2014-12-24 06:55
United Nations — The United Nations says a Nigerian peacekeeper
with Ebola who had been evacuated to the Netherlands for treatment has
recovered and has returned to the mission in Liberia.
The
spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, told
reporters Tuesday that the peacekeeper will resume duties while
undergoing monitoring and psychological counseling.
The unidentified man arrived in the
Netherlands earlier this month. The Netherlands has followed Germany,
France and Switzerland in taking on Ebola patients at the request of the
World Health Organization.
The health organization on Monday said
the world's worst Ebola outbreak has killed more than 7,500 people, the
overwhelming majority in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra
Leone and Guinea.
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Wednesday, 24 December 2014
First conviction in Sierra Leone under Ebola laws
2014-12-24 08:29
Freetown - A village chief has become the first person in Sierra Leone to be jailed under laws aimed at preventing the spread of the Ebola virus, court officials and lawyers said on Tuesday.
Amadu Kargbo was sentenced to six months in jail by a court in the south-western city of Moyamba for secretly burying the dead and failing to report a sick patient, court official Foday Fofanah told AFP.
He was also fined $235 and ordered to spend 21 days in quarantine before going to jail.
Lawyers in the capital Freetown said it was the first known conviction under the country's Ebola laws.
Fofanah said the chief had pleaded guilty to secretly burying his daughter, who had died of Ebola.
He added that Kargbo's wife had also died after attending the funeral of another family member, although it was not clear if any of the charges related to his wife's death and burial.
Ebola has killed more than 7 500 people, almost all of them in west Africa and Sierra Leone recently overtook Liberia as the country with the highest number of Ebola infections.
Authorities have banned public gatherings as well as New Year celebrations as part of sweeping efforts to stem the spread of the virus.
Freetown - A village chief has become the first person in Sierra Leone to be jailed under laws aimed at preventing the spread of the Ebola virus, court officials and lawyers said on Tuesday.
Amadu Kargbo was sentenced to six months in jail by a court in the south-western city of Moyamba for secretly burying the dead and failing to report a sick patient, court official Foday Fofanah told AFP.
He was also fined $235 and ordered to spend 21 days in quarantine before going to jail.
Lawyers in the capital Freetown said it was the first known conviction under the country's Ebola laws.
Fofanah said the chief had pleaded guilty to secretly burying his daughter, who had died of Ebola.
He added that Kargbo's wife had also died after attending the funeral of another family member, although it was not clear if any of the charges related to his wife's death and burial.
Ebola has killed more than 7 500 people, almost all of them in west Africa and Sierra Leone recently overtook Liberia as the country with the highest number of Ebola infections.
Authorities have banned public gatherings as well as New Year celebrations as part of sweeping efforts to stem the spread of the virus.
PDP urges APC to focus campaign on issues, not attack on persons
2014-12-24 08:29
Abuja - The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has advised the All Peoples Congress (APC) to base its campaign on issues as the nation moves toward the 2015 general elections.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, gave the advice in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.
The PDP spokesman assured the APC that the PDP remained committed to campaigning on issues.
He added that “we will campaign on our record of verifiable achievements; we will campaign on the fact that Nigeria can never go back to the past.”
“We will campaign on issues and ideas built around our continuing agenda to transform our nation going into the future.”
Metuh said that PDP’s reference to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the APC presidential candidate as “semi-literate jackboot” did not amount to the party’s renege on commitment to issue-based campaign.
The PDP national publicity secretary, however, acknowledged that the PDP National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, referred to Gen. Buhari as “semi-literate jackboot.”
“In the PDP, we occupy the moral high ground as far as our commitment to issues-based campaign is concerned.”
“Our word remains our bond. Since we made that commitment, we have focused on issues.”
“There has never been any instance that we have maliciously attacked the characters of those on the presidential ticket of the APC.”
“Rather, we have been alive to our responsibility of offering public service, so that Nigerians will not be deceived.”
He added that the statement by Oladipo, referred to by the APC, did not compare to instances of vicious, malicious and provocative attacks on the person and office of President Goodluck Jonathan by the APC.
He said that in the face of vicious attacks on the President, PDP had remained committed to engaging in decent campaign ahead of the 2015 general elections.
“It is on record that a few days after the commitment alluded to by the APC, Gov. Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State and of the APC attacked the person of President Jonathan, describing him as an incompetent commander-in-chief.”
“No personal attack could be more vicious and unconscionable.”
“Similarly, the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, had consistently prosecuted a hate campaign against President Jonathan, describing him as an enemy of Rivers people.”
