GRAPHITTI
NEWS collates national and international highlights from late-breaking news,
up-coming events and the stories that will be talked about throughout Saturday
and Sunday:
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Reuters
/ Thomas Peter
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1.
SCIENTISTS IN RUSSIA DEVELOPING THREE EBOLA VACCINES – HEALTH MINISTRY
Russian
scientists are working on three potential Ebola vaccines which they expect to
introduce as soon as in the next six months. One of the vaccines is “already
ready for clinical trials,” Russia’s health minister Veronika Skvortsova has
announced.
"We
have created three vaccines,” Skvortsova announced in an interview with
Rossiya-1 TV. “One vaccine is based on a strain of Ebola, and the other two
have been created by means of genetic engineering.”
Russian
virologists have also created an anti-virus drug that, they believe, could be
successfully used for treating Ebola as tests have showed that that it is
effective in curing Ebola-related diseases.
So
far, there is now no licensed treatment or vaccine for the highly contagious
disease that has killed over 4,000 people in western Africa since the start of
the year and has recently started spreading beyond the region.
Now
several countries are trying to develop an effective treatment.
The
first-ever human trials for an Ebola vaccine started in Mali earlier this week.
On October 8, the first health worker received the drug. Over the course of the
trial, which is being organized by the University of Maryland and Mali’s Health
Ministry, a total of 40 volunteers will be given the vaccine.
In
Russia it’s impossible to contract the Ebola virus, Skvortsova said, adding
that the country has still implemented a protection plan against the virus,
which it stepped up in July.
“We
are now carrying out a sanitary inspection of 7,500 flights per month, which is
almost half a million people,” she said. “Everybody coming from West Africa is
under special control, especially 450 students who study in Russian
universities. Sixteen of them had viral illnesses and were hospitalized, but
they were not relevant to the [virus]."
Skvortsova
said that 71 of Russia’s airports have upgraded their security and now have
thermal cameras to detect the first signs of the virus.
“Both
portable and stationary thermal scanners are being used at many airports, and
we are monitoring all direct and indirect flights that arrive," she said.
As
of Oct. 8, a total 4,033 people have died, out of a total of 8,399 registered
cases in seven countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. For now,
Liberia is the worst-hit of all the affected countries, with 4,076 cases and
2,316 deaths. It is followed by Sierra Leone, where there are 2,950 cases and
930 deaths.
Despite
all international efforts to combat the disease, the WHO said that Ebola’s
spread is “entrenched” and “accelerating.”
"The
disease is entrenched in the [countries’] capitals, 70 percent of the people
affected are definitely dying from this disease, and it is accelerating in
almost all of the settings," WHO deputy head Bruce Aylward said on Friday.
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Russian
President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with the winner Mercedes Formula One
driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain as Mercedes Formula One driver Nico Rosberg of
Germany stands next to them after the first Russian Grand Prix in Sochi October
12, 2014 (Reuters / Maxim Shemetov)
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2.
PHOTOS - BRITISH DRIVER HAMILTON WINS RUSSIAN F1 GRAND PRIX IN SOCHI
British
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has won the 2014 Russian F1 Grand Prix in Sochi
on Sunday, coming out on top in the 53-lap race after starting in pole position
on the starting grid.
The
race started at 15:00 local time (11:00 GMT) at the Olympic Park, which was
used for Sochi’s Winter Olympics in February. The Sochi Autodrom itself is a
brand new 55,000-capacity venue built near the site.
“The track is unique as it is the only one on
the F1 calendar to be located on an Olympic site,” Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel
says. “Generally, I think it has a very successful mix of corners with
different characters, some of them will be very difficult, and that’s
ultimately what we want as drivers.”
Saturday’s
qualifying session ended with Hamilton securing pole position ahead of his
teammates.
“I'm
really grateful that I got the pole here, for the first time. It's going to be
tough tomorrow, it's a long lead down to turn one, so we'll find out how that
works out," he told journalists after Saturday’s time trial.
