Measles outbreak grows in northwest US, 30 cases reported
VANCOUVER, Wash. — The number of confirmed measles cases near Portland grew from 25 to 30 on Friday, with nine additional cases suspected — an outbreak boosted by lower-than-normal vaccination rates in what’s been identified as an anti-vaccination U.S. “hot spot.”
Public health officials in southwest Washington, just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, said people may have been exposed to the dangerous disease at more than three dozen locations , including Portland International Airport, a Portland Trail Blazers game, an Amazon Locker location and stores such as Costco and Ikea.
Twenty-six of the confirmed patients had not been vaccinated against measles and the vaccination status of four others who were infected is unknown. One person has been hospitalized.
Most of the cases involved children younger than 10, the Clark County Public Health Department said in a statement. One adult is infected and the rest are teenagers.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, declared a statewide public health emergency for his state on Friday and authorities in neighboring Oregon and Idaho have issued warnings to residents.
Japan court upholds sterilization to register gender change
TOKYO — Human rights and LGBT activists on Friday denounced a ruling by Japan’s Supreme Court upholding a law that effectively requires transgender people to be sterilized before they can have their gender changed on official documents.
The court said the law is constitutional because it was meant to reduce confusion in families and society. But it acknowledged that it restricts freedom and could become out of step with changing social values.
The 2004 law states that people wishing to register a gender change must have their original reproductive organs, including testes or ovaries, removed and have a body that “appears to have parts that resemble the genital organs” of the gender they want to register.
More than 7,800 Japanese have had their genders officially changed, according to Justice Ministry statistics cited by public broadcaster NHK.
The unanimous decision by a four-judge panel, published Thursday, rejected an appeal by Takakito Usui, a transgender man who said forced sterilization violates the right to self-determination and is unconstitutional.
Dam holding back mine waste collapses in Brazil; 200 missing
SAO PAULO — A dam that held back mining waste collapsed Friday in Brazil, inundating a nearby community in reddish-brown sludge and leaving an estimated 200 people missing, authorities and the mining company said.
Parts of the city of Brumadinho were evacuated, and firefighters rescued people by helicopter and ground vehicles. Local television channel TV Record showed a helicopter hovering inches off the ground as it pulled people covered in mud out of the waste.
Photos showed rooftops poking above an extensive field of the mud, which also cut off roads.
The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and an administrative office for Brazilian mining company Vale SA, where employees were present.
Vale CEO Fabio Schartzman said he did not know what caused the collapse. About 300 employees were working when it happened. About 100 had been accounted for, and rescue efforts were under way to determine what had happened to the others.
Dueling Venezuela leaders dig in defending presidency claims
CARACAS, Venezuela — The Venezuelan opposition leader who has declared himself interim president vowed Friday he would remain on the streets until the South American country has a transitional government, while President Nicolas Maduro dug in and accused his opponents of orchestrating a coup.
In dueling press conferences, Juan Guaido urged his followers to stage another mass protest next week, while Maduro pushed his oft-repeated call for dialogue. Each man appeared ready to defend his claim to the presidency no matter the cost, with Guaido telling supporters that if he is arrested they should “stay the course” and peacefully protest.
But the standoff could set the scene for more violence and has plunged troubled Venezuela into a new chapter of political turmoil that rights groups say has already left more than two dozen dead as thousands take to the street demanding Maduro step down.
“They can cut a flower, but they will never keep spring from coming,” Guaido told supporters Friday, alluding to a similar phrase from the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.
Guaido’s talk with reporters in a plaza in Caracas turned into a de facto rally as thousands gathered after hearing he would speak in public for the first time since taking a symbolic oath Wednesday proclaiming himself the nation’s rightful leader. The 35-year-old is the president of the National Assembly, the only remaining branch of government still controlled by the opposition.
