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THE NEWS THAT the board of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) has voted to lift the lifetime ban on gay men donating blood has today been welcomed.
After meeting yesterday, the Irish Blood Transfusion Service is believed to have made a recommendation to Minister for Health Simon Harris that the lifetime ban on donating blood for men who’ve had sex with men (MSM) should be lifted.
It is understood that this will be changed so that a gay or bisexual man can give blood if he has not sex with another man in the 12 months before donating.
A ban on MSM blood donations has been in place in Ireland since the 1980s, when it was introduced to combat the AIDs epidemic.
It is expected that the Department for Health will act on the recommendation of the IBTS and implement it before the end of the year.
Following the move, Sinn Féin’s Fintan Warfield has welcomed the end to what he called a “discriminatory ban”.
It is now up to Fine Gael Health Minister Simon Harris to make the decision to remove the ban and Sinn Féin’s Leinster House will be pushing at every opportunity to ensure this happens.
Also welcoming the move is LGBT-rights organisation GLEN, which has described it as “good progress”.
The priority should be safety of the blood supply that any of us or our families may need at any time. Safety is assured by following the best available scientific knowledge and experience, and there was no longer any scientific basis for continuing the ban.
This follows the move earlier this month by Northern Ireland Health Minister Michelle O’Neill, who introduced a deferral period of one year with the new policy set to come into effect on 1 September.
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Disgraceful company, stole the entire game off of a smaller developer, then sued the original developer for copyright infringement to boot. Complete and utter w*****s
Not a bunch to be trusted.
They also trademarked the word “Candy” in Europe.
Didn’t know that.
And there was me about to post a happy comment, oh well expect the worst and you’ll never be disappointed.
used to play it, got to level 167 i think, never paid a thing cos… its rigged. you could be stuck on a level from repeated play in one sitting, come back 2 days later, clear it right away. they see you’ve not used it in a while, so let you move on again. Got bored of it then. Logged into recently and im back at level 1, think they revamped it or maybe they do that if you stop using it for 6 months.
If you have kids near this, don’t let them pay a cent.
Not with a barge pole! Remember Zynga.
Bain of my life
I heard chuck norris just made it to level 587,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. He is halfway to completing the game.
On level 421 and I never have & never will pay a cent to play! :-)
Level 500 is impossible. I really don’t think it’s possible without buying extra moves or help. It’s the very last level so if you wanna finish the game you’ll have to pay up.
Level 500… Seriously, it’s driving me insane at level 86…
Got past it and on 508 now. There are no last levels, it goes on and on and on, taunting me to keep going or fail!!! Aaaah!!
No. Level 500 is the last level in Candy crush saga unless it haven’t done an update.
Dam it! Just updated it. Not on the last level anymore. Dam you Candy Crush!!
Passed level 500 yesterday after a month . Nightmare level
Hahahahaha, see it never flucking ends!! It’s a diabolical plot!!
My secret shame…..not so secret anymore :((
Feel rather sorry for guy who made Candy Stripe, which King blatantly ripped off and netted loss of earnings as result.
You can still get the original Candy Stripe on Play store.
413 million profits with 12.5% tax! That’s over 51 million to the exchequer. thanks candycrush……… or not?
93 million people with their heads down tutting!!
…mind you, it seems like a little more of a realistic valuation
They’re not giving a valuation as far as I can see though, unless their multiplier is about 1.2 in which case barge pole distance is about as close as private investors are ever likely to get! They’ve just said how much they plan to raise, but no indication of market cap in this article. If the valuation is right they’ll get plenty of interest, lots of m&a in the industry so plenty willing to have a punt in the hope a tech giant might move for them down the road.
Good point(s).
If off to spend my money on cheap hookers so.
Always a sound investment! As long as the return doesn’t involve a trip to James’ of course!
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