The State Department, World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recently issued the following travel warnings, travel alerts, country specific information sheets, and disease outbreak-related information: State Department Travel Warnings are issued when the State Department decides, based on all relevant information, to recommend that Americans avoid travel to certain countries.
Dugie Standeford
Dugie Standeford, European Correspondent, Communications Daily and Privacy Daily, is a former lawyer. She joined Warren Communications News in 2000 to report on internet policy and regulation. In 2003 she moved to the U.K. and since then has covered European telecommunications issues. She previously covered the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and intellectual property law matters. She has a degree in psychology from Duke University and a law degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law.
There were no fatalities in 2011 from runway-related accidents involving scheduled commercial operations, the International Civil Aviation Organization said Nov. 19. Overall fatalities from air transport accidents also dropped, from 707 in 2010 to 414 in 2011, it said.
The International Air Transport Association said it successfully tested the electronic consignment security declaration (e-CSD) in the U.K. and Netherlands. The e-CSD meets regulatory demands for evidence that appropriate security measures have been applied to air cargo and mail by detailing how, when and by whom a consignment of cargo or mail has been secured, IATA said. By standardizing the process and documentation of such evidence, e-CSD will replace redundant security declarations in various formats and make it easier to implement security emergency amendments, it said. Plans are now under way to run live operational shipment trials over coming months, it said. These will give industry and regulators more findings and allow for fine-tuning based on live data. Once the live trial period ends, industry will be able to replace its range of security declarations with a globally harmonized electronic one, IATA said.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration scheduled a public meeting for 9 a.m. November 28 to prepare for the 42nd session of the U.N. Sub-Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, to be held December 3-11 in Geneva, Switzerland. During the meeting, PHMSA will solicit comments about potential new work items to be considered for inclusion in its international agenda. Attendees may pre-register at http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/hazmat/regs/international. Specific information on conference call-in and live meeting access will be posted when available (here) . Further information: Vincent Babich or Kevin Leary, 202-366-8553.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration wants comment and information to be used for an assessment to improve the collection, analysis, reporting and use of data related to accidents and incidents involving the transportation of hazardous materials, it said in a FederalRegister notice for publication Nov. 21. The Hazardous Materials Regulations require an immediate report and a detailed incident report, information PHMSA uses to evaluate regulatory effectiveness, determine the need for regulatory changes to address changing transportation safety problems, chart trends, and for other purposes. The “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century” Act requires the Department of Transportation to determine how to better the collection, analysis, reporting and use of this data. Comments are due Dec. 28 to docket number PHMSA-2012-12-10 via http://www.regulations.gov, or by mail to Docket Operations, U.S. Department of Transportation, West Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Routing Symbol M-30, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, S.E., Washington, DC 20590. Further information: David Lehman or Yolanda Braxton, 202-366-1074.
The Federal Maritime Commission released a notice of the filing of the following agreement under the Shipping Act of 1984. Interested parties may submit comments on the agreements to the Secretary, Federal Maritime Commission, Washington, DC 20573, within 10 days.
More international cooperation is needed to eradicate piracy at sea, the U.N. Security Council said Nov. 19. It welcomed the fact that effective counter-piracy measures through more national, bilateral and multilateral initiatives and regional cooperative measures have substantially cut the number of successful piracy-related attacks in different regions, but warned those gains are reversible. The council asked all countries, the International Maritime Organization and other relevant global organizations to adopt or recommend measures to prevent hijackings at sea, protect seafarer victims of piracy and assist them after their release. Council members agreed that while coordination of regional efforts was primary, international assistance is also needed, together with capacity-building for security and criminal justice sectors of the nations involved and greater information-sharing among all partners.
The following individual has been added to OFAC's SDN List:
The Export-Import Bank announces an upcoming meeting on Nov. 29, 2012.
The Export-Import Bank of the U.S. authorized two transactions aggregating $461 million to underwrite export of American-made satellites to Hong Kong. Asia Broadcast Satellite will use the satellites to upgrade and expand its fleet. In the first transaction, the bank approved a $171.29 million direct loan to ABS to fund the purchase a geostationary satellite from Space Systems/Loral Inc. and insurance. The bank also authorized a separate $289.71 million direct loan to ABS to allow it to buy two geostationary satellites from Boeing Satellite Systems International, insurance, technical support and the launch of both satellites from Space X Falcon 9. The deal will finance the first two of Boeing's all-electric-propulsion commercial satellites and the first Ex-Im Bank-backed Space X launch.