2 more Ebola deaths in Uganda, officials say

From David McKenzie, CNN

August 1, 2012 -- Updated 1525 GMT (2325 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• One of the dead is a teen whose relatives previously died of the virus
• Concerns over infection ripple across Uganda
• Health teams are working to deal with the issue

Kagadi, Uganda (CNN) -- Two more people have died in Uganda's Ebola outbreak, officials working at a hospital said Wednesday.

This brings the death toll to 16 people. They died in an outbreak that began in the Kibaale district in western Uganda.

One of the two latest deaths was of a 14-year-old boy whose nine relatives also have died in the outbreak in the district's Nyanswiga village, where the first case is thought to have been.

The two died in a hospital in Kagadi, a town close to the Congolese border. About three dozen suspected cases have been reported, World Health Organization spokesman Tariq Jasarevic said Tuesday.

 

How Ebola virus spreads

 

Ebola outbreak in Western Uganda

 

Deadly Ebola virus hits Uganda

The deaths have stoked heightened fear about the spread of the virus, a highly infectious, often fatal agent spread through direct contact with bodily fluids. Symptoms can include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, headache, a measles-like rash, red eyes and, at times, bleeding from body openings.

Market day was canceled Wednesday after Uganda's president warned people not to gather in large groups. Drivers of taxi motorbikes called boda-boda have become reluctant to take on passengers and there have been rumors that public transportation will be banned.

Health officials urged the public to report any suspected cases, to avoid contact with anyone infected and to wear gloves and masks while disinfecting bedding and clothing of infected people. Officials also advised avoiding public gatherings in the affected district.

Teams in Uganda are taking an aggressive approach, including trying to track down anyone who came into contact with patients infected with the virus and health workers have been gearing up for better protection of health workers and an influx of cases.

The workers include people from Uganda's ministry of health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO.

The outbreak initially went undetected because patients did not show typical symptoms, Ugandan Health Minister Dr. Christine Ondoa told CNN on Sunday. Patients had fevers and were vomiting, but did not show other typical symptoms, such as hemorrhaging.

Diagnosis in an individual who has only recently been infected can be difficult since early symptoms, such as red eyes and skin rash, are seen more frequently in patients who have more common diseases, the CDC said.

Uganda's Ministry of Health declared the outbreak in Kibaale district Saturday after the Uganda Virus Research Institute identified the disease as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Sudan strain.

Some people delayed seeking treatment, in part, because they believed that "evil spirits" had sickened them, according to a report from district health authorities.

"This caused civil strife among the community, requiring police intervention to quell the animosity," the Health Ministry said.

An emergency team of 100 volunteers underwent training this week to help spread the word in vulnerable communities about the disease and its transmission, the Uganda Red Cross Society said. Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders, helped set up a hospital isolation center.

The WHO did not recommend any travel or trade restrictions be applied to Uganda because of the outbreak. The U.S. Embassy in Kampala issued an emergency message for U.S. citizens that said the outbreak appeared to be centered in Nyamarunda Sub County, Kibaale district, although one suspected victim is reported to have traveled to Kampala for treatment at Mulago Hospital, where he died on July 22.

It urged avoiding contact with dead animals, especially primates, and refraining from eating "bushmeat."

The Ebola virus was first detected in 1976 in the central African nation of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The virus is named after a river in that country, where the first outbreak of the disease was found. There are five species of Ebola viruses, all named after the areas where they were found: Zaire, Sudan, Cote d'Ivoire, Bundibugyo and Reston, according to the WHO.

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Wakala asema Balotelli anahisi anaonewa

Wakala wa Mario Balotelli ameonya mshambuliaji huyo anaweza kuachana na kandanda ya England iwapo ataendelea kama aonavyo hatendewi haki .

Wakala wa Balotelli aonya mchezaji huyo ataondoka England

Balotelli, anakabiliwa na adhabu ya kutocheza michezo minne baada ya kushtakiwa na Chama cha Kandanda cha England kwa kitendo cha vurugu.

Mshambuliaji huyo wa Manchester City alionekana kumkanyaga kichwani Scott Parker kabla ya kufunga bao la ushindi kwa mkwaju wa penalti na kuipatia ushindi Manchester City wa mabao 3-2 dhidi ya Tottenhamon siku ya Jumapili.