“To worsen the entire matter, the APC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, is complicit in the propagation of personal attack over and above issues.”
“It was insulting for Buhari to say, as he did in Sokoto on December 21, that no right-thinking Nigerian will vote for Jonathan.”
Metuh said President Jonathan had never, whether before or after he became the PDP presidential candidate for 2015 election, attacked the character or person of Gen. Buhari.
He assured that PDP was however, fully prepared, ready, willing and able to defend all personal attacks on President Jonathan and the party`s leadership.
Abuja - The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has advised the All Peoples Congress (APC) to base its campaign on issues as the nation moves toward the 2015 general elections.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, gave the advice in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.
The PDP spokesman assured the APC that the PDP remained committed to campaigning on issues.
He added that “we will campaign on our record of verifiable achievements; we will campaign on the fact that Nigeria can never go back to the past.”
“We will campaign on issues and ideas built around our continuing agenda to transform our nation going into the future.”
Metuh said that PDP’s reference to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the APC presidential candidate as “semi-literate jackboot” did not amount to the party’s renege on commitment to issue-based campaign.
The PDP national publicity secretary, however, acknowledged that the PDP National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, referred to Gen. Buhari as “semi-literate jackboot.”
“In the PDP, we occupy the moral high ground as far as our commitment to issues-based campaign is concerned.”
“Our word remains our bond. Since we made that commitment, we have focused on issues.”
“There has never been any instance that we have maliciously attacked the characters of those on the presidential ticket of the APC.”
“Rather, we have been alive to our responsibility of offering public service, so that Nigerians will not be deceived.”
He added that the statement by Oladipo, referred to by the APC, did not compare to instances of vicious, malicious and provocative attacks on the person and office of President Goodluck Jonathan by the APC.
He said that in the face of vicious attacks on the President, PDP had remained committed to engaging in decent campaign ahead of the 2015 general elections.
“It is on record that a few days after the commitment alluded to by the APC, Gov. Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State and of the APC attacked the person of President Jonathan, describing him as an incompetent commander-in-chief.”
“No personal attack could be more vicious and unconscionable.”
“Similarly, the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, had consistently prosecuted a hate campaign against President Jonathan, describing him as an enemy of Rivers people.”
“To worsen the entire matter, the APC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, is complicit in the propagation of personal attack over and above issues.”
“It was insulting for Buhari to say, as he did in Sokoto on December 21, that no right-thinking Nigerian will vote for Jonathan.”
Metuh said President Jonathan had never, whether before or after he became the PDP presidential candidate for 2015 election, attacked the character or person of Gen. Buhari.
He assured that PDP was however, fully prepared, ready, willing and able to defend all personal attacks on President Jonathan and the party`s leadership.
ISIS sex slavery pushes victims to suicide
2014-12-24 08:29
Baghdad - Women and girls from Iraq's Yazidi religious minority have told rights activists they were beaten and forced into sexual slavery by the Islamic State jihadist group, driving some to suicide.
ISIS militants have overrun swathes of Iraq since June, declared a cross-border caliphate also encompassing parts of neighbouring Syria and carried out a litany of abuses in both countries.
The group has targeted Yazidis and other minorities in northern Iraq in a campaign that rights group Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday amounted to ethnic cleansing, murdering civilians and enslaving others for a fate that some captives consider worse than death.
It said hundreds and possibly thousands of Yazidi women and girls had been forced to marry, sold or given to ISIS fighters or supporters.
"Many of those held as sexual slaves are children - girls aged 14, 15 or even younger," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty's senior crisis response adviser, who interviewed dozens of former captives.
19-year-old named Jilan committed suicide out of fear she would be raped, according to the Amnesty report entitled "Escape from Hell: Torture and Sexual Slavery in Islamic State Captivity in Iraq".
"One day we were given clothes that looked like dance costumes and were told to bathe and wear those clothes. Jilan killed herself in the bathroom," said a girl who was held with her but later escaped.
"She cut her wrists and hanged herself. She was very beautiful; I think she knew she was going to be taken away by a man and that is why she killed herself."
Another former captive told the rights group that she and her sister tried to kill themselves to escape forced marriage, but were stopped from doing so.
"The man who was holding us said that either we marry him and his brother or he would sell us," said Wafa, 27.
"At night we tried to strangle ourselves with our scarves. We tied the scarves around our necks and pulled away from each other as hard as we could, until I fainted," she said, but two other captives stopped them.
Sixteen-year-old Randa was abducted with her family, then beaten and raped by a man twice her age. Her male relatives were killed.
