12 National & International Highlights To Know For Tuesday, September 9, 2014

GRAPHITTI NEWS collates national and international highlights from late-breaking news, up-coming events and the stories that will be talked about Tuesday:

Health workers, attend to patients that contracted the Ebola virus, at a clinic in Monrovia, Liberia, Monday, Sept. 8, 2014. Border closures, flight bans and mass quarantines are creating a sense of siege in the West African countries affected by Ebola, officials at an emergency African Union meeting said Monday, as Senegal agreed to allow humanitarian aid pass through its closed borders. (AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)

1. WITH SURGE IN LIBERIA, EBOLA CASE TOLL ABOVE 4,200

World Health Organization figures show that a surge in new cases in Liberia has driven up the number of people believed to be infected with Ebola to more than 4,200.

That new toll includes more than 500 news cases in Liberia in just a week. The U.N. health agency has said that it expects thousands of new infections in Liberia, the hardest hit country in the current outbreak, in the coming weeks.

An Ebola epidemic in West Africa is spiralling out of control and moving faster than efforts to contain it.

New figures published by WHO on Tuesday attribute more than 2,200 deaths to Ebola.

A fire brigade paramedic wearing a sealed protective suit closes the door of a special fire brigade ambulance during a drill for the crew, in Frankfurt August 21, 2014. (Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach)

2. EBOLA SCARE AS US AIR MARSHAL ATTACKED WITH SYRINGE IN LAGOS AIRPORT

A US air marshal has been forcefully injected with a syringe at Nigeria’s Lagos Airport and has been taken to hospital amid fears he might have contracted Ebola.

It wasn’t immediately clear what was in the syringe after the incident occurred Sunday. The name of the marshal has not yet been revealed, AFP reported.

Fears the syringe could have been infected with the Ebola virus spread quickly, as Nigeria remains one of the West African countries where the deadly epidemic is currently raging.

Authorities were taking all the necessary precautions, but preliminary tests suggested that the marshal wasn’t in any danger, according to the FBI.

3. PIRATED BOOKS, OTHERS WORTH N30 MILLION SEIZED IN LAGOS

The Nigerian Copyright Commission, NCC, on Monday in Lagos seized pirated books belonging to different publishers. Chris Nkwocha, the Lagos Zonal Manager of NCC, told the News Agency of Nigeria that the seizure of the books and other items took place after a hint by an informant. Nkwocha put the value of seized items at N30 million.

“The commission sent some of its officials to investigate the matter where the illegal publication was taking place.

“After the investigation, it was confirmed that the illegal publication took place in the suspected printing press.

“The commission then alerted police officers to raid the printing firm where the illegal publication took place in Lawanson, Surulere, Lagos,’’ Mr. Nkwocha said.

According to him, the commission arrested 15 persons engaged in the illegal publication at the printing press.

He said that during the operation, other items seized include printed flyers, wall stickers and medicine bottle covers with inscriptions on them. “The printing office was sealed by the operatives after the raid.”

Mr. Nkwocha said the law empowered the commission to take anybody found engaging in piracy to court.

Officials from the Nigerian Copyright Commission inspecting the pirated books.

4. HOME DEPOT CONFIRMS DATA BREACH, HIT BY SAME MALWARE AS TARGET

Home Depot has confirmed its payment systems have been hacked at nearly 2,200 stores in US and Canada. The stealing-code used for the breach could reportedly point at a Russian connection in the case.

The US’s fourth-largest retailer announced on Monday it investigates five months of transactions now that the cyber-attack was apparent. While the company officials do not specify the possible scale of the damage done, experts believe it could turn out one of the biggest data breaches in history.

"We owe it to our customers to alert them that we now have enough evidence to confirm that a breach has indeed occurred," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frank Blake said in a statement. "It is important to emphasize that no customers will be responsible for fraudulent charges to their accounts."

The confirmation came a week after a security blogger Brian Krebs warned that Home Depot stores could be the source of stolen credit and debit card data which went on sale on the black cyber-market.