The
British driver showed the best time of 1m 38.513. Germany’s Nico Rosberg and
Finland’s Valtteri Bottas couldn’t manage to outrace Hamilton and took the
second and the third places, respectively.
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General view of the Sochi Autodrom circuit
during the third free practice session of the Russian F1 Grand Prix October 11,
2014 (Reuters / Laszlo Balogh)
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Jenson
Button was in 4th spot and Russia’s favorite, Daniil Kvyat, finished 5th.
“Everything
is going great. A Russian, Daniil Kvyat, has qualified fifth and that’s
absolutely fantastic,” a Russian fan told RT’s Neil Harvey.
“We’ve
been supporting him strongly and will do that on Sunday. The race will be very
exciting,” fans said.
The
crowds of fans of the major international sporting event will be joined by
Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Kremlin press service. Putin
headed to the competition with Bahrain’s ruler, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
The
Russian president said he noticed positive tendencies in the relations between
Russia and Bahrain.
“I am very glad that we have an opportunity to
discuss bilateral relations and discuss the situation in the region,” he said
addressing Bahrain’s leader. Later, Russia’s ambassador to Bahrain, Victor
Smirnov, told journalists that Moscow and Manama had signed a series of
cultural and tourism agreements.
Sochi’s
F1 race is the 16th of the 2014 season. A week earlier, the Grand Prix was held
in the Japanese city of Suzuka. The event was overshadowed by an accident
involving French driver Jules Bianchi, however, who suffered a severe head
injury after his car crashed into a crane, which was trying to remove another
car that had skidded off the circuit during wet conditions in Suzuka.
Bianchi
drives for Marussia, a joint Anglo-Russian venture that has its headquarters in
the UK. The Marussia team will have only one car on the starting grid, as a
mark of respect to injured driver Bianch
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Lewis
Hamilton will start the inaugural Russian Grand Prix on pole (AP)
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3.
NO CHANGE TO AFRICAN NATIONS CUP DESPITE EBOLA - CAF
Organizers
have no intention of changing the dates of next year's African Nations Cup even
though hosts Morocco called for a postponement of the finals because of fears
over the Ebola virus.
But
the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said on Saturday it would meet the
Moroccan government next month, sending a high-powered delegation to discuss
the issue in Rabat led by its president Issa Hayatou.
The
host nation's government made a shock announcement on Friday, saying it wanted
the 16-team tournament from Jan. 17-Feb. 8 postponed following a report by its
health ministry into the possible spread of the virus.
Last
month the Moroccan government ordered a detailed report into the possibility
that the tournament might spread the disease although no cases have yet been
reported in the north African country.
4.
TEN CHINESE WORKERS AMONG 27 HOSTAGES FREED IN CAMEROON
Twenty-seven
hostages seized by militant group Boko Haram in Cameroon in May and July have
been released, including 10 Chinese workers and the wife of Cameroon's
vice-prime minister, authorities said on Saturday.
The
freed hostages were flown early on Saturday from the Far North region to the
capital, where they are being treated in hospital, Minister of Communications
and government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary told Reuters.
"You
can imagine that after the ordeal they are very happy to be released and very
relieved. But they are very weak. They are in very poor physical
condition," he said. He confirmed that the hostage takers were Boko Haram.
President
Paul Biya was personally involved in securing their release in a process that
involved the military, the country's intelligence service and civil society,
Bakary said. He declined to give further details.
The
Chinese workers were seized in May near the town of Waza, 20 km (12 miles) from
the Nigerian border. The vice-prime minister's wife was seized in July, the
presidency said.
"The
27 hostages kidnapped on May 16, 2014, at Waza and on July 27, 2014, at
Kolofata were given this night to Cameroonian authorities," Biya said in a
statement read on state radio. Biya has ruled Cameroon since 1982.
"Ten
Chinese, the wife of the Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali, the Lamido (a local
religious leader) of Kolofata, and the members of their families kidnapped with
them are safe," it said, giving no further details.
An
official from China's embassy in Cameroon confirmed the release of its citizens
and said they arrived in Yaounde on a Cameroon government chartered plane,
according to Xinhua news agency.
