Ebola: Roadblocks To Stop Health Workers

Ex-NHS Nurse Tests Experimental Ebola Vaccine

Updated: 9:07am UK, Thursday 18 September 2014

By Thomas Moore, Health & Science Correspondent

A former NHS nurse has become the first person to be injected with an experimental ebola vaccine.

Ruth Atkins was given the jab in her arm and then carefully monitored by doctors for any side effects.

She is the first of 60 healthy volunteers to take part in a clinical trial at Oxford University's Jenner Institute.

She was paid just £380 - not for the risk, but for any loss of earnings.

An hour after having the vaccine she said: "I feel absolutely fine. It felt no different to being vaccinated before going on holiday.

"I volunteered because the situation in West Africa is so tragic and I thought being part of this vaccination process was something small I could do to hopefully make a huge impact."

The vaccine is made from a harmless chimpanzee virus that has been genetically modified to carry a benign payload of ebola DNA.

The genetic material will make a single ebola protein in the body - not enough to cause the disease, but enough to prime the immune system to attack the virus in future.

The volunteers will be given different doses and then monitored for side effects and their immune response.

Trials in monkeys have shown the vaccine is 100% effective in the first month, with some protection remaining 10 months later.

Professor Adrian Hill, who is leading the research team, said: "These are initial safety trials of the vaccine and it will be some time before we know whether the vaccine could protect people against ebola.

"But we are optimistic that the candidate vaccine may prove useful against the disease in the future."

Scientists and medicines regulators are fast-tracking the testing process, which would normally take at least 18 months.

They hope to start widespread use of the vaccine in West Africa early next year.

The manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, will scale up production even while testing is under way, so 10,000 doses will be ready to be sent out to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea as soon as the vaccine is given the green light.

The vaccine has been welcomed by Professor Peter Piot, who discovered the ebola virus, and is now director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

He told Sky News the vaccine should be given to healthcare workers who are at high risk of becoming infected.

But he warned there would not be enough doses to protect whole communities and "tens and tens of thousands" would still die.

"Whether this new vaccine will be useful to stop the epidemic I don't know," he said.

"Let's hope the epidemic will be nearly finished by the end of the year, or in six months' time.

"If it lasts much longer the vaccine will be there. But let's not forget there will be other epidemics."

Almost 5000 people have so far been infected by the virus in West Africa - half of them have died.

But worryingly the epidemic is accelerating, with half the cases occurring in just the last three weeks.

Professor Hill said: "Witnessing the events in Africa makes it clear that developing new drugs and vaccines against ebola should now be an urgent priority.

"It is tremendous that so many people have worked hard to make this trial happen in short time, and I am enormously grateful to those volunteers who have come forward to take part."

The trial has been funded by a £2.8m grant from the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the UK Department for International Development.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has announced further UK support to tackle ebola in West Africa, including providing 700 treatment beds in Sierra Leone.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Briton In Jail For Blasphemy Is Shot By Cop

Pakistan Mob Kills Three Over 'Blasphemy'

Updated: 5:13pm UK, Monday 28 July 2014

By Neville Lazarus, Sky Producer

A woman and her two granddaughters have been killed by an angry mob in Pakistan after an allegedly blasphemous post on Facebook.

Bashiran, 55, seven-year-old Hira and her baby sister died after their home was attacked in Gurjanwala, 110 miles southeast of the capital Islamabad.

All three were members of the Ahmadi community - an offshoot of Islam founded in India in the 19th Century.

The mob attacked and burnt five homes, a storage building and several vehicles belonging to Ahmadi followers on Sunday night after rumours emerged that a member of the community had put up an image of the Kaaba, the structure at the Grand Mosque in Mecca which Muslims face five times a day to pray, allegedly containing nudity.

Police officials said a crowd of 150 people first went to the police station to demand the blasphemy case was registered.

"As we were negotiating with the crowd, another mob attacked and started burning the houses of Ahmadis," an official said.

Munawar Ahmed, 60, who lives in the area, said: "The attackers were looting and plundering, taking away fans and whatever valuables they could get hold of.

"Some were continuously firing into the air."

