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Iodized salt helps prevent iodine-deficiency disorders, including goiters and certain birth defects. Yet it’s unclear how this seasoning interacts with chloramine-treated drinking water if some of the disinfectant is left behind. Now, researchers in the journal Environmental Science & Technology have demonstrated that cooking pasta in such water with iodized table salt could produce potentially harmful byproducts. But they also report four simple ways that people can reduce or avoid these unwanted compounds.

Chemotherapy affects the ability of a patient’s immune system to attack pancreatic tumors, a new study shows.

Long COVID is associated with reduced brain oxygen levels, worse performance on cognitive tests and increased psychiatric symptoms such as depression and anxiety, according to new research studying the impacts of the disease.

MINE workers unions have rubbished calls to have them probed for corruption over their U-turn to support the return of Vedanta Resources PLC to Konkola Copper Mines (KCM).

The mine unions have described the calls as extremely unreasonable because their decision to support the calls for the return of Vedanta was based on saving the mine and the jobs of their members.

National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW) Saul Simujika and his Mine workers Union of Zambia (MUZ) counterpart Joseph Chewe said the  unions would not be shaken by people making allegations against them over calls for the UPND government to bring back Vedanta.

Mr Simujika said the unions wanted Vedanta back because the decision was made in good faith after realising that the situation at the giant mine was becoming desperate.

Mr Simujika was reacting to mining expert Edward Simukonda who has called on the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate the mine workers unions following their recent calls for the return of Vedanta to KCM.

Mr Simukonda is reported to have said that there was likelihood that the unions were involved in corruption after their recent U-turn to support the return of Vedanta to KCM.

But Mr Simujika said people should understand the operations of KCM and its current status before issuing disparaging remarks against the unions whose decision was to save the mine and the jobs of the miners.

“We decided to U-turn on the issue of Vedanta not because we were given money but because we wanted to save the mine which was getting flooded and jobs of our miners. If the mine gets flooded, there will be no jobs for our members.”

“So before people can say anything, they should understand the operations and what was happening at the mine. KCM is producing less than 5,000 metric tonnes per month when it was supposed to be producing more than 10,000 metric tonnes per month. As unions, this is a great concern,’’ Mr Simujika said. Mr Simujika said there was little or nothing which was happening at KCM, claiming that the mine was surviving on the hand-outs from the government, hence the need for re-capitalisation from Vedanta before it could completely be wasted.

The Canadian province of British Columbia announced Tuesday that it will make prescription contraceptives free for all, a first in the country at a time when women’s rights are under attack in the neighboring United States.

For the second day in a row, China on Wednesday dismissed U.S. suggestions that the COVID-19 pandemic may have been triggered by a virus that leaked from a Chinese laboratory.

By NATION REPORTER

UNLESS expressly mitigated, a countrywide strike by medical doctors, which has been looming for days is likely to start today, after government decided to be adamant by refusing to include doctors on the 10.5 percent salary increase awarded to civil servants across the board.

Hospitals and other medical facilities across the country shall be paralysed, without medical doctors who have resolved to withdraw their labour after government accused them of arm-twisting the state by demanding their inclusion on the 10.5 percent salary increase.

Doctors down tools

Yesterday, the medical doctors across the country unanimously decided to go ahead with their protest today over the 10.5 percent salary increment which was awarded to all civil servants except the medical doctors because government claims their category was in a class of middle management.

Zambia Medical Association (ZMA) general secretary Dr Kaumba Tolopu has disclosed that doctors met on Monday evening and a decision was made that they should go ahead with their protest since government had remained mute over their concerns despite engaging them on various occasions.

Dr Tolopu said the doctors had no option but to go ahead with the planned protest today since government had decided to ignore their plea and that all civil avenues had failed to yield the desired results.

“The doctors met and they have actually been told that the protest is still on since government has decided to be adamant about this serious matter. Government has decided to remain adamant and is acusing the doctors of arm-twisting the State. We have therefore decided to withdraw our labour since civil discussions have collapsed,” Dr Tolopu said.