Boko
Haram has killed hundreds of people this year, mostly in northeastern Nigeria,
as it continues a five-year campaign for an Islamist state.
Most
of the killings have been in northeastern Nigeria although the group has also
detonated bombs across Nigeria. Boko Haram means "Western education is
sinful" in the local Hausa language.
This
year Boko Haram has stepped up cross-border attacks into Cameroon, prompting
Cameroon to deploy troops to its northern region.
In
the past two months, it has also tried to seize territory in remote areas near
the Cameroon border, as well as carrying out incursions into Niger and Chad.
The
group attracted global condemnation when it abducted more than 200 Nigerian
schoolgirls in April. There has been little word on their fate.
5.
KURDISH FIGHTERS IN FIERCE CLASHES, STRUGGLING TO REPEL ISLAMIC STATE GROUP
FROM BORDER TOWN
Syrian
activists and Kurdish officials say fierce fighting is underway in a Syrian
border town where Kurdish militiamen are struggling to repel advances by the
Islamic State group.
The
battle for Kobani is raging despite airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition
targeting the militants.
A
Kurdish official, Ismet Sheikh Hasan, says Saturday's clashes are focused in
the southern and eastern parts of the town. He says the situation is dire.
The
director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami
Abdurrahman, says the town's Kurdish fighters are putting up a fierce fight but
are outgunned by the militants
Since
the militants launched their onslaught on Kobani in mid-September, at least 500
people have been killed and more than 200,000 have been forced to flee across
the border into Turkey.
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In this photo combo, Malala
Yousafzai, left, and Kailash Satyarthi, address the media, on Friday, Oct. 10,
2014. Despite their many differences, 17-year-old Yousafzai and 60-year-old Satyarthi
will be forever linked, co-winners of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, honored for
risking their lives for the rights of children to education and to lives free
of abuse. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira, Bernat Armangue)
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6.
ACTIVIST KAILASH SATYARTHI'S NOBEL PEACE PRIZE HIGHLIGHTS ENDEMIC CHILD LABOR
IN INDIA
When
the Nobel Committee announced that Indian children's rights activist Kailash
Satyarthi had won the Peace Prize, a skinny 13-year-old boy was running around
serving cups of milky tea to customers at a tiny tea stall in eastern India.
By
law, Raja Manjhi should not be working at all. But, like millions of other
children across India, he has been forced out of school and into a job to help
his impoverished family.
Despite
the country's rapid economic growth, child labor remains widespread in India,
where an estimated 13 million children work, with laws meant to keep kids in
school and out of the workplace routinely flouted.
Satyarthi,
60, who won the Peace Prize on Friday along with 17-year-old Pakistani Malala
Yousafzai, accepts that "a lot of work still remains" before children
like Raja no longer have to work.
Raja
dropped out of school in second grade, when he was handed over to the owner of
a tea stall in the eastern city of Patna to pay off his father's 5,000 rupee (US$80)
debt. The money was needed because Raja's mother was sick.
7.
LIBERIA DRAWING DOWN RESERVES AMID HEALTH CRISIS, CENBANK DEPUTY SAYS
Liberia's
central bank has spent over US$40 million of its reserves in recent months as
it grapples with the devastating Ebola outbreak, the country's deputy central
bank governor Boima Kamara told Reuters on Friday.
"Just
from June to September this year, we have spent between $40 million to $50
million to intervene in the economy. That level of intervention has to be done
to avoid a liquidity crisis," Kamara said in an interview on the sidelines
of the fall meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in
Washington.
The
drawdown in reserves has been necessary to stabilize the exchange rate and
avoid a potential inflation situation, he said.
Liberia
has been hit hard by the Ebola outbreak, the worst on record. More than half of
the 4,033 people who have died from the disease were in Liberia, where the
healthcare system is still reeling from a devastating 1989-2003 civil war.
Because
of the strains on its reserves, Liberia was seeking ways to partner with some
international institutions, like the World Bank, Kamara said.
So
far, there were positive signs.
"We
anticipate some level of interventions from the World Bank," he said.
