Monday
Ukraine independence day met with unrest(Rebels parade captured Ukrainian soldiers in streets of Donetsk)
Armed pro-Russian rebels paraded dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers through the streets of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Sunday afternoon, the rebel stronghold's counterprotest to Ukraine's Independence Day celebrations in other parts of the divided country.
A crowd of more than 1,000 people gathered to jeer and throw bottles at the prisoners, several of whom had bandaged heads and other wounds, calling them "fascists," "Nazis" and "traitors." The march started around 2 p.m. and lasted just a few minutes.
"The people came out to see the soldiers who had been shelling them around the clock, thanking the separatists for protecting them," said freelance journalist Maximilian Clarke, who witnessed the parade near Donetsk's Lenin Square. The rebels aren't foreigners who have invaded this city, he said. "The separatists here are locals; they are known here."
Water trucks followed the captured soldiers and hosed down the streets after the prisoners had passed, Clarke said. The streets cleared quickly after the brief march amid rumors that Ukraine would retaliate for the insult.
The rebels intended Sunday's "anti-fascist rally" to evoke the 1944 forced march of almost 60,000 captured Nazi prisoners through Moscow, according to a rebel social media account announcing the march.
In the capital city of Kiev, Ukraine's national government put on a display of military might to celebrate its Independence Day, with tanks, missile-launching vehicles, armored personnel carriers and soldier corps filing through the city.
Many of them will soon deploy to the country's eastern conflict to fight the pro-Russian insurgency.
Ukraine declared its independence in 1991 from the Russian-dominated Soviet Union as the USSR was dissolving.
After bloody street protests led to Kiev distancing itself more starkly from Moscow this year, Russia invaded and annexed the peninsula of Crimea. And the pro-Russian insurgency gained momentum.
Poroshenko: More military funding
Ukraine is fighting against foreign aggression, President Petro Poroshenko said in a commemoration speech.
"Events of the last months have become -- though undeclared -- real war," he said. And it is coming from a part of the world Ukraine traditionally would not have expected, he said, referring to Russia.
Poroshenko spoke from the Maidan, Kiev's Independence Square, where protesters once railed against his pro-Russian predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych, whom they drove from office.
Sunday's show of military might, reminiscent of Soviet-era parades, stood in stark contrast to the lack of funding for the country's military.
But Poroshenko vowed in his speech that Kiev will bulk up military funding by around $3 billion over the next three years to purchase military aircraft, helicopters and warships.
Fragile situation
Funding might prove difficult due to Ukraine's fragile economy, falling salaries and a weak currency.
Seven of the country's richest people have publicly donated to the military, and supporters have contributed millions to crowdfunding campaigns for Ukraine's Defense Ministry.
The United States has pledged nonlethal military support -- equipment like night vision goggles and protective vests.
There's also growing international concern over the apparent massing of Russian troops at the border with Ukraine.
There were up to 18,000 such "combat-ready" troops on Friday, according to U.S. estimates, a significant increase from previous public estimates by the Pentagon.
U.N. officials estimate that more than 2,000 people have died and nearly 5,000 have been wounded in eastern Ukraine since mid-April.
Constant shelling
The battles in eastern Ukraine took no break for Independence Day.
Five soldiers died in fights against rebels on Saturday and Sunday, Kiev's Defense Council said.
The city of Donetsk was hit by shelling overnight, causing 13 fires, according to the city website.
Shelling also continued in Luhansk, the city office said. It has been without water and power for 22 days.
Convoy back to Russia
A day earlier, a convoy of Russian trucks that had crossed that country's border into eastern Ukraine without Kiev's authorization returned to Russia, international monitors said Saturday.
In total, 227 vehicles were sent into territories held by pro-Russian rebels on Friday, according to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which has an observer mission at the checkpoint the convoy went through.
By Saturday afternoon, they had all returned to Russia after delivering aid to the city of Luhansk, a stronghold for the pro-Russia rebels that has been caught up in conflict.