Salimud Din, a spokesman for the Ahmadi community, accused the police of failing to act.

"The police were there but just watching the burning," he said.

"They didn't do anything to stop the mob, first they looted their homes and shops and then they burnt the homes."

Mr Din said it was the worst assault since attacks on places of worship which killed 86 Ahmadis in 2011.

Under Pakistani law, Ahmadi people are banned from using Muslim greetings, saying prayers or refereeing to their place of worship as a mosque. 

The blasphemy law is considered draconian by the minority Ahmadi and Christian community in Pakistan. The controversial law is not clearly defined and is punishable by death.           

Human rights groups say the law is often used to settle personal vendettas or to illegal grab property.

In January 2011, governor of Punjab Salman Taseer - who opposed the law - was killed by his bodyguard. Lawyers showered his killer with rose petals when he came to court.

Three months later Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian minister in the government, was killed for challenging the law.

And in May this year, prominent human rights activist Rashid Rehman, who had received death threats for defending people charged under the law, was shot dead in Multan.

A report by the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad said there was just one case of blasphemy in 2001, but by 2011 that number grew to 80.

This year alone around 100 people have been charged under the law.

Though there have been convictions, the death sentence has never been carried out and most cases are thrown out on appeal.

Mobs like the one in Gurjanwala have killed many people accused of blasphemy.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Beer Pipeline To Be Built Under Historic Bruges

An underground beer pipeline is to be installed beneath Belgium's medieval city of Bruges to dramatically cut the number of lorries clogging its cobbled streets.

The 3km (1.86 mile) pipe linking the De Halve Maan brewery to a bottling plant will be capable of carrying 6,000 litres an hour.

The pipeline, given the go-ahead by the city council, is set to take about 500 tankers off Bruges' roads each year.

Brewing has been carried out almost continuously on the current site for more than five centuries, and the firm wants to continue this tradition.

While a new processing plant was opened on the Waggelwater industrial estate in 2010, every litre of the famous 'Brugse Zot' beer continues to be brewed at De Halve Maan on the Walplein.

The pipes will be made from high-quality plastic - polyethylene - and will be primarily installed using advanced computer-guided drilling techniques - avoiding roadworks.

Brugse Zot will soon be transported underground

The brewery's CEO Xavier Vanneste told Belgium's Het Nieuwsbladsaid: "The beer will take 10 to 15 minutes to reach the bottling plant.

"By using the pipeline we will keep hundreds of lorries out of the city centre.

"This is unique in the brewing industry with the exception of one German brewery that has installed a similar system."

The cost of the project has not been revealed, but the bill will be footed by the brewery, which welcomes up to 100,000 tourists each year.

Bruges' Alderman for Spatial Planning, Franky Demon, said: "In time, this innovative investment plan would reduce the amount of transport by heavy goods vehicles by 85%.

"It is a win-win situation for everyone.

"Moreover, the city has received a guarantee from the Halve Maan that all costs relating to the pipeline - both for installation and for any necessary repair works - will be met in full by the brewery."

Construction is expected to start next year.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Victoria Beckham Speaks At United Nations

Victoria Beckham spoke of her "responsibilities as a woman and a mother" after being named as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations.

Posh Spice is following in the footsteps of Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, Emma Watson, former bandmate Geri Halliwell and husband David in becoming an ambassador.

She will work with UNAIDS, the UN's HIV and Aids charity.

"It's taken me getting to 40 to realise I have a responsibility as a woman and a mother," said the singer-turned-designer.

"I recently visited South Africa and was so touched by the women I met. I felt inspired and I came home and knew I had to do something.

The former singer will be an ambassador for UNAIDS

"I'm going to speak on behalf of the incredible women and the incredible charities who are working so desperately hard in these countries. I'm going to lend my voice to them because for some reason people listen to me.

"I need to use what I have to make a difference."

The former Spice Girl missed the opening of her new London store to speak at the UN in New York - sending her husband David in her place.

She told reporters she still had lots to learn about what UNAIDS does.

"I'm not going to sit here and pretend to know everything right now, I don't. I'm learning, I have people mentoring me. I'm going back to South Africa in a few weeks and further afield next year," she said.