"Nadhani anahisi anateswa; hawezi kuendelea namna hii," alisema Mino Raiola.

Wakala Raiola aliongeza alipokuwa akihojiwa moja kwa moja na BBC Radio 5: "Tulikuwa na mtazamo uliokuwa wazi tangu mwanzo kutokana na kazi yake ya kusakata kandanda na niliwaambia waandishi wa habari wazi kwamba Mario ataichezea Manchester City kwa takriban miaka mitatu hadi minne, kwa kuisaidia klabu katika kipindi hiki muhimu na akiwa mchezaji na mwanaume.

Bila shaka yoyote iwapo atafungiwa kucheza mechi tatu au nne kwa sababu moja au nyingine, hatutaweza kwenda namna hii na kuna haja ya kufikia mwisho katika mambo hayo.

"Kwa hiyo kama mambo yapo namna hiyo na waamuzi wa Kiingereza pamoja na Chama cha Soka-FA watataka Mario aondoke England basi tutalichukulia kwa makini suala hilo, pamoja na kwamba hiyo haikuwa si nia yetu.

"Mario amesikitishwa sana na uamuzi huo. Anapenda kucheza England. Amekuwa akihoji "kwa nini kila mara mimi, kwa nini kila mara jambo linanitokea mimi? Anapenda kucheza kandanda England na nadhani anahisi anateswa.

Alijiunga na Manchester City mwaka 2010 akitokea Inter Milan kwa kitita cha paundi milioni 24 lakini amekuwa katikati ya mizozo kadha ndani na nje ya uwanja.

Tangu aanze kucheza kandanda England ameshatolewa nje kwa kadi nyekundu mara tatu, hakuweza kuendelea kucheza baada ya mwili wake kutopatana na nyasi za Kiev, alimrushia mshale wa kuchezea mchezo wa dart mchezaji mmoja wa timu ya akiba na alinusurika kujeruhiwa baada ya kutokea mlipuko wa fashifashi iliyolipuka nyumbani kwake.

Source:BBC

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Thailand PM Yingluck hopeful as inner Bangkok stays dry

Over two million people have been affected by the flooding since July

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Thailand's prime minister has expressed optimism that central Bangkok will be mostly spared from the city's flooding, as defences held despite high tides.

Yingluck Shinawatra told residents in the capital that the country would "recover soon".

Floods have inundated over than a third of the country's provinces since July, killing more than 370 people.

Correspondents say Ms Yingluck, who came to power in June, has appeared at times overwhelmed by the crisis.

Whole towns have been submerged, with some two million people affected across the country since the flooding began, following heavy monsoon rains.

Factory closures

Officials have been trying to protect the commercial centre of Bangkok after flooding spread to northern districts of the city earlier this month.

City residents were urged to evacuate after the authorities warned them that Bangkok's Chao Phraya River could burst its banks over the weekend due to high tides, which are expected to last until Monday.

Prime Minister Yingluck said she hoped the sandbags protecting the city would hold up.

"It depends on the level of the sea and sometimes it's about the stability of the way we put the sandbags," Ms Yingluck told reporters.

"Hopefully, the sandbags are quite strong enough. So if the sandbags don't fall over, it should be OK."

On Friday, the Bank of Thailand slashed its growth forecast for the current financial year to 2.6%, down from an initial projection of 4.1% growth.

Bangkok contributes almost 41% to the country's GDP, and analysts have warned that any substantial damage to the capital could hit Thailand's growth further.

A number of factories in Thailand - one of the world's leading manufacturing bases - have shut down production, and it is not known when they will become operational again.

Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15510939

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Wenger hails 'on-fire' striker Van Persie

Wenger hails 'on-fire' striker Van Persie

 

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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes hat-trick hero Robin van Persie is benefiting from playing in a side with an attacking philosophy.

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Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/default.stm

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Bin Laden's trusted confidante identified

Bin Laden's trusted confidante identified

*Pakistan spy agency denies role in killing

By KATHY GANNON, AP

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — The courier who led U.S. intelligence to Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan hailed from the Swat Valley, a one-time stronghold of militant Taliban fighters, Pakistani officials said on Wednesday.