The man "took me as his wife by force. I told him I did not want to and tried to resist but he beat me. My nose was bleeding, I could not do anything to stop him," Randa said.
"It is so painful what they did to me and to my family," she said.
ISIS boasts of abuse
Amnesty said that many of the perpetrators were ISIS fighters, but might also include supporters of the group.
Some of the escaped victims said they were kept in family homes with wives, children, parents and siblings of the rapists.
ISIS has boasted in its propaganda magazine "Dabiq" of the horrors it has inflicted.
In an article entitled "The revival of slavery before the hour", Dabiq argues that by enslaving people it claims hold deviant religious beliefs, ISIS has restored an aspect of Islamic sharia law.
"After capture, the Yazidi women and children were then divided according to the sharia amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations," the article said, referring to the area where the Yazidis were seized.
The abductions and rapes have drawn widespread international condemnation.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has denounced the enslavement of women and girls by ISIS as "abhorrent".
The abuse causes long-term damage even to those who manage to escape.
"The physical and psychological toll of the horrifying sexual violence these women have endured is catastrophic," Rovera said.
"Many of them have been tortured and treated as chattel. Even those who have managed to escape remain deeply traumatised."
One man said that he fears his wife, who escaped captivity, may commit suicide, and makes sure someone is with her at all times.
"My wife has panic attacks and can't sleep. I can't leave her alone because I'm afraid for her safety," he said.
Baghdad - Women and girls from Iraq's Yazidi religious minority have told rights activists they were beaten and forced into sexual slavery by the Islamic State jihadist group, driving some to suicide.
ISIS militants have overrun swathes of Iraq since June, declared a cross-border caliphate also encompassing parts of neighbouring Syria and carried out a litany of abuses in both countries.
The group has targeted Yazidis and other minorities in northern Iraq in a campaign that rights group Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday amounted to ethnic cleansing, murdering civilians and enslaving others for a fate that some captives consider worse than death.
It said hundreds and possibly thousands of Yazidi women and girls had been forced to marry, sold or given to ISIS fighters or supporters.
"Many of those held as sexual slaves are children - girls aged 14, 15 or even younger," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty's senior crisis response adviser, who interviewed dozens of former captives.
19-year-old named Jilan committed suicide out of fear she would be raped, according to the Amnesty report entitled "Escape from Hell: Torture and Sexual Slavery in Islamic State Captivity in Iraq".
"One day we were given clothes that looked like dance costumes and were told to bathe and wear those clothes. Jilan killed herself in the bathroom," said a girl who was held with her but later escaped.
"She cut her wrists and hanged herself. She was very beautiful; I think she knew she was going to be taken away by a man and that is why she killed herself."
Another former captive told the rights group that she and her sister tried to kill themselves to escape forced marriage, but were stopped from doing so.
"The man who was holding us said that either we marry him and his brother or he would sell us," said Wafa, 27.
"At night we tried to strangle ourselves with our scarves. We tied the scarves around our necks and pulled away from each other as hard as we could, until I fainted," she said, but two other captives stopped them.
Sixteen-year-old Randa was abducted with her family, then beaten and raped by a man twice her age. Her male relatives were killed.
The man "took me as his wife by force. I told him I did not want to and tried to resist but he beat me. My nose was bleeding, I could not do anything to stop him," Randa said.
"It is so painful what they did to me and to my family," she said.
ISIS boasts of abuse
Amnesty said that many of the perpetrators were ISIS fighters, but might also include supporters of the group.
Some of the escaped victims said they were kept in family homes with wives, children, parents and siblings of the rapists.
ISIS has boasted in its propaganda magazine "Dabiq" of the horrors it has inflicted.
In an article entitled "The revival of slavery before the hour", Dabiq argues that by enslaving people it claims hold deviant religious beliefs, ISIS has restored an aspect of Islamic sharia law.
"After capture, the Yazidi women and children were then divided according to the sharia amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations," the article said, referring to the area where the Yazidis were seized.
The abductions and rapes have drawn widespread international condemnation.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has denounced the enslavement of women and girls by ISIS as "abhorrent".
The abuse causes long-term damage even to those who manage to escape.
"The physical and psychological toll of the horrifying sexual violence these women have endured is catastrophic," Rovera said.
"Many of them have been tortured and treated as chattel. Even those who have managed to escape remain deeply traumatised."
One man said that he fears his wife, who escaped captivity, may commit suicide, and makes sure someone is with her at all times.