David Beckham arrives for his wife's store opening in London

"It was life changing when I went to South Africa.

"Babies should not be born with HIV and we can stop that - we're very close to stopping that. We can't give up, we have to keep going.

"I feel so honoured to be here. I feel very humbled."

The Beckhams have been patrons of the Elton John Aids Foundation for more than 20 years.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Iraq: IS Plan To Target Paris And United States

Cameron: 'We Must Tackle Islamic State Together'

Updated: 12:41pm UK, Thursday 25 September 2014

Islamic State has "murderous plans" to expand and carry out terrorist atrocities across the world, David Cameron has warned.

Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, the Prime Minister said the militant group's rapid advance could be tackled with help from Iran and an end to Bashar al Assad's regime in Syria.

Mr Cameron was speaking ahead of an emergency debate in Parliament on Friday where he is expected to win cross-party support for airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in Iraq.

MPs will vote on whether RAF planes should join the US, France and five Arab states in bombing IS positions, possibly by the weekend.

The Cabinet is also meeting in London to discuss action against IS.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats pledged their support after a formal request for assistance from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi put potential UK involvement on a legal footing.

The Prime Minister insisted Britain had learned from "past mistakes" in Afghanistan and Iraq, but they would not become an excuse for inaction.

"Isil (Islamic State) is not a problem restricted to just one region. It has murderous plans to expand its borders well beyond Iraq and Syria and to carry out terrorist atrocities right across the world," he said.

"It is recruiting new fighters from all over the world. Five hundred have gone there from Britain and one of them almost certainly brutally murdered two American journalists and a British aid worker.

"We should learn the lessons of the past. But we have to learn the right lessons. Yes to careful preparation; no to rushing to join a conflict without a clear plan.

"But we must not be so frozen with fear that we don't do anything at all."

The Prime Minister's proposals only include military action in Iraq and not Syria, however, the Government has indicated that could expand but would need to be put to another vote.

Speaking on his regular LBC radio programme the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: "If we were to decide to take a fuller role on Iraq and Syria then we would go back to the vote."

However, he insisted there would not be boots on the ground.

When asked about the cost of the action Mr Clegg said: "There will be funds to contribute to this but we can't say how much at the moment." But he added: "It will not break the bank."

During an historic meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani earlier, Mr Cameron extended an invitation to Iran to join the fight against IS.

"We have severe disagreements," he said. "Iran's support for terrorist organisations, its nuclear programme, its treatment of its people; all these need to change.

"But Iran's leaders could help in defeating the threat from Isil. They could help secure a more stable, inclusive Iraq; and a more stable, inclusive Syria."

The Prime Minister added that an end to Bashar al Assad's regime in Syria was key to defeating the militant group.

"The failure to meet people's aspirations can create a breeding ground where extremist and even terrorist insurgency can take root," he said.

"In Syria, it must mean a political transition and an end to Assad's brutality. I know there are some who think that we should do a deal with Assad in order to defeat ISIL.

"But this view is dangerously misguided. Our enemies' enemy is not our friend. It is another enemy. Doing a deal with Assad will not defeat ISIL."

The PM was speaking as the US and an Arab alliance launched a fresh wave of airstrikes against strategic IS targets in Syria.

The attacks resulted in the death of a 19-year-old British insurgent from Brighton who was reportedly fighting alongside Islamist group Jabhat al Nusra against the Syrian regime.

In France, President Francois Hollande is holding an emergency meeting of his defence council following the "cowardly" beheading of French hostage Herve Gourdel in Algeria by IS-linked extremists.

French flags were set to be flown at half-mast after Mr Gourdel's murder and fighter jets carried out more airstrikes in Iraq on Thursday.

The Dutch Defence Ministry also said it was advising military personnel not to wear their uniforms on public transport over fears they could be targeted.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

North Korea Prison Life: Digging And Isolation

An American man recently sentenced by North Korea to six years of hard labour has said he is digging in fields eight hours a day and being kept in isolation.

Matthew Miller was convicted on September 14 of entering the country illegally to commit espionage.

"Prison life is eight hours of work per day, mostly it's been agriculture, like in the dirt, digging around," said Mr Miller, who was wearing a prison-style grey uniform and cap.

