food crisis. Some of the hardline leaders, who come from the north of Somalia, have denied there is a famine in the south and refused to lift a ban on organisations such as the World Food Programme, the agency best equipped to manage a hunger emergency. This has angered local al-Shabab leaders, who want the people to receive help, even if it comes from the west. Interviews with refugees suggest that the rebels' restrictions on aid, as well as their policy of taking food and animals as "taxes", has eroded whatever support they may once have enjoyed.
Despite the withdrawal from Mogadishu, the Islamists still control much of southern Somalia, including the main famine zones.Outbreaks of measles and cholera are striking down Somali children already weakened by... more
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This week, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has sent medical teams and four charter planes carrying 55 tons of medical equipment, medicines and therapeutic food to Mogadishu in response to the crisis in Somalia. In the past weeks, an estimated 100,000 people have fled from south and central Somalia to the capital to seek assistance. They are settling in numerous camps in and around Mogadishu, with little or no access to health care.
MSF has started measles vaccination campaigns in dozens of makeshift camps where thousands of people have gathered after fleeing the exceptional drought and the violence in other parts of the country. Almost 3,000 children were vaccinated so far. Of the nearly 1,000 children screened for malnutrition, more than half were malnourished.
“MSF is extremely worried about the situation of the displaced. The situation is critical. MSF has begun reinforcing its operations in Mogadishu and is assessing areas around the capital in order to adequately respond to this crisis,” said Dr. Unni Karunakara, International President of MSF.
Through a mobile clinic, MSF staff started to provide medical care to around 100 patients daily. The teams are also distributing of relief items, such as hygiene materials and plastic sheeting for temporary shelter.
For years MSF has been providing medical care in the capital, through health facilities in Daynile and Darkheley where more than 370 medical consultations were provided last week. To address the increasing medical needs, MSF will open inpatient therapeutic feeding centers, a measles treatment unit as well as a 50-bed cholera treatment center in Mogadishu in the coming days.
MSF has worked continuously in Somalia since 1991 and currently provides free medical care in eight regions. Over 1,400 Somali staff, supported by approximately 100 staff in Nairobi, provide free primary healthcare, surgery, treatment for malnutrition, as well as support to displaced people through health care, water supply and relief items distributions in nine locations in south and central Somalia.
MSF is also providing medical care to Somali refugees in Kenya (Dagahaley and Ifo camps) and Ethiopia (Liben). In Dagahaley camp, MSF is the sole provider of medical care for the 130,000 people and currently treating 6,400 children for malnutrition. In Ifo, MSF provides medical care to the 25,000 refugees gathered on the outskirts of the camp. In Liben, MSF is providing medical care in the six camps where 119,000 refugees are gathered. Here, more than 10,000 children are enrolled in nutritional programs.
More at the linkThis week, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has... more
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The levels of malnutrition among children fleeing Somalia's drought could lead to a "human tragedy of unimaginable proportions", the UN refugee head Antonio Guterres has said.
Young children are dying on their way to or within a day of arrival at camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, the UNHCR says.
It estimates that a quarter of Somalis are either displaced within the country or living outside as refugees.
The worst drought in 60 years has been compounded by the violence in Somalia.
"It's so extreme," said UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. "Our people are saying they've never seen anything like it."
The warning comes as the UK aid agencies Oxfam, Save the Children, and the Red Cross launch emergency appeals in response to the food crisis which is affecting more than 12 million people in the Horn of Africa.
The agencies are collectively asking for nearly $150m (£93m).
The UNHCR says the need for food, shelter, health services and other life saving aid is urgent and massive.
Life-long impact
The agency says more than 50% of Somali children arriving in Ethiopia are seriously malnourished. In Kenya, that figure is between 30% and 40%.
"What is the most tragic for us to witness, is that there are children who do arrive in such a weakened state that despite our emergency care and therapeutic feeding, they're dying within 24 hours," Ms Fleming told a press briefing in Geneva.