"My wife has panic attacks and can't sleep. I can't leave her alone because I'm afraid for her safety," he said.
ISIS sex slavery pushes victims to suicide
2014-12-24 08:29
Baghdad - Women and girls from Iraq's Yazidi religious minority have told rights activists they were beaten and forced into sexual slavery by the Islamic State jihadist group, driving some to suicide.
ISIS militants have overrun swathes of Iraq since June, declared a cross-border caliphate also encompassing parts of neighbouring Syria and carried out a litany of abuses in both countries.
The group has targeted Yazidis and other minorities in northern Iraq in a campaign that rights group Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday amounted to ethnic cleansing, murdering civilians and enslaving others for a fate that some captives consider worse than death.
It said hundreds and possibly thousands of Yazidi women and girls had been forced to marry, sold or given to ISIS fighters or supporters.
"Many of those held as sexual slaves are children - girls aged 14, 15 or even younger," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty's senior crisis response adviser, who interviewed dozens of former captives.
Also Read: Algerian army kills militant behind tourist's murder
A 19-year-old named Jilan committed suicide out of fear she would be raped, according to the Amnesty report entitled "Escape from Hell: Torture and Sexual Slavery in Islamic State Captivity in Iraq".
"One day we were given clothes that looked like dance costumes and were told to bathe and wear those clothes. Jilan killed herself in the bathroom," said a girl who was held with her but later escaped.
"She cut her wrists and hanged herself. She was very beautiful; I think she knew she was going to be taken away by a man and that is why she killed herself."
Another former captive told the rights group that she and her sister tried to kill themselves to escape forced marriage, but were stopped from doing so.
"The man who was holding us said that either we marry him and his brother or he would sell us," said Wafa, 27.
"At night we tried to strangle ourselves with our scarves. We tied the scarves around our necks and pulled away from each other as hard as we could, until I fainted," she said, but two other captives stopped them.
Sixteen-year-old Randa was abducted with her family, then beaten and raped by a man twice her age. Her male relatives were killed.
The man "took me as his wife by force. I told him I did not want to and tried to resist but he beat me. My nose was bleeding, I could not do anything to stop him," Randa said.
"It is so painful what they did to me and to my family," she said.
ISIS boasts of abuse
Amnesty said that many of the perpetrators were ISIS fighters, but might also include supporters of the group.
Some of the escaped victims said they were kept in family homes with wives, children, parents and siblings of the rapists.
ISIS has boasted in its propaganda magazine "Dabiq" of the horrors it has inflicted.
In an article entitled "The revival of slavery before the hour", Dabiq argues that by enslaving people it claims hold deviant religious beliefs, ISIS has restored an aspect of Islamic sharia law.
Baghdad - Women and girls from Iraq's Yazidi religious minority have told rights activists they were beaten and forced into sexual slavery by the Islamic State jihadist group, driving some to suicide.
ISIS militants have overrun swathes of Iraq since June, declared a cross-border caliphate also encompassing parts of neighbouring Syria and carried out a litany of abuses in both countries.
The group has targeted Yazidis and other minorities in northern Iraq in a campaign that rights group Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday amounted to ethnic cleansing, murdering civilians and enslaving others for a fate that some captives consider worse than death.
It said hundreds and possibly thousands of Yazidi women and girls had been forced to marry, sold or given to ISIS fighters or supporters.
"Many of those held as sexual slaves are children - girls aged 14, 15 or even younger," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty's senior crisis response adviser, who interviewed dozens of former captives.
Also Read: Algerian army kills militant behind tourist's murder
A 19-year-old named Jilan committed suicide out of fear she would be raped, according to the Amnesty report entitled "Escape from Hell: Torture and Sexual Slavery in Islamic State Captivity in Iraq".
"One day we were given clothes that looked like dance costumes and were told to bathe and wear those clothes. Jilan killed herself in the bathroom," said a girl who was held with her but later escaped.
"She cut her wrists and hanged herself. She was very beautiful; I think she knew she was going to be taken away by a man and that is why she killed herself."
Another former captive told the rights group that she and her sister tried to kill themselves to escape forced marriage, but were stopped from doing so.
"The man who was holding us said that either we marry him and his brother or he would sell us," said Wafa, 27.
"At night we tried to strangle ourselves with our scarves. We tied the scarves around our necks and pulled away from each other as hard as we could, until I fainted," she said, but two other captives stopped them.
Sixteen-year-old Randa was abducted with her family, then beaten and raped by a man twice her age. Her male relatives were killed.