Donors
have promised hundreds of millions of dollars in aid amid fears of a global
pandemic, but many in Liberia - including President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - say
that help has been too slow in coming to a nation of 4 million people.
"We
are looking for liquidity support to the banks, we are looking for support for
businesses, in terms of having access to finance, the likelihood of refinancing
arrangements," Kamara said.
Earlier
this week, Finance Minister Amara Konneh said government revenues had dropped
20 percent, while Liberia has had to ramp up spending by some 35 percent,
leaving a budget gap of around US$106 million.
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8.
SECOND 'SNOWDEN' LEAKING CLASSIFIED DATA - DOCUMENTARY
Filmmaker
and journalist Laura Poitras’s new film on Edward Snowden has ex-Guardian
journalist Glenn Greenwald revealing the existence of a second classified
document leaker, following August’s official investigation into the
possibility.
Former
NSA contractor Edward Snowden became known worldwide as the first person to
have shattered the illusion that private information is safe from unlawful
government surveillance.
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But
in Poitras’s new two-hour documentary, 'Citizenfour,' named after the online
handle Snowden used to first leak classified documents to her and Greenwald,
the former Guardian journalist can be seen talking with Snowden and discussing
a second source of leaks in a more candid manner.
When
the former NSA contractor’s face appears to show surprise at the information
apparently being leaked by this new source, Greenwald is seen writing something
on a scrap of paper. What he wrote presumably relates to the news of a
rapidly-growing Obama administration terror watch list, now reportedly
including 1.2 million people.
The
Intercept had detailed the composition of the watch list back in July –
presumably the only substantial document leak that came after Snowden came to
Russia – thus feeding the rumors of a second leaker.
Following
July’s report, Greenwald hinted with a tweet, “I think there’s a second leaker
out there” continuing to do Snowden’s work, but kept silent when the press
sought to confirm this. He did, however, promise to publish more documents
leaked by Snowden himself.
Speaking at the Observer Ideas festivalon Sunday, Snowden expressed surprise and admiration, that given the treatment of whistleblowers, "this person would stand up and put their life on the line". He called the act "extraordinarily courageous."
Speaking at the Observer Ideas festivalon Sunday, Snowden expressed surprise and admiration, that given the treatment of whistleblowers, "this person would stand up and put their life on the line". He called the act "extraordinarily courageous."
And
now Potrias’s new film, which premiered in New York on Friday night, appears to
show Greenwald incontrovertibly pointing to the existence of a person following
in Snowden’s footsteps.
Greenwald
became among the first to publish stories based on material submitted by
Snowden, detailing the extent of the US government’s global data mining
initiative.
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9.
US PLEDGES US$212MN, QATAR US$1BN FOR GAZA RECONSTRUCTION FOLLOWING ISRAEL'S
WAR WITH HAMAS
The
US has announced nearly a quarter of a billion dollars’ worth of assistance to
Palestinians in relief efforts to rebuild the Gaza Strip following a 50-day
military conflict between Israel and Hamas, while Qatar has pledged over US$1bn.
At
a Cairo conference Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry emphasized the
importance of getting funds to the people of Gaza as soon as possible: "The
people of Gaza do need our help desperately, not tomorrow, not next week, but
they need it now" he said.
Qatar
pledged their own aid. "The state of Qatar announces its participation
with an amount of US$1 billion for the reconstruction of Gaza," Qatari
Foreign Minister Khaled-al-Attiya said at the conference.
Kerry,
however, stressed that money itself would not resolve the decades-long Middle
East crisis, which has been the bugbear of US politicians since the Six-day War
of 1967, when Israeli forces conquered large parts of Palestinian territory,
which remains in Israeli hands today.
"Out
of this conference must come not just money but a renewed commitment from
everybody to work for peace that meets the aspirations of all, for Israelis,
for Palestinians for all people of this region,” Kerry said. “I promise you the
full commitment of President Obama, myself and the United States to try to do
that."
"Everything
else will be a band aid fix, not a long-term solution... Everything else will
be the prisoner of impatience and that has brought us to this unacceptable and
unstable status quo," he said.
