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New Zealander citizens donate a record US$1.1 million to the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Appeal
to benefit 16 rescue helicopter teams across the nation that supported over 5,000 health
emergency missions in 2009 alone. Syrian musician Ziad Ajjan composes poetry and musical pieces
based on a cuneiform dating back nearly 3500 years, discovered in the ancient city Ugarit
in Syria. Aulacese (Vietnamese) top official Nông Đức Mạnh and Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev mutually affirm the value of their countries’ longstanding amicable
relations as they pledge to increase trade to US$10 billion over the next two years.
The European Parliament states that it welcomes the prospect of Iceland becoming a member
state as soon as the country halts all whaling activities, in compliance with European Union
law. Around 25,000 Philippine families who had been victims of civil conflict during
2008 will receive housing, health and job assistance from a compensation fund being
set up by President Benigno Aquino’s government. As part of a national movement to encourage
smokers to quit, the Palestinian Authority, for the fourth time in two years, raises taxes
on the price of cigarettes, with plans for continued annual increases. The Burmese government
permits the former National League for Democracy party, led by detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, to form a new party and participate in upcoming elections. The
University of California Los Angeles Center for Human Nutrition in the USA reports that
capsaicin compounds in spicy peppers help burn calories as they require energy expenditure
to raise a person’s body temperature. Germany offers to welcome two released detainees from
the US-run facility in Cuba’s Guantánamo Bay. In the wake of the Haitian earthquake
earlier this year, a 50,000-person tent city organized by Oscar-winning Hollywood actor
Sean Penn continues aiding Haitians and is recognized as being one of the most effective
humanitarian efforts of its kind