Mr Miller has sent letters to several US dignitaries

"Other than that, it's isolation, no contact with anyone."

The comments, under close guard, were given to an Associated Press journalist at a Pyongyang hotel where he had been brought to make a phone call to his family.

"But I have been in good health, and no sickness or no hurts," he added.

Mr Miller, a 24-year-old California native, said that he had written letters pleading for help to influential Americans, from Michelle Obama to Secretary of State John Kerry and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

He enclosed them in a letter sent to his family by post from the North Korean capital.

Two other American citizens are also still being held in North Korea. Kenneth Bae has been in North Korean custody since 2012, and was sentenced in 2013 to 15 years of hard labour.

Jeffrey Fowle was detained in May this year but North Korea has not yet brought him to trial.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Woman Beaten By LA Cop In Video Gets $1.5m

A woman punched repeatedly by a police officer on the side of a road in an incident caught on video will receive $1.5m (£920k) in a settlement.

California Highway Patrol (CHP) said that, as part of the agreement with victim Marlene Pinnock, the officer has agreed to resign.

The settlement came after a nine-hour mediation session in Los Angeles.

"When this incident occurred, I promised that I would look into it and vowed a swift resolution," CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow said in a statement.

"Today, we have worked constructively to reach a settlement agreement that is satisfactory to all parties involved."

The July 1 video, shot by a passing driver, was widely circulated on social media and shocked Americans, prompting some to demand a federal inquiry.

It shows officer Daniel Andrew pinning Ms Pinnock beneath him on the grassy strip. He then unleashes a flurry of punches to her face as she lies flat on her back.

An off-duty officer helps the patrolman apply handcuffs.

Ms Pinnock's lawyer Caree Harper said the settlement fulfilled the two elements her side was looking for.

"One of the things we wanted to make sure of was that she was provided for in a manner that accommodated her unique situation in life," she said.

The other was that "the officer was not going to be an officer anymore".

Mr Andrew could still be charged criminally in the case.

CHP said the officer was trying to restrain the woman because she had been putting herself and others at risk by walking on a motorway.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Islamic State Is Richest Terror Group Ever

Islamic State is an idea made material. That a notion can become so rapidly manifest in the real world is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness.

Its strength lies in its appeal as a victorious organisation that has had the sheer nerve to declare itself the Islamic State (IS).

This is a notion that fires romantic and idealistic fantasies of Muslim purity and a return to the golden era of the past Caliphates.

It is reinforced with old-fashioned money.

The so-called Islamic State is the richest terrorist organisation ever seen.

It earns an estimated $1-$3m (£600,000 - £1.8m) a day from oil smuggling operations, having captured two thirds of Syria's crude operations and about 10% of Iraq's.

Militants are also extorting people and imposing taxes

Most of the refined product, from small "artisanal refineries", is smuggled into Turkey.

But according to Peter Neumann at Kings College, London, at least 80% of its revenue comes from taxation and extortion from the six million people it now rules over.

A further cash injection of $400m (£245m) was grabbed in a single day in June when the movement overran the Iraqi city of Mosul and robbed its central bank.

This, combined with $125m (£76.6m) in earnings from hostage ransoms and at least another $10m (£6.1m) for the sale of rare antiquities stolen from the region's museums, has resulted in a cash bonanza that has boosted recruitment.

Iraqi forces were attacked in Mosul where the central bank was robbed

It's now estimated that 40%, at least, of IS fighters and volunteers are foreigners. So many have poured in from Tunisia and Libya that they have been organised into fully-formed homogeneous fighting units.

British foreigners fighting in Syria and Iraq are estimated to number about 500. Many of them are now with IS - although they are seldom used on the front line unless as suicide bombers because they're seen as poor fighters lacking the tough backgrounds of those from less-developed countries.

In trying to establish itself as a "state", IS has opened itself up to vulnerabilities that its rival in the extremist world, al Qaeda, has managed to avoid.

To run oil operations, collect taxes, and launder criminal earnings it needs structures. It needs roads, refineries, finance offices, all the weights of bureaucracies that cannot be hidden.