The officials identified the courier as Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed. He and his brother Abrar were shot dead in the daring U.S. Navy SEAL raid May 2 that also killed bin Laden and two other people.

The brothers apparently linked up with bin Laden after they returned to Swat Valley from Kuwait, where their parents had immigrated.

Swat is about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of the city of Abbottabad, where bin Laden had been hiding for about five years. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the real names of the two brothers, said they were from the Swat village of Martung.

The U.S. commando attack, conducted without notification of Pakistani officials, was a huge embarrassment for the country given that bin Laden's compound was in a military garrison city and only about 35 miles (60 kilometers) from the capital Islamabad.

Pakistan has denied suspicions of involvement in sheltering bin Laden and set up an independent commission to probe possible links and intelligence failures. Among the challenges is trying to determine whether bin Laden's support network spread beyond the brothers.

"I am sure he could not have lived without a local network. He had to get messages out. The kind of help that he needed to be there meant he had help from somewhere, some groups maybe," a senior Pakistani intelligence official said on Wednesday on the usual condition that his name not be used.

"Every possible link is being looked into," he said. He flatly denied involvement of the Pakistani intelligence agency known by its acronym ISI. While the U.S. administration has publicly said there is no evidence that anyone in a position of leadership harbored bin Laden, they have not ruled out lower level assistance.

Ahmed, who is said to be in his early 30s, was first identified as bin Laden's courier during Guantanamo Bay interrogations of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Sept. 11 mastermind, and Faraj al-Libi, a top al-Qaida operative captured in 2005 about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from Abbottabad.

The captives said the courier was known by the nom de guerre Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, which he adopted because their parents lived in Kuwait.

But U.S. intelligence only found the courier last August, through a chance interception of a Ahmed's phone call. That set in motion the secret CIA search of the Abbottabad region, culminating with the May 2 raid and bin Laden's killing.

President Barack Obama's decision to keep Pakistan in the dark about the raid, infuriated the military and its intelligence agency. Relations sank to new lows.

The U.S., however, has warned it will do the same again if it has solid intelligence on the whereabouts of any of five most-wanted figures.

Topping that list is Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's No. 2. Others are: Libyan Attiya Abdul Rahman, believed to be an operational chief; Pakistani Illyas Kashmiri, on whom the U.S. place a $5 million bounty last month; Sirajuddin Haqqani, the military chief of the Taliban-allied Haqqani network and son of its leader Jalaluddin Haqqani; and the Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

The list was handed to Pakistani authorities during a hurried visit last Friday by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen. They warned then that they would again go it alone if they discovered the location of any of the five.

Pakistan's ISI made a slight overture to the CIA by allowing access to bin Laden's compound last week.

"It was a gesture to say let's start to patch things up," he said.

"We don't want this relationship to end," he said, but another raid like the one on May 2 "may be the straw that breaks the camel's back."

____

Kathy Gannon is AP special regional correspondent for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

source

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Muslim girl stoned to death for joining beauty contest

Muslim girl stoned to death for joining beauty contest
Jun 02, 2011 at 00:16

London (IANS) - A 19-year-old Muslim girl was stoned to death in Ukraine under the Islamic Sharia law after she took part in a beauty contest, a media report said Tuesday.

Katya Koren was found dead in her village. Her battered body was buried in a forest and was found a week after she disappeared, the Daily Mail reported.

Koren's friends said she had come seventh in a beauty contest.

Police are now looking into claims that three Muslim youths killed her.

One of the three youths - a 16-year-old named Bihal Gaziev - is under arrest. He told police that Koren had "violated the laws of Sharia", and that he has no regrets about her death.


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Iran parliament: Ahmadinejad ministry move illegal

Iran parliament: Ahmadinejad ministry move illegal

By Ramin Mostafavi, Reuters

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's parliament said on Wednesday President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad acted illegally by declaring himself caretaker oil minister and referred the case to the judiciary, increasing pressure on him to quit the post.

The legislature, which has repeatedly clashed with Ahmadinejad over key policy issues, voted to approve a report by its energy committee which found Ahmadinejad's move an "obvious violation of law," the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

Last month Ahmadinejad sacked Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi as part of a plan to merge several ministries to cut their number to 17 from 21, alarming his rivals within the conservative ruling elite.