The man "took me as his wife by force. I told him I did not want to and tried to resist but he beat me. My nose was bleeding, I could not do anything to stop him," Randa said.
"It is so painful what they did to me and to my family," she said.
ISIS boasts of abuse
Amnesty said that many of the perpetrators were ISIS fighters, but might also include supporters of the group.
Some of the escaped victims said they were kept in family homes with wives, children, parents and siblings of the rapists.
ISIS has boasted in its propaganda magazine "Dabiq" of the horrors it has inflicted.
In an article entitled "The revival of slavery before the hour", Dabiq argues that by enslaving people it claims hold deviant religious beliefs, ISIS has restored an aspect of Islamic sharia law.
Bin Laden 'shooter' probed by US Navy
2014-12-24 10:07
Washington - The former US Navy Seal who claims to be the soldier who fired the shots that killed Osama Bin Laden is being investigated for possibly leaking classified information, the US military confirmed on Tuesday.
US Navy spokesperson Ryan Perry said investigators were probing claims that Rob O'Neill had broken the law by disclosing details about the daring 2011 raid that ended a 10-year manhunt for Bin Laden.
"The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is in receipt of an allegation that Mr O'Neill may have revealed classified information to persons not authorised to receive such information," Perry said in an email to AFP.
"In response, NCIS has initiated an investigation to determine the merit of the allegations."
O'Neill, 38, ignited a firestorm of controversy last month after coming forward to claim that he was the man who shot Bin Laden through the forehead at his hideout in Abbottabad three years ago.
The highly decorated Montana native told The Washington Post that he was near the head of the column of US soldiers that raided Bin Laden's compound, adding that at least two other SEALs fired shots.
However O'Neill's decision to go public dismayed military brass and serving SEALS who maintain a fierce, Omerta-like code of silence.
Another former Seal, Matt Bissonnette, who published his account of the raid, "No Easy Day" in 2012, took issue with O'Neill's version of events.
"Two different people telling two different stories for two different reasons," Bissonnette said. "Whatever he says, he says. I don't want to touch that."
O'Neill told the Post he had decided to come forward after meeting with relatives of victims of the September 11 2011 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
"The families told me it helped bring them some closure," O'Neill told the Post.
Washington - The former US Navy Seal who claims to be the soldier who fired the shots that killed Osama Bin Laden is being investigated for possibly leaking classified information, the US military confirmed on Tuesday.
US Navy spokesperson Ryan Perry said investigators were probing claims that Rob O'Neill had broken the law by disclosing details about the daring 2011 raid that ended a 10-year manhunt for Bin Laden.
"The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is in receipt of an allegation that Mr O'Neill may have revealed classified information to persons not authorised to receive such information," Perry said in an email to AFP.
"In response, NCIS has initiated an investigation to determine the merit of the allegations."
O'Neill, 38, ignited a firestorm of controversy last month after coming forward to claim that he was the man who shot Bin Laden through the forehead at his hideout in Abbottabad three years ago.
The highly decorated Montana native told The Washington Post that he was near the head of the column of US soldiers that raided Bin Laden's compound, adding that at least two other SEALs fired shots.
However O'Neill's decision to go public dismayed military brass and serving SEALS who maintain a fierce, Omerta-like code of silence.
Another former Seal, Matt Bissonnette, who published his account of the raid, "No Easy Day" in 2012, took issue with O'Neill's version of events.
"Two different people telling two different stories for two different reasons," Bissonnette said. "Whatever he says, he says. I don't want to touch that."
O'Neill told the Post he had decided to come forward after meeting with relatives of victims of the September 11 2011 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
"The families told me it helped bring them some closure," O'Neill told the Post.
Thursday, 18 December 2014
Benue deputy governor, assembly members to dump PDP for APC
2014-12-18 14:49
Makurdi - The deputy governor of Benue State, Steven Lawani and some
members of the State House of Assembly are set to dump the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC) , reports Leadership.
Lawani and the lawmakers decided to dump the PDP after losing out in the just concluded primaries of the party in the state.
Lawani , who is aspiring to govern the state in 2015, is aggrieved because he was denied the ticket to fulfill the aspirations of the Idomas to rule the state.
Many lawmakers who had contested the PDP primaries and lost are all set to dump the PDP.
Lawani and the lawmakers decided to dump the PDP after losing out in the just concluded primaries of the party in the state.
Lawani , who is aspiring to govern the state in 2015, is aggrieved because he was denied the ticket to fulfill the aspirations of the Idomas to rule the state.
Many lawmakers who had contested the PDP primaries and lost are all set to dump the PDP.
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