So they have been attacked by the American led coalition - most lately 12 small refineries were reported to have been destroyed by the Pentagon in the east of Syria close to the border with Iraq.

It fights conventional warfare - using tanks, artillery and other heavy weapons. These will be vulnerable to air attack, too.

So it is possible that it could be "degraded" - a term used more often by David Cameron and Barack Obama than "destroyed" - because both leaders know that wiping out IS is not a campaign that can be fought on the ground but in the minds of its supporters.

If, and only if, substantial numbers of ground forces from Sunni tribes, Syria's opposition, the Kurds and Iraq's army and militia can be mustered to drive the extremists back under cover of airstrikes it might be possible to squeeze it out of business in the physical world.

It will take generations of subtle theological and theoretical argument, which can only be made by great Islamic scholars, to undermine the ideas that have given birth to IS and al Qaeda monsters.

And monsters don't do subtle.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apple Mac Bug Is 'Bigger' Than Heartbleed

Apple's OS X operating system has a security flaw which could be more serious than the notorious Heartbleed bug, experts have warned.

Hackers could exploit a flaw in software on Unix-based operating systems such as OS X and Linux, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.

The vulnerable software is called Bash, which is used to control the command prompt on many Unix computers.

By exploiting the bug - known as Shellshock - hackers can take control of a targeted system.

Some software analysts have compared it to the Heartbleed bug, discovered in April, which was contained in encryption software called OpenSSL.

Heartbleed allowed hackers to spy on computers - but not take control of them.

The Shellshock bug is seen as worse because of the capability for overriding a user's control of a machine.

Cyber security firm Rapid7 has rated the bug as 10 for severity - maximum impact - and low for the complexity of exploitation.

The firm's engineering manager, Tod Beardsley, said: "Using this vulnerability, attackers can potentially take over the operating system, access confidential information and make changes.

"Anybody with systems using Bash needs to deploy a patch immediately."

Security expert Robert Graham wrote on Twitter: "I think I was wrong saying #shellshock was as big as Heartbleed. It's bigger."

It has been a bad week for Apple; on Wednesday it was forced to withdraw an update for the iOS 8 operating system, after it appeared to cause more problems than it solved.

Meanwhile a number of iPhone 6 Plus users have complained that it can become bent if left in a tight pocket.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Prison Typist Blamed For Inmate Raping Her

A former US prison clerk who was choked unconscious and raped by an inmate has been told by state officials the attack was partly her own fault.

The 24-year-old typist was working at a Pennsylvania prison when she was subjected to an assault lasting nearly half an hour in July 2013. 

The inmate, Omar Best, had been convicted three times previously of sex-related crimes and transferred from another jail for assaulting a female assistant at that facility.

The victim is suing the prison at Rockview in the town of Bellefonte.

The Attorney General faces outcry at the "contributory negligence" defence

Her lawyers say the prison superintendent had relocated the clerks' offices from a secure floor to the cell block.

The federal lawsuit says: "Despite this knowledge, defendants... still allowed Omar Best to have unsupervised access to the offices of female employees."

But legal documents filed under the name of Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane claim "contributory negligence" on the part of the victim.

They read: "Some or all of the damages plaintiff have alleged are in part, or substantially due, to the acts of third parties other than the answering defendants, and/or plaintiff acted in a manner which in whole or in part contributed to the events which led to the damages plaintiff has alleged in her complaint."

The victim's attorney, Clifford Rieders, told the Centre Daily Times newspaper that the state's attempt to blame his client was "troubling and disturbing".  

The Department of Corrections is named in the lawsuit

Best, 37, of Philadelphia, was sentenced on September 12 to life in prison for the rape.

The trial heard testimony that the victim had complained about Best repeatedly entering her office under the pretence of emptying the bin.

The prison's former female superintendent and the victim's former female supervisor are also named in the lawsuit.

The Attorney General's office said in a statement on Wednesday that the legal documents were submitted by her deputy.

She said she had been "saddened to learn that the filing implied that the victim somehow contributed to this crime".

The statement said that contributory negligence is a common defence in litigation cases, and that such a tactic would not necessarily be pursued in this case.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More