Desperate worldwide hunt for two-year-old girl's rare blood match to sustain cancer treatment

Health reporter(wp/es):

A desperate worldwide hunt is on for a rare blood match with a two-year-old girl who has an aggressive form of cancer.

The girl, Zainab Mughal, has an extremely rare blood type and needs donors to sustain her long-term treatment.

Zainab, from Florida, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma two months ago.

While three donors have been located – including one in the UK – at least seven more volunteers are desperately needed for Zainab’s blood transfusions going forward. More than 1,000 local samples have been taken, but to no avail.

Raheel Mughal, Zainab’s father, said of the diagnosis: “We were all crying. This was like the worst thing we were expecting.”

Zainab’s blood is extremely rare because she is missing a common antigen, “Indian B”, that most people carry in their red blood cells.

For a person to be a possible match with Zainab, they must also be missing the Indian B antigen, otherwise the little girl's body will reject the blood.

The only people who are likely to be a match for Zainab are people of exclusively Pakistani, Indian or Iranian descent. Of these populations, less than four per cent of the people are actually missing the Indian B antigen. Additionally, they must also have the blood type "O" or "A".

Mr Mughal added: “We will definitely need more blood. If you are one of those people from the Middle East, please go out and donate the blood for my daughter.

“Once my daughter grows, I am going to remind her of the efforts to save her life when she was a child.”

The search is being led by the OneBlood charity. For more information, visit oneblood.org/zainab

Woman and young girl, 8, die after blaze at home in Collingham

Crime reporter(wp/es):

An eight-year-old girl and a woman have died following a house fire in Nottinghamshire. 

Emergency services scrambled to the scene at around 7am on Saturday after reports of a blaze at a property in Woodhill Road, Collingham. 

Nottinghamshire Police said five people, believed to be members of the same family, were removed from the building.

The young girl died along with a woman, 33, after the incident. 

A five-year-old boy and a 34-year-old man remain in hospital with serious injuries.

A 53-year-old woman was led to safety and treated at the scene.

The fire was brought under control and a joint investigation has been launched by Nottinghamshire Police and Fire and Rescue.  

Area Chief Inspector Rich Stapleford said: “This morning our Fire and Rescue colleagues were able to remove five people from a property affected by fire.

“Ambulance crews were on scene and provided emergency care at the scene and on route to hospital.

“Despite their best efforts it is with sadness that I confirm a girl aged eight and a woman aged 33 have died following the incident.

“A five-year-old boy and a 34-year-old man remain in hospital with serious injuries.

“A 53-year-old woman was lead to safety and looked after at the scene.

“It is believed that all five people were members of the same family.

“The fire was brought under control and a joint Fire and Police investigation is taking place to establish a cause.

“Collingham is a very close knit community and this includes some of the fire crews who responded. I know this news will hit the village very hard indeed. I speak on behalf of all the emergency services who were in attendance when I say our thoughts are with the victims, their families, friends and the community of Collingham at this difficult time.”

If you have any information call Nottinghamshire Police on 101 quoting incident number 189 of 15 December 2018.

UK court rules regulator treated Sainsbury's, Asda unfairly in probe

Business correspondent(wp/reuters):

A British court ruled on Friday that the country’s competition regulator treated Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L) and takeover target Asda unfairly in not allowing the supermarket groups more time to respond to evidence submitted as part of a probe of their deal.

Sainsbury’s agreed a 7.3 billion-pound takeover of Walmart-owned (WMT.N) Asda in April and the deal is being probed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

On Wednesday the two companies said they would apply to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) for a judicial review of the CMA’s phase two investigation of the deal, which started in September.

Sainsbury’s and Asda had asked the CMA for an extra 11 working days over the Christmas period to respond to a large amount of evidence material recently provided to them, but the CMA had declined the request. 

Sainsbury’s and Asda said the CAT ruled on Friday that the timetables for responding to the materials and attending a hearing were unfair.

But the tribunal did not rule on the number of extra days Sainsbury’s and Asda should have, a CMA spokeswoman said, adding the court had not agreed with the Jan. 4 date sought by the companies.

The tribunal instead decided it was up to the competition regulator to decide how much more time the companies should have to respond, the spokeswoman said.

“The CMA will now consider how much more time to give the parties,” she said.

Sainsbury’s and Asda said in a joint statement they “took this step reluctantly and look forward to re-engaging with the CMA and Panel and working constructively with them going forward.”

British minister warns Brexit is stuck as no-deal or referendum loom

Political reporter(wp/Reuters):
Britain’s exit from the European Union was heading for an impasse, one senior minister said on Saturday, after a week in which Prime Minister Theresa May failed to win EU assurances on her deal and pulled a vote because UK lawmakers would defeat it.

With just over 100 days until Britain leaves the bloc on March 29, Brexit remains up in the air with growing calls for a no-deal exit, a potentially disorderly divorce that business fears would be highly damaging, or for a second referendum.

May pulled a vote on her deal on Monday after acknowledging it would be heavily defeated over concerns about the “backstop”, an insurance policy designed to avoid any hard land border for Ireland but which critics say could bind Britain to EU rules indefinitely.

Two days later, she survived a plot to oust her from her those in her own party who support a hardline Brexit, showing the level of opposition she faced.

May herself has acknowledged that Britain’s parliament appears deadlocked with no clear support for any option, with the small Northern Irish party that props up her government leading the criticism of her deal.

“Brexit is in danger of getting stuck – and that is something that should worry us all,” pensions minister Amber Rudd wrote in Saturday’s Daily Mail newspaper.

“If MPs (lawmakers) dig in against the prime minister’s deal and then hunker down in their different corners, none with a majority, the country will face serious trouble.”

At a summit in Brussels, May’s attempts to get legal assurances from the EU that the Irish backstop would only be a temporary measure was rebuffed with the bloc’s other 27 leaders saying they would not renegotiate the treaty.

However, May insisted at the summit’s conclusion on Friday that further clarification was still possible with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying: “We want to be helpful”.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said parliament could still rally behind May’s agreement with additional assurances and said such clarifications were likely because EU countries knew no deal would be a disaster for them.

“When the dust has settled, the only way we’re going to get this through the House of Commons ... is to have a version of the deal that the government has negotiated,” Hunt told BBC radio. “I don’t think the EU could be remotely sure that if we don’t find a way through this we wouldn’t end up with no deal.”

MINISTERS DIVIDED

However, the Times newspaper reported on Saturday that most of May’s ministers thought her deal was dead and were divided over the way forward.

Some were reluctantly leaning towards a second referendum, others favoured a closer, Norway-style relationship and a number, including Hunt, were willing to leave with no deal, the paper said.

One senior minister told Reuters on Friday that the risk of a “managed” no-deal Brexit was rising as was the likelihood of a second vote on EU membership.

“We are not ready for no deal, the public is not ready for no deal,” said the minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There is no plan B, at least, not that will get the support of the House (of Commons).”

Rudd said a no-deal scenario “mustn’t be allowed to happen” and urged lawmakers from all parties come together to stop it.

“We need to try something different. Something that people do in the real world all the time, but which seems so alien in our political culture – to engage with others,” she said.

“We need to acknowledge the risk that parliament could spend the next precious few months debating about preferred solutions and end up with no compromise, no agreement and no deal.”

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, a leading pro-EU advocate, said on Friday a second Brexit referendum was now the most likely outcome to break the stalemate, a view shared by ardent Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP).

“We’re actually becoming more divided on this subject than perhaps we were two-and-a-half years ago and that’s why I think a second referendum gets closer,” Farage told BBC TV. “I hate the thought of it, but I tell you what, I’m going to spend every minute getting ready for it.”