"We estimate that one quarter of Somalia's 7.5 million people are now either internally displaced or are living outside the country as refugees," she said.
The UNHCR recently opened a third camp in south-eastern Ethiopia, which is quickly reaching its capacity of 20,000, and is now planning further camps.
A relief plane chartered by the agency is flying to Addis Ababa on Tuesday and a convoy of 20 trucks carrying tents and other aid is on its way as well.
In north-east Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp, some 1,400 refugees are arriving every day. Aid agencies fear numbers could rise to half a million.
Badu Katelo, Kenya's Commissioner for Refugee Affairs, said food and water distribution, shelter and space were all over stretched and that the security situation was getting worse.
"We would like to see a vibrant, committed intervention from the international community," he said.
More at the linkThe levels of malnutrition among children fleeing Somalia's drought could lead to... more
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The worst drought in 60 years in the Horn of Africa has sparked a severe food crisis and high malnutrition rates, with parts of Kenya and Somalia experiencing pre-famine conditions, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
More than 10 million people are now affected in drought-stricken areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda and the situation is deteriorating, it said.
"Two consecutive poor rainy seasons have resulted in one of the driest years since 1950/51 in many pastoral zones," Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told a media briefing.
"There is no likelihood of improvement (in the situation)until 2012," she said.
Food prices have risen substantially in the region, pushing many moderately poor households over the edge, she said.
A U.N. map of food security in the eastern Horn of Africa shows large swathes of central Kenya and Somalia in the "emergency" category, one phase before what the U.N. classifies as catastrophe/famine -- the fifth and worst category.
Child malnutrition rates in the worst affected areas are more than double the emergency threshold of 15 percent and are expected to rise further, Byrs said.
High mortality rates among children are reported, but she had no figures for the toll.
Drought and fighting are driving ever greater numbers of Somalis from their homeland, with more than 20,000 arriving in Kenya in just the past two weeks, the U.N. refuge agency UNHCR said on Friday. It voiced alarm at the dramatic rise, noting the average monthly outflow had been about 10,000 so far this year.
Almost half the Somali children arriving in refugee camps in Ethiopia are malnourished, and those arriving in Kenya are little better, Byrs said.
U.N. humanitarian appeals for Somalia and Kenya, each about $525 million, are barely 50 percent funded, while a $30 million appeal for Djibouti is just 30 percent funded, she said.The worst drought in 60 years in the Horn of Africa has sparked a severe food crisis... more
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Hours after the African Union announced the broad contours of the agreement between North and South Sudan signed in Addis Ababa last week, the National Congress Party said the position paper was merely a proposal. The AU contributed to brokering peace in Sudan, now its staying power is being tested.
AU managed to have the political parties sign a code of conduct ahead of the elections but stood by hopelessly as some elements of the code were violated. Moreover, it stood by, continuing to negotiate future north-south arrangements, as the north invaded and occupied Abyei.
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the creation of porous borders, and possibly with security arrangements as per the deal, could prove rare achievements for the AU.
Overall, the north and south don’t have much of a choice but to collaborate. The south supplies the oil, the north refines it. The south depends on the north for its major imports and the north relies on the south for its markets, making it necessary for the two to establish a free trade zone.
Yet, whether the north and south come to these terms would assume that the leadership is working in the interests of their people. The invasion by the northern forces of Abyei a trade embargo on the south that has seen gas prices increase three times in some areas and at least two times in others, and continued support to militias cast fresh doubts on the future relations of the two states.
Despite endless pledges to coexist with the south, the north has occasionally turned back on its word and trust between the two sides is at an all time low.
Bashir, again, said that the north would peacefully co-exist with the south. Yet, he not only dismissed the concept of a new Sudan, the central point of the CPA, but also made this a pre-condition for peaceful coexistence.
cont.Hours after the African Union announced the broad contours of the agreement between... more
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Military search teams pulled a young man from a crushed house Saturday, eight days after an earthquake and tsunami wrecked northeast Japan.