The
Palestinian Authority says it needs at least US$4 billion to rebuild Gaza.
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Meanwhile,
Germany has also stepped forward to help Gaza, pledging 50 million euros to the
reconstruction efforts.
Aside
from strictly financial objectives, other objectives of the forum are to get
Israel to lift restrictions on the importation of goods into the Palestinian
enclave, which remains hampered by economic strife.
On
July 8, 2014, Israel launched a seven-week military campaign, dubbed Operation
Protective Edge, against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the
death of some 2,200 people and widespread physical destruction, with much of
the slither of land wedged between Egypt and Israel resembling an earthquake
zone.
10.
INDIANA WOMAN WINS US$300,000 IN ARTPRIZE CONTEST
An
Indianapolis woman on Friday won US$300,000 in the annual ArtPrize competition
in Michigan for a sculpture called Intersections.
Anila
Quayyum Agha, a native of Pakistan, won the public vote prize of US$200,000 for
the work, which is a cube that's illuminated from the inside. She also split a US$200,000
jury prize with Sonya Clark of Richmond, Virginia. Clark's two-dimensional
entry is called "The Hair Craft Project" and explores
African-American hairstyling.
The
19-day ArtPrize is open to any artist. The 1,536 entries have come from artists
in 42 states and territories and 51 countries.
The
public votes using mobile devices and the Internet to distribute $260,000,
while an additional US$300,000 in juried awards is decided by a group of
international art experts. This was the first time in the contest's six-year
history that a winner took home both the jury prize and the public vote prize.
"The
push and pull between the popular and expert approaches to assessing art is
what makes the parallel award structure so intriguing," Christian Gaines,
ArtPrize executive director, said in a news release announcing the winners.
"Over the last couple of weeks we've seen this conversation grow and
change, showing us that it is possible to find a consensus, to find that sweet
spot where popular and expert opinions coincide."
The
works will remain on display at venues across Grand Rapids through Sunday.
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11.
DECADES-OLD CIA CRACK-COCAINE SCANDAL GAINS NEW MOMENTUM
Nearly
two decades after a US reporter was humiliated for connecting the CIA to a
drug-trafficking trade that funded the Nicaraguan Contras, important players in
the scandal – which led to the journalist’s suicide – are coming forward to
back his claims.
Back
in 1996, Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News broke a story stating not only
that the Nicaraguan Contras – supported by the United States in a rebellion
against their left-leaning government – were involved in the US crack cocaine
epidemic of the 1980s, but also that the CIA knew and turned a blind eye to the
operation.
As
a result, Webb concluded, the CIA was complicit in a drug trade that was
wreaking havoc on African American communities in Los Angeles.
The
bombshell report sparked outrage across the country, but when national
newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Washington Post
weighed in on the matter, they dismissed Webb and attacked his story to the
point that it was disowned by the Mercury News. Webb was forced out of journalism
and ultimately committed suicide in 2004.
Now,
however, the whole ordeal is being looked at with fresh eyes in the form of two
new films: “Kill the Messenger” and a documentary called, “Freeway: Crack in
the System.” Additionally, several figures involved in the operation have
recently spoken out, lending further credibility to Webb’s original reporting.
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| Portion of the FIFA World Club Trophy |
12.
FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP DRAW
Draw for the FIFA Club
World Cup to be played in Morocco from Dec. 10 to 20: Playoff round: Dec. 10 -
Moghreb Tétouan (Morocco) v Auckland City (New Zealand) Quarter-finals: Dec. 13
- African champions v Moghreb Tétouan/Auckland City Dec. 13 - Cruz Azul
(Mexico) v Asia champions Semi-finals: Dec 16 - Real Madrid (Spain) v Cruz
Azul/Asian champions Dec 17 - San Lorenzo (Argentina) v Moghreb
Tétouan/Auckland City/African champions * Africa will be represented by ES
Setif (Algeria) or AS Vita Club (DR Congo) and Asia by Western Sydney Wanderers
(Australia) or Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia).
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