A Home Depot store is seen in New York, in this file image from August 18, 2008. (Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)

5. GRADUATES 'LACKING GOOD LITERACY'

The vast majority of students are leaving higher education without the highest levels of literacy, an international study suggests.

While increasing numbers of people are going on to university, just one in four reach the highest standards in the basics, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD), annual education report.

Andreas Schleicher, the OECD's director for education and skills, said the findings indicate that while more people in the UK are getting qualifications, this is not matched by better skills in reading and writing. He suggested the picture was similar for numeracy.

The latest Education At A Glance study reveals that a student in the UK is now more likely to go to university than they are to finish their education when they leave school.

In 2012, just over two in five (41%) 25 to 64-year-olds held a degree or equivalent qualification, while 37% stopped studying after gaining their GCSEs or A-levels.

It also shows that in 2012, the last year for which data is available, 48% of UK young people (25 to 34-year-olds) had been to university or college, compared to 33% of 55 to 64-year-olds.

But while more people are continuing their education, the report suggests that this is not reflected in better basic skills.

The data, which draws on international tests conducted by the OECD, shows that just 25% of graduates in England and Northern Ireland have the highest levels of ability in literacy.

In many high-performing countries, including Australia, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands and Sweden, more than a third of graduates are performing at this level.

Just 25% of graduates in England and Northern Ireland have the highest levels of ability in literacy, according to an OECD report

6. REPORT: MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT 17 LIKELY DOWNED BY "HIGH ENERGY OBJECTS" FROM OUTSIDE

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was likely struck by multiple "high-energy objects from outside the aircraft," causing it to break up over eastern Ukraine, a preliminary report into the deadly aviation disaster concluded Tuesday.

The report by the Dutch Safety Board stopped short of saying the Boeing 777 was shot down by a missile, but its findings appear to point to that conclusion. It also did not say who might have been responsible.

The Boeing 777 suddenly plunged out of the sky July 17 over pro-Russian rebel-held territory in Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.

"The damage observed in the forward section of the aircraft appears to indicate that the aircraft was penetrated by a large number of high-energy objects from outside the aircraft," the report said. "It is likely that this damage resulted in a loss of structural integrity of the aircraft, leading to an in-flight break up."

The board is leading the international investigation into the cause of the disaster. Its full report is expected within a year of the crash.

7. REPORT SLAMS ISRAEL ON AFRICAN MIGRANT RIGHTS

An international watchdog organization has slammed Israel for its treatment of thousands of African migrants, saying it is forcing them to leave the country at grave personal risk.

In a report issued Tuesday, Human Rights Watch says Israeli authorities have coerced almost 7,000 Eritrean and Sudanese to return to their homes, where they may face serious abuse.

In response to the report Israeli Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad said Israel was dealing with the challenge of the migrants in a legal and appropriate way.

"The growth in the voluntary repatriation of the migrants by three times from 2013 to 2014 proves that the policy is working," she said in an email.

The report says that some returning Sudanese have faced torture, arbitrary detention, and treason charges at the hands of the anti-Israel Sudanese government, while returning Eritreans also risk harassment.

For the past several years Israel has been placing thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese migrants in hardscrabble detention centers in the Negev desert. Citing statements by senior Israeli officials including former Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Human Rights Watch says the aim of the policy is to make life so intolerable that the migrants leave Israel on their own volition.

A Palestinian looks out from the remains of his house, which witnesses said was destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip September 7, 2014. (Reuters / Mohammed Salem)

8. RALLY IN LONDON TO DEMAND PERMANENT LIFTING OF GAZA BLOCKADE

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign urged Gaza supporters to call on MPs to take action for Palestinian human rights and to demand an end to the blockade of Gaza.

The group announced hundreds of supporters would gather at the Parliament “to call on MPs to take action for Palestinian human rights and against ethnic cleansing and racism.”

Following the lobby, a mass rally will be held at the House of Commons in London later on Tuesday.

They will demand free movement for all people, goods and humanitarian aid in Gaza, an end to the arms trade and all military-industrial collaboration with Israel, and “sanctions against Israel until they abide by international and human rights law.”

