A 46-year-old man has been put under observation for possible COVID-19 infection at the Prof. Kandou General Hospital in Manado, North Sulawesi, after returning from Malaysia.The patient, a Bitung resident who works in Malaysia, arrived in Manado from Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 19 via Singapore.”He complained of cough and shivering. However, his temperature was normal at 36.1 degrees Celsius,” the hospital’s medical services head Handry Takasenseran told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. “We have categorized him as a suspected COVID-19 patient because he has a travel history to countries affected by the outbreak.”  Handry said the patient had begun to feel ill ten days after arrived in Bitung and had decided to report his illness to the Bitung Health Agency when he saw that his condition was not improving.”We’ve confirmed the case with the Bitung Health Agency; we’ve also coordinated with the North Sulawesi Health Agency,” Handry said. “Last night at around 6 p.m. he was isolated and his samples were taken.”He said the samples had been sent to the Health Research and Development Agency (Balitbangkes) laboratory in Jakarta and the patient would remain in isolation until the test result came out.Indonesia has confirmed COVID-19 in two people, both of whom are currently being treated at the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital in Jakarta. (nal)Topics :

A recently captured Interpol fugitive, 50-year-old American Marcus Beam, who is wanted for alleged investment fraud in the United States, allegedly produced and sold pornographic videos to make money while hiding out in Bali, police have said.Investigators of the Bali Police’s general crimes division and the Counter Transnational and Organized Crime (CTOC) task force arrested Beam and his female friend, a 48-year-old identified as WPC on Thursday.“He made pornographic movies to make money on the internet. That was one of his activities to survive in Bali. He made a lot of contacts with local people,” Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Petrus Reinhard Golose said at Bali Police’s headquarters in Denpasar on Friday as reported by tempo.co. He explained that Beam had been living in Bali since January. During his stay, until he was captured, he and his female friend allegedly uploaded their personal adult videos onto a website to make money to cover his living costs.Deputy director of the Bali Police’s general crimes division Adj. Sr. Comr. Suratno added that the authorities had only managed to find one adult video of the identified “dozens”. The police also named WPC as a witness.Beam and WPC, both American nationals, were arrested at a villa in Badung regency, Bali. Authorities also confiscated a passport, five mobile phones, one folding knife, 14 sex toys and 13 other electronic devices as evidence.Beam has been accused of embezzling around US$500,000 from investors in Chicago, US. He reportedly used the money for his personal expenses instead of placing it in investment funds. After previously being detained by US authorities in September, he allegedly escaped the US in January using a passport that listed a different name.Despite there being no extradition treaty between Indonesia and the US, Petrus said that Beam would be sent back to his home country under an agreement between the two countries’ police forces. (mfp)Topics :

Governor Wolf Discusses the Impact of Funding Increases in Monroe County during “Schools that Teach” Roundtable and Tour SHARE Email Facebook Twitter Press Release,  Schools That Teach,  Severance Tax Pocono Summit, PA – Governor Tom Wolf today continued his “Schools That Teach” tour in Monroe County, where he heard from teachers and administrators in the Pocono Mountain School District about their plans to ensure that education funding from his 2015-16 budget goes directly into the classroom.“Pennsylvania ranks near the bottom in the country in state funding for K through 12 education and my proposed budget makes historic investments at all levels – early childhood education through higher education,” said Governor Wolf. “After years of funding cuts that resulted in the loss of educators, increased class sizes, and cuts to valuable programs, I want to ensure that the new funding in my budget reaches the classroom and directly impacts student achievement. Focusing on education will allow us to lay the foundation for long-term economic growth.”Governor Wolf’s budget proposal restores massive cuts made over the last four years, with a commitment to increase school funding by $2 billion over four years by instituting a commonsense severance tax on oil and natural gas. Governor Wolf’s proposal, called the Pennsylvania Education Reinvestment Act, is expected to generate over a billion dollars by 2017 by enacting a reasonable 5% severance tax plus 4.7 cents per thousand feet of volume on natural gas extraction.In a roundtable discussion at Pocono Mountain West Junior High School, Governor Wolf heard from school leaders and stakeholders about their plans to improve the district’s instructional technology training programs to diversify students’ opportunities to learn 21st century skills.“This is an important opportunity for districts to have comprehensive conversations about how to invest this funding on proven resources and programs that will improve student learning,” Governor Wolf said. “What is being proposed here in the Pocono Mountain School District is a prime example of a plan that will ensure this historic education investment reaches the classroom while providing clear benchmarks to measure the results of student achievement.”“If additional state funding is made available, the district plans to add four instructional technology coaches, two to work with students in grades K through 5 and two to work with students in grades 7 through 12, to provide direct instruction to students on the use of technology,” said Pocono Mountain School District Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Robison. “Our district believes that with additional resources and opportunities, we can work toward preparing our diverse population of learners for the 21st Century. It is also important for our district to increase the amount of students who are proficient in reading by third grade. Closing the achievement gap is a continued goal for us each year. This funding opportunity will directly assist with helping to achieve this goal.”In March, Department of Education Acting Secretary Pedro Rivera sent a letter to superintendents in all 500 districts detailing accountability measures to ensure the education funding proposed in Governor Wolf’s 2015-2016 budget is spent directly on students in the classroom to allow them to compete in a modern economy. In the letter, Acting Secretary Rivera called on districts to submit plans to ensure this new investment reaches the classroom and to measure results for Pennsylvania’s students.MEDIA CONTACT: Jeff Sheridan – 717.783.1116# # # May 27, 2015