The doctors have demanded that government gives them the 10.5 percent increment which was given to civil servants as they were omitted since they are deemed to be in management.

But former defence minister Dr George Mpombo said that there was a revolt at the Ministry of Health and that it was not normal for one of the most important ministries to be facing such perennial and calamitous problems without any step being taken to correct the situation.

Dr Mpombo said Ministry of Health had been a seething cauldron of frustration and disenchantment among doctors for the most part of the UPND administration which had started with a continuous critical shortage of medicines and other medical supplies.

Dr Mpombo said the preamble to the problems in the Ministry of Health was cutting of the supply chain of medicines and other medical supplies by the Sylvia Masebo, the Minister of Health without having a back-up plan.

He stated that the cut in the supply chain had resulted into an immediate shortage of drugs in hospitals across the country, stating that the medical staff had become the most demotivated of the civil servants under Ms Masebo in many decades.

Dr Mpombo called on government not to be arrogant and ensure that they dealt with the matter before it exploded in their faces because the results would be disastrous.

 A 42-year-old man of Ndola’s Sakania area has been arrested for stealing 22 cobs of maize in Kamalasha area of Sakania. Boniface Chisenga is believed to have stolen the maize and then confessed to selling it to residents in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is believed that it is not the first […]

 ZAMBIA Tourism Agency (ZTA) Promotion Manager Chibesa Kambalakoko says the country stands to benefit immensely from taking part in the Meetings Africa summit staged in South Africa. Over 10 Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) suppliers from Zambia are taking part in the 17th edition of Meetings Africa currently going on in South Africa. These […]

By NATION REPORTER
EADER of the Opposition in Parliament Brian Mundubile says the government should stop transferring Directors at the Auditor General’s Office to Cabinet Office as this will compromise the Auditor General’s report.
Mr Mundubile who is also a PF presidential candidate said a compromised report, would make it difficult for Members of Parliament to authenticate it during Parliamentary sittings, adding that this was the first Report under the UPND administration.
He said the transfers brought the number to 400 Directors and Deputy Directors from various ministries that would be drawing free salaries while in holding positions, without doing any work.
Mr Mundubile said the constitution provided for safeguards and watchdog bodies to discipline Government by watching all activities.
He said the Auditor General was one such office which basically looked at how Government was carrying on the stewardship that was entrusted on them by the people.
“They express an opinion after looking through the books of accounts of Government,” he said.
Mr Mundubile said that this is a ploy to destabilise the Auditor General’s Office at a critical time when there was an active audit.
“As parliamentarians, we are concerned because the Auditor General’s Report forms part of our functions in providing oversight to Government,” he said.
He said the work of parliament would be adversely affected if the Audit Report was not credible. “We know that this is the first audit that will be carried out covering the period under the UPND administration. We feel that this is what has caused panic UPND friends to ensure that they produce a clean report. But as Parliamentarians that have been following events as they unfold, we have minimum expectations,” he said.
He also said, stakeholders expect the Auditor General’s Report to cover the cancelation of hunting licenses, procurement of fertiliser at Fifty Million Dollars when the market price was Thirty Five Million Dollars and the One Hundred Million Dollar contract under Ministry of Health, among others.
“Even if Government tries to destabilize the Office, we will make specific demands to the Auditor General and we will find it very difficult to defend a document that is watered down. What is important now is that let them wait for the Audit Report and use it as a mirror to reflect on how UPND has managed the Affairs of the country.
There have been concerns regarding the governance style of the UPND Government,” he said. Mr Mundubile said a credible audit report would serve as a guide to the UPND Administration going forward so that they restrain themselves from doing certain things and govern the country in the manner that was expected.
“We are concerned that Senior Auditors with experience spanning over 28 years victimised by throwing them to Cabinet Office in their usual style, bringing the number to 400 directors and deputy directors sitting at Cabinet Office and drawing salaries and President Hakainde Hichilema should say he is prudent in managing public resources? I think as a country we ought to get serious,” he said.