The ongoing blockade of Gaza began in 2007, with Israel saying it was a security measure taken in response to the Battle of Gaza, in which Hamas militarily defeated Fatah.

Demonstrators join a rally to support the people of Gaza, in central London, August 9, 2014. (Reuters / Luke MacGregor)

In line with the blockade, Israel restricts Palestinians freedom of movement and restricts most exports and imports into Gaza. Critics have called it a form of collective punishment.

“Palestinian human rights continue to be violated by the Israeli government, every minute, every hour, every day,” the Palestine Solidarity Campaign said. It argues that the only way Israel will lift the blockade is through international pressure.

Twelve licenses for British companies to sell arms to Israel will be suspended if fresh hostilities break out in Gaza, the UK government announced last month. However, a few days later military action was resumed, yet there has not been an update as to whether these licenses were suspended.

Last month, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Britain and in several other cities around the world to call for an end to Israeli military action in Gaza.

The seven-week-long military operation killed more than 2,100 Palestinians in Gaza and 72 people in Israel. Nine previous ceasefires have come and gone since Israel's offensive against Hamas began on July 8 until an open-ended ceasefire was agreed between Hamas and Israel on August 27.

Hamas and Israel are scheduled to resume indirect negotiations in the coming weeks to finalize truce terms, including Hamas' demands that Israel and Egypt fully lift their blockades of Gaza and Israel's demand that Hamas disarm.

Deputy Defence Minister Kebby Maphatsoe alleged at the weekend that the country's fearless Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela was a ‘CIA Agent’.

9. UNBECOMING NAME-CALLING - SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT DISOWNS MINISTER OVER CIA 'SPY' CLAIM

The South African government on Tuesday distanced itself from claims by one of its ministers that the country's ombudswoman is a CIA agent, a charge that drew a sharp response from the US ambassador.

Deputy Defence Minister Kebby Maphatsoe alleged at the weekend that the country's fearless Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, was a Central Intelligence Agency spy working to destabilise the ruling ANC party and the country.

The remarks caused uproar and led to US Ambassador Patrick Gaspard saying that he would lodge a formal diplomatic complaint.

"We categorically reject the baseless and offensive accusations," Gaspard said in a tweet.
"The ministers should spend their time improving services instead of making baseless comments," he was later quoted as telling the Cape Times.

The government of President Jacob Zuma responded by disassociating itself from the deputy minister's claim.

"The government distances itself from such accusations," which do not "reflect the views and thinking of government", a minister in the presidency, Jeff Radebe, said in a statement.

"South Africa enjoys a cordial diplomatic relationship with the United States of America," he said.

Picture: Werner Beukes/SAPA

Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans' Association chairman Kebby Maphatsoe is seen at a news conference in Johannesburg on Monday, 8 September 2014 where he was speaking about Public Protector Thuli Madonsela. "If advocate Thuli Madonsela feels more powerful and above the Constitution, she should tell the country who her handlers are," he said. Madonsela has come under attack from the ANC and some alliance structures ever since sending a letter to President Jacob Zuma last month asking him for details of when he would respond to recommendations in her report on the upgrades at his home at Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal."It is clear she wants the head of the president, she's no longer playing the ball, she's playing the person," Maphatsoe said on Monday. "She thinks she is God," he said. He claimed Madonsela was running a parallel government and called on her to come to her senses and do the right thing.

10. RUSSIAN MP URGES ‘NATIONALIZATION’ OF GOOGLE OVER SECURITY FEARS

A ruling party lawmaker has said he will press for Google to register a subsidiary in Russia and comply with all Russian laws after uncovering the software giant’s alleged cooperation with foreign security services.

“We hold that in due time we must see the nationalization of Google, meaning that Google’s operations concerning Russia must fall under Russian jurisdiction and competence,” MP Yevgeny Fyodorov of the parliamentary majority caucus United Russia told a press conference on Tuesday. This will mean national control over the legal entity and all the company communications, the lawmaker explained.

Fyodorov wants Google to register a subsidiary in Russia by the beginning of 2015.

