Strike threatens to cause 'gridlock' at British airports

David Sapsted

$(document).ready(function() {$.get('/national/overrides/ajax/article_detail_date.jsp', {'vcmid':'117ef56f1ead3310VgnVCM200000e66411acRCRD'}, function(data) { $("#article_date").html(data);});});

LONDON // Airline passengers heading to Britain face delays of up to 12 hours due to a strike.

The day-long industrial action by immigration and passport staff begins on Wednesday.

The strike is part of a nationwide protest by government workers about proposed pension changes.

There could also be "mass cancellations of departing aircraft" due to gridlock at terminals, according to Norman Boivin, the chief operating officer at London's Heathrow Airport.

He said it might become necessary to advise passengers not to travel on November 30 unless their journeys were essential.

The British government has been training volunteers from the civil service to fill the posts of striking members of the UK Border Agency, but lengthy delays for arriving passengers are considered inevitable. This is likely to result in passengers being held on arriving aircraft. "This in turn would quickly create gridlock at the airport with no available aircraft parking stands, mass cancellations of departing aircraft and diversions outside the UK for arriving aircraft," said Mr Boivin.

He added that the airport operators were asking airlines to reduce by 30 to 50 per cent the normal number of inbound passengers on the day of the strike to help "reduce the risk of being diverted to an airport outside the UK".

Airlines serving the Gulf plan to run services as normal at present but Etihad, which operates flights into both Heathrow and Manchester airports in England, yesterday warned its passengers that the strike "has the potential to cause disruption at all UK airports".

A statement from the airline added: "Any guests wishing to change their itinerary are advised to call an Etihad office or their travel agent."

dsapsted@thenational.ae

117ef56f1ead3310VgnVCM200000e66411acRCRD

Airline passengers heading to Britain face delays of up to 12 hours due to a strike by immigration and passport staff that is scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

View the original article here

Spain threatens to sue Germans over E coli slur on its cucumbers

Agence France-Presse

BERLIN // The number of people made ill by a mysterious killer bacterium grew yesterday, two weeks after the initial outbreak in Germany, while fears over tainted vegetables hit European farmers hard.

Madrid threatened to sue German officials who initially warned that the virulent bacterium, which has already killed 15 in Germany and one in Sweden, was borne by cucumbers imported from Spain before correcting their findings.

Fears meanwhile have shaken the agricultural sector, and not only in Spain.

Several countries have restricted vegetable imports, shops across Europe have withdrawn and dumped produce, while consumers have grown increasingly wary.

Scientists and health officials say they have identified the virulent E. coli bacterium responsible for the outbreak, which has mainly affected northern Germany, but are unable to say what caused it or who was responsible.

Confirmed cases of the full-blown disease, known as haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a condition associated with bloody diarrhoea and kidney failure, rose to 470 from the 373 reported on Tuesday, said Germany's national disease institute, the Robert Koch Institute.

Regional officials say 15 people have died in Germany, while Sweden reported the death of one woman who had recently travelled to Germany.

The Spanish government meanwhile threatened to sue Hamburg for damages after the German city, one of the hardest hit, pointed to Spanish cucumbers as the source of a outbreak.

The country's deputy prime minister, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told Spanish radio: "We do not rule out taking action against the authorities who called into question the quality of our products."

Hamburg said it had found some of the killer bacteria on cucumbers imported from Spain, but later acknowledged it was not the same strand of enterohamorrhagic E. coli that is responsible for the current outbreak.

"As before, the source remains unidentified," Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks, the chief health official in Hamburg, said.

German officials, however, are maintaining their warning to consumers about eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes or lettuce, seen as the most likely source for the contamination, and the consumer affairs' ministry spokesman, Holger Eichele, told a news conference the Hamburg warning had been "justified".

"Given the potential risks, quick warnings were needed independently of the strand of bacterium involved," he said.

A spokesman for the German Federation of Farmers (DBV) meanwhile spoke of a "catastrophic" mood among vegetable producers.

The Federation of Fruit and Vegetable Producers, for its part, estimated losses at between €4 million and €5m a day.

Spain's vegetable and fruit exporters estimate damages of more than €200m a week as importers across Europe stop buying Spanish produce.

Both Spain and the Netherlands are demanding compensation from the European Union because of the sudden slump in vegetable exports.

Around Europe, cases of the food poisoning, confirmed or suspected, have been reported in Denmark, Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, France, Spain, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic.

All apparently stem from people who recently travelled to northern Germany, where the outbreak started in mid-May.

6c1f7d5b7db40310VgnVCM100000e56411acRCRD

Mystery remains over source of killer bacterium as more fall ill and vegetable producers' losses climb to €4m a day.

View the original article here