The president has the power to remove ministers and put caretakers in place for up to three months before having to consult parliament, and he says no one should be surprised by the reshuffle which has been on the cards for some time.

But taking personal control of the ministry that exploits Iran's vast oil resources was seen by some as a power grab to gain tighter control over the Islamic Republic's petro-dollars and a challenge to other arms of government.

"This illegal and hasty action will undermine the Islamic Republic of Iran's interests on the international level," the conservative-dominated parliament said in its report.

"Mr Ahmadinejad as oil minister has issued some orders and will continue to issue orders which are obvious examples of illegal interference with governmental financial resources."

for more you can read here

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Kenya and Tanzania in human trafficking web

Kenya and Tanzania in human trafficking web
By Lusekelo Philemon
25th May 2011


Tanzania and Kenya have been cited as the most notorious transit routes for 'Human trafficking' racket involving the Horn and South Africa.

Project Manager for Regional Political Integration and Human Security Support Programme for the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region, Caroline Njuki said here yesterday that the Horn of Africa region is the main area of origin for mostly Somali and Ethiopian immigrants who use East Africa as their transit route on their way to South Africa.

Njuki presented a paper on 'Awareness raising as a tool for prevention and protection against trafficking and smuggling of human beings' from the IGAD-RMPF perspective at the ongoing meeting here to discuss operationalisation of the Ouagadougou Action Plan to combat trafficking in human beings, especially women and children.

"Women and children become more vulnerable especially in cases of internal and international displacement resulting from civil strife and natural disasters," she said, adding that they fall prey to trafficking in the hope of a safer and better existence elsewhere.

"Many find themselves in even worse situations than back at home and either due to fear, shame or the fact that they left home illegally, cannot go back, thus continue to suffer in silence," Njuki said.

According to Njuki, others are taken abroad, especially in the United Arabian Emirates where they are promised good jobs and high salaries but upon arriving, their employers confiscate their passports and force them to work as slaves earning almost nothing, and not able to return home due to lack of the travel documents.

"Our borders are too porous and human traffickers take advantage of the fragile immigration systems in our countries," said Mosses Malisa, an Officer from the Immigration Department in Dar es Salaam who pointed out that the East African borders are full of unofficial entry points known as 'Panya routes!'

"And many of the victims of this deadly trade are ignorant of both their countries' and international laws," said Zakhia Kisiri a legal officer with the Immigration Department.

Deputy EAC Secretary General, Jean-Claude Nsengiyumva officially opened the two-day meeting whose agenda include an update by Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and East African Community (EAC) on the current anti-trafficking awareness raising activities undertaken in the regions, international technical cooperation, best practices and support available through partners, and working sessions during which practical framework design and work-planning for regional anti-trafficking awareness raising frameworks will be undertaken.

In addition to the need for law enforcement, criminal investigation or prosecution in anti-trafficking, efforts should also be made to raise public awareness of the problem of human trafficking through public information campaigns and other means.

The essential purpose of raising public awareness of trafficking in persons is to mobilise crucial public concern and knowledge about the risk of falling prey to criminals as well as informing on the extreme social and human costs of trafficking in persons.

Because of the transnational dynamics and convolution of trafficking in persons, a holistic and regional approach, which will rest on clear and consistent communication about trafficking and its risks to the population as well as the status of response activities, is called for.

This will only be achieved through strengthening the capacity of information, education and communication at all levels and among all stakeholders in the member States.

Due to the nature of human trafficking, it is difficult to obtain reliable statistics of the number of victims of human trafficking. Estimates have been made at 600,000 to 800,000 people trafficked across international borders each year. The numbers trafficked within their own countries has not been easy to be estimated.

Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world with a global annual market of around USD42.5 billion. It is estimated that 70per cent of people trafficked across borders are female and 50 per cent of them are children.

In January 2007, the African Union adopted the Executive Council Decision which endorsed the Ouagadougou Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings, especially women and children.

The second Action Plan 2011-2013 of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy particularly Partnership on Migration, Mobility and Employment (MME), calls for more actions to combat trafficking in persons.

In addition, the AU Plan of Action on Drug Control and Crime Prevention (2007-2012), adopted by the AU Assembly in January 2008, provides for coordination of activities to fight human trafficking, to protect victims and prosecute offenders.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

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