The MP said the Russian Federation would now face a long period of foreign aggression and that it must prepare all its defenses, including those in mass media and information. He added that the authorities must gradually transfer the control of all sensitive internet resources in the country to Russian specialists’ control. This would assure that Russian laws are observed in full and also give a boost to the hi-tech sector of the economy, Fyodorov said.

Earlier this month the lawmaker told reporters he planned to ask Russian police and prosecutors to investigate Google’s alleged ties with the Ukrainian special services and possible leaking Russian citizens’ personal data. He also accused Google of taking “an openly anti-Russian position,” and added that he possessed information that Google had signed a cooperation agreement with the Ukrainian special services, in particular the Security Service of Ukraine or the SBU.

Fyodorov accused Google of direct propaganda as the company logo was yellow and sky blue – the colors of Ukrainian flag – on Ukraine’s Independence Day.

In April this year Russian Senator Lyudmila Bokova wrote to law enforcers requesting a probe into Google’s policies, claiming that the company’s new terms of service violate the national law on personal data by allowing it to automatically scan users’ content, including emails.

After Edward Snowden disclosed the scale of NSA surveillance of people all over the world Russian MPs suggested that the government should immediately change all civil servants’ working contracts and ban them from using popular internet services and social networks registered in the United States, including Google.

Louise Erdrich

11. ERDRICH WINS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT LITERARY PRIZE

Louise Erdrich has won the PEN/Saul Bellow prize, a lifetime achievement honour for American writers that comes with a US$25,000 cash award.

The PEN American Center announced the award Tuesday as judges E.L. Doctorow, Zadie Smith and Edwidge Danticat praised the "awesome" breadth of Erdrich's work.

"She is a writer only America could have produced, committed to the extraordinary project of capturing a complex land and a various people in their own voices, and in hers," the citation reads.

Erdrich's novels include "Love Medicine," ''The Plague of Doves" and "The Round House," winner of the National Book Award for fiction in 2012. Her work often draws on her diverse background as the child of a German-American father and a mother who was part French-American, part Ojibwe.

In a recent email to The Associated Press, Erdrich emphasized her admiration for the PEN judges, saying their work "surprised, delighted, challenged and laid ground for so many other writers."

"Getting this award would intimidate the hell out of me if I weren't so excited," added Erdrich, 59, who will be presented with the prize Sept. 29 at a ceremony in Manhattan.

Previous winners of the PEN/Bellow award, given out biannually, include Doctorow and Philip Roth. The prize is named for the late Nobel laureate, whose fiction included "Herzog" and "The Adventures of Augie March."

12. FACEBOOK’S MARKET VALUE EXCEEDS US$200 BN

The stock market value of Facebook passed the US$200 billion mark for the first time on Monday, surpassing Google in terms of the pace of its increasing market capitalization.

The social network is now worth more than technology old-timers such as IBM, Intel and Oracle, as well as Toyota, Coca-Cola, and Bank of America, standing on a par with HSBC.

The company’s stock closed at a record US$77.89, giving it a market capitalization of US$200.9 billion, less than two and a half years after the IPO fiasco.

That leaves Facebook worth almost exactly half of Google, which closed at $601.63 at a valuation of US$400.4 billion on Monday.

File photo. (AFP Photo / Getty Images / Spencer Platt)

Google reached US$200 billion in October 2007 more than three years after its September 2004 IPO. However the 2008 crisis caused shares to fall back sharply and it took until late December 2009 to recover.

Since mid-2012 Google’s valuation has increased by about 75 percent, while Facebook’s has leaped by more than 330 percent. 

Image from google.com

Facebook stock has increased 9.3 percent since July 23, after the company reported a 61 percent jump in sales during the second quarter to US$2.91 billion. The mobile platform accounted for 62 percent of total ad sales, having increased from 59 percent a quarter earlier.

In February Facebook acquired the messaging application WhatsApp for US$19 billion. The company has also purchased virtual reality headset maker Oculus VR Inc for nearly US$2 billion. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the virtual headset will be a major communications device after mobile phones.

The company also announced on Monday it now has 100 million users in Africa.