Russia said the vehicles were on an essential humanitarian mission and that it was satisfied with the deliveries, but international powers condemned it as a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty.
Officials in Kiev referred to it as an invasion.
Amid the furor, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in Kiev on Saturday with Poroshenko.
At a joint news conference, Merkel said she could not rule out further sanctions against Russia if no progress is made in resolving the situation in eastern Ukraine.
Poroshenko said the Russian convoy had "violated every international law."
But he also said he was committed to constitutional reforms and decentralization of power aimed at meeting the concerns of the Russian-speaking population in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian President is due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and EU representatives on Tuesday in Minsk, Belarus.
Thursday
GUINEA DECLARES NATIONAL HEALTH EMERGENCY.
Guinea has a declared a national health emergency as it battles to curb the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.
This meant tighter border controls, the immediate isolation of anyone suspected to have Ebola and a ban on moving bodies from one town to another, state radio reported.
Ebola has killed more than 1,000 people in West Africa amid fears that it could spread to East Africa.
This is the deadliest outbreak since the disease was discovered in 1976.
This meant tighter border controls, the immediate isolation of anyone suspected to have Ebola and a ban on moving bodies from one town to another, state radio reported.
Ebola has killed more than 1,000 people in West Africa amid fears that it could spread to East Africa.
This is the deadliest outbreak since the disease was discovered in 1976.
EBOLA DISEASE
World Ebola fears grow with Europe and Asia on alert.
Fears that the west African Ebola outbreak could spread to other continents grew on Wednesday with European and Asian countries on alert and a leading medical charity warning the epidemic was out of control.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the crisis gripping Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone would only get worse and warned there was no overarching strategy to handle the world’s worst outbreak of the disease.
US Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse was temporarily withdrawing its non-essential staff from Liberia, it said, citing regional “instability and ongoing security issues”.
Hong Kong announced quarantine measures for suspected cases, although one woman arriving from Africa with possible symptoms tested negative, while the EU said it was ready to deal with the threat.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has held talks with global health officials on potential measures to halt the spread of the disease.
In Britain, where one person has tested negative for the disease, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said it was regarded as “a very serious threat”.
An emergency meeting had decided that the best approach was to provide “additional resources to deal with the disease at source” in West Africa, he added.
Ebola can kill victims within days, causing severe fever and muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in some cases, organ failure and unstoppable bleeding.
Since March, there have been 1,201 cases of Ebola and 672 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The US Peace Corps announced Wednesday it was pulling hundreds of volunteers from the three countries.
There are currently 102 Peace Corps volunteers in Guinea working on agriculture, education and health, 108 in Liberia and 130 in Sierra Leone.
- EU ‘equipped and ready’ -
The European Union is equipped and ready to treat victims should the deadly virus be found in its 28 member states, an EU source said in Brussels.
“We cannot rule out the possibility that an infected person arrives in Europe but the EU has the means to track and contain any outbreak rapidly,” the source said.
The isolation and negative testing of a suspected case in Valencia in Spain showed that the “system worked”, added the source.
“The level of contamination on the ground is extremely worrying and we need to scale up our action before many more lives are lost,” said EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva.
In Hong Kong, a densely populated city previously scarred by disease outbreaks such as the 2003 SARS epidemic, health officials confirmed they would quarantine as a precautionary measure any visitors from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia who showed fever symptoms.
One woman arriving in the southern Chinese city from Africa, who showed symptoms including fever and vomiting, has tested negative for Ebola.
Australia said Thursday it was well prepared in the unlikely event that the Ebola virus reached its shores. Australia has already warned against travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
On Tuesday a meeting of the Communicable Diseases Network of Australia was convened, including key infectious diseases doctors and state and federal health authorities, to discuss ways to respond if Ebola was detected.
“While the possibility of Ebola coming to Australia is very low, we are closely monitoring the overseas outbreak and Australia’s domestic response,” chief medical officer Chris Baggoley said.
