SIERRA LEONE
Center irked by Ebola pranks
Eighty percent of people phoning a toll-free Ebola help number are prank callers, Ebola Call Center head Reynold Senessie said in Freetown on Tuesday. “Such prank calls are affecting the smooth operation of the center,” Senessie said while briefing Palo Conteh, head of the National Ebola Response Center, who paid an unannounced visit to the facility. The good news is that “genuine calls are dwindling and response to such calls have been swift,” Senessie added. Conteh warned that the mobile numbers of the prank callers “will be traced and legal action taken against them.”
KENYA
Journalists ejected at UN
A group of Nairobi-based journalists were ejected from a reception area at the UN complex in Nairobi on Tuesday after launching a protest over al-Jazeera journalists jailed in Egypt. Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shukri was attending the reception. About a dozen journalists were removed from the reception by UN security after waving placards with “#FREEAJSTAFF” written on them while wearing black masking tape over their mouths. Three al-Jazeera English journalists — Canadian-Egyptian Mohammed Fahmy, Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohammed — have been held for more than a year in Egypt on terror-related charges.
SOUTH AFRICA
Court denies Mandela ex
A court on Tuesday threw out an application by former president Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife to block a planned meeting to discuss infighting in the late peace icon’s family. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who is claiming ownership of the former president’s rural home, was trying to stop the Mandela family from holding talks at the Qunu property without her permission. The meeting is planned for tomorrow.
FRANCE
Work, drink linked: study
Working too hard can drive you to drink, researchers said on Wednesday, warning of the health risks of dual excess. An overview of studies covering more than 400,000 people showed that individuals who exceed 48 working hours per week are likelier to consume “risky” quantities of alcohol, they said. The paper, published in The BMJ general medicine journal, reported that long working hours boosted the likelihood of higher alcohol intake by 11 percent overall. People who worked 49 to 54 hours a week ran a 13 percent higher risk of developing a “risky alcohol use” habit compared with counterparts who worked a 35 to 40-hour work week. The findings add statistical backing to anecdotal evidence for a link between excessive work and alcohol abuse, the authors said. More than a dozen developed economies were covered by the research, including Taiwan.
BRAZIL
Animals get iced treats
Rio de Janeiro is experiencing high summer temperatures, but animals at the city’s zoo have won a little relief with icy treats. With the heat index hitting 46oC, keepers at the zoo on Tuesday tossed 30kg bucket-sized “meatsicles” to Siberian tigers as they swam about in a pool. Brown bears won giant blocks of iced watermelon, papayas and grapes. Monkeys delicately nibbled at their own frozen treats — all the while staring at children visitors themselves cooling down with ice cream. The treats are to keep coming, as there is no end in sight for the heatwave.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in