The young man, found in the rubble in Kesennuma city, was too weak to talk and was immediately transferred to a nearby hospital, said a military official. The official, who declined to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the media, had no other details.
Kyodo, the Japanese news agency, said the man was in his 20s.
The rescue is the latest and one of the few after the March 11 disaster, as the power of the tsunami, triggered by the magnitude-9 earthquake, likely pulled many people out to sea.
The National Police Agency raised the death toll Saturday, reporting that 7,197 people had died — exceeding the deaths from the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Another 10,905 were reported missing, the police agency said.Military search teams pulled a young man from a crushed house Saturday, eight days... more
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Brazil needs to stop building dams and deforesting the land that protects it from these kinds of more violent storms. The deforestation alone emits CO2 into the atmosphere that exacerbates the effects of climate change along with making the land vulnerable to storms and mudslides. It is the government in league with the World Bank that is also culpable because dam building is becoming an epidemic. The people of these areas now need help. They need food, water, shelter, and medical care. It is sickening that governments always seem to have money when it comes to dealing with the World Bank and others in taking the land from the people, but they never have enough resources to help those who their actions have now affected.
Edit: Since posting this the title of the article changed.;_ylt=AibUQo6AVyMH30ZJ3yM9WLVH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTJwc25tdnBhBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMTE2L2x0X2J... more
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A cholera outbreak has hit the region along the Artibonite River, between the cities of Saint-Marc and Mirebalais.
Following the outbreak of acute diarrhea in the Artibonite region of Haiti, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical teams—including doctors, nurses, and logisticians—immediately traveled to the affected areas along the Artibonite River, between the cities of Saint-Marc and Mirebalais.
According to Haitian health authorities, at least 138 people have died and 1,500 cases of cholera have been confirmed.
In collaboration with national health authorities, MSF is providing human resources and technical and material support to health structures in Saint-Marc. Teams are involved in treating patients and implementing necessary measures to prevent the outbreak from spreading. MSF is sending additional medical materials and experienced staff to the affected areas.
MSF is not able to confirm either the cause or the exact bacterial type of the outbreak. The Artibonite region was not affected by the January 12, 2010, earthquake.
MSF Activities in Haiti
In Haiti, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has more than 3,000 Haitian and international medical and non-medical staff providing assistance to the population. They run seven private, free of charge, secondary-level care hospitals and support two Ministry of Health structures in Port-au-Prince, accounting for nearly 1,000 hospital beds in the capital city. These facilities provide emergency, trauma, obstetrical, pediatric, maternal, and orthopedic care services. Mental health care and treatment and counseling for victims of sexual violence are also provided by MSF.
MSF is also in the process of opening a new emergency obstetrical hospital with 100 beds in the Delmas area of Port-au-Prince. Outside the capital, MSF supports Ministry of Health hospitals in the cities of Leogane and Jacmel with nearly 200 beds of patient capacity. MSF opened a private 120-bed container hospital in Leogane in October.
From January 12 to September 30, MSF has treated more than 339,000 people, performed more than 15,700 surgeries; and delivered over 9,900 babies. MSF also provides primary medical care and relief supplies to displaced persons living in various camps in Port-au-Prince through mobile and fixed clinics, and is carrying out water-and-sanitation services to displaced persons in the Cite de Soleil slum.A cholera outbreak has hit the region along the Artibonite River, between the cities... more
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The nation that no longer exists is Somalia, although no one in the West says it. The last stable Somali government fell in 1991, with the end of the dictatorship of Siad Barre. Since then, the Somalia born after the Second World War with the end of Italian and British colonialism ceased to exist. The former British Somalia in fact has been detached from the rest of the nation since 18 years, declaring an independent state under the name of Somaliland.The nation that no longer exists is Somalia, although no one in the West says it. The... more
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