All border protection agencies were on alert for possible Ebola symptoms in people arriving by air or sea, Baggoley confirmed.
Meanwhile, Thai health authorities said they had ordered all hospitals to monitor patients for any symptoms, particularly nationals or foreign tourists who had been in the outbreak area.
Bart Janssens, MSF’s director of operations, warned that governments and global bodies had no “overarching view” of how to tackle the outbreak.
“This epidemic is unprecedented, absolutely out of control and the situation can only get worse, because it is still spreading, above all in Liberia and Sierra Leone, in some very important hotspots,” he said.
“If the situation does not improve fairly quickly, there is a real risk of new countries being affected,” he told La Libre Belgique newspaper.
A British doctor volunteering in Sierra Leone treating Ebola patients told Metro newspaper that medical staff were swamped.
“The main challenge here, though, is that the health authorities just don’t have the infrastructure to cope. They’re overwhelmed,” Benjamin Black said.
A top doctor in charge of a Sierra Leone treatment centre died of the virus earlier this week.
In Canada, local media reported that a Canadian doctor had put himself in quarantine as a precaution after spending weeks in west Africa treating patients with the virus alongside an American doctor, who is now infected.
A spokesman for the French foreign ministry said they were offering technical support and expertise on the ground in west Africa.
And Liberia announced it was shutting all schools and placing “non-essential” government workers on 30 days’ leave.
Togo-based pan-African airline ASKY, which serves 20 destinations, on Tuesday halted all flights to and from Liberia and Sierra Leone following the death of a passenger from the virus.
The 40-year-old man, who travelled from Liberia, died in Lagos on Friday in Nigeria’s first confirmed death from Ebola.
The virus crossing borders for the first time by plane could lead to new flight restrictions aimed at containing outbreaks, the world aviation agency said.
“Until now (the virus) had not impacted commercial aviation, but now we’re affected,” ICAO secretary general Raymond Benjamin said.
Nigeria Up, Ghana Down In Latest FIFA Rankings
On a continental level, Algeria is 14th best, Nigeria, 16th, the Ivory Coast, 21st and Ghana 25th. Scandal-plagued Cameroon sits at the bottom of the rankings in 32nd place.
After a somewhat average showing at the FIFA World Cup, Brazil 2014, Nigeria has shot up to third place in the latest continental rankings, up by 3 spots from a previous 6th place.
Algeria who put up perhaps the best performance for an African side at the Mundial, breaking their own record by going beyond the group stage, is still Africa’s number 1 football nation. The Ivory Coast also maintains its position in second place followed by Nigeria.
Not surprisingly, Ghana who put up a woeful performance in Brazil slid to fifth position from third place preceded by Egypt who did not even make it to Brazil. Tunisia, Guinea, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Mali complete the top 10 in that order.
In a related scenario, Cameroon has been adjudged the worst team in Brazil 2014. Germany is the best team in the world and at the tournament, after winning the trophy followed by Argentina, the Netherlands, Brazil and Colombia. Belgium, France, Costa Rica, Chile and Mexico make up the rest of the top 10 best teams at the World Cup.
On a continental level, Algeria is 14th best, Nigeria, 16th, the Ivory Coast, 21st and Ghana 25th. Scandal-plagued Cameroon sits at the bottom of the rankings in 32nd place.
Wednesday
11 parents of abducted girls die
The National Chairman, Chibok community, Pogu Bitrus, has said that four more parents of the abducted girls of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State have died thus raising the number to 11.
An online newspaper, The Cable quoted Bitrus as saying that seven of the parents of the girls abducted by members of the Boko Haram sect on April 14 from their hostel at Government Secondary School, Chibok, died of heart attack and frustration.
Bitrus was said to have made this disclosure on July 5, this year.
But speaking with the The Cable on Tuesday, Bitrus added that four more of the parents would not see their daughters again as they have lost their lives to the trauma visited on them by their children’s abduction.
“One father of two of the girls kidnapped just went into a kind of a coma and kept repeating the names of his daughters until life left him,”
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