Ugandan leader calls on Africa to quit ICC

Museveni criticised the ICC for continuing with Kenya's deputy president William Ruto's case [Reuters]

Yoweri Museveni, the Ugandan president, has called on African nations to pull out of the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, amid accusations that it unfairly targets Africans. Museveni's comments, made at a ceremony to mark Kenya's 51 years of independence from Britain, came a week after the chief prosecutor at the Hague-based court dropped crimes-against-humanity charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. Museveni criticised the ICC for continuing with Kenya's deputy president William Ruto's case despite an African Union (AU) resolution that no sitting African head of state or deputy should be tried at the court. "I will bring a motion to the African Union's next session. I want all of us to get out of that court of the West. Let them [Westerners] stay with their court," he said in Swahili. Although prosecutors dropped charges against Kenyatta, the trial of Ruto on similar charges is under way at the ICC. "With connivance, they are putting Deputy President Ruto, someone who has been elected by Kenyans, in front of the court there in Europe," Museveni said The AU is scheduled to hold its annual summit of heads of state at its headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the end of January, but has not announced a specific date. Blow to ICC The collapse of the Kenyatta case was a blow to the court, which has secured only two convictions, both against little-known Congolese warlords, and has yet to prove it can hold the powerful to account. Many Africans accuse the ICC of unfairly targeting their continent although the majority of cases it has handled have been referred to the court by African nations themselves. Museveni said he had backed the court before it turned into a tool for "oppressing Africa". "I supported the court at first because I like discipline. I don't want people to err without accountability," he said. "But they have turned it into a vessel for oppressing Africa again so I'm done with that court. I won't work with them again." Uganda has in the past sought the assistance of the ICC in bringing rebel warlord Joseph Kony to account for war crimes committed by his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda over two decades. Kenyatta and Ruto also addressed the ceremony in an open-air stadium in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, saying they were confident Ruto and his co-accused would also be vindicated. "I ask you all to join me in supporting my deputy and his co-accused as they also await their overdue vindication," Kenyatta said. Last year, African leaders tried but failed to pass a resolution at the UN that sought to suspend the trial of both Kenyatta and Ruto at the ICC. Source: Aljazeera

(Reuters) - Band Aid 30's reworked version of "Do They Know it's Christmas", a song intended to raise money to fight the spread of Ebola in Africa, went straight to the top of Britain's single charts on Sunday, the Official Charts Company said.

The track was inspired by a celebrity song of the same name with different lyrics which was recorded in 1984 and raised millions of pounds to fight famine in Africa. Bob Geldof, former lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, helped mastermind the track, as he did the original.

The new song, which sold over 200,000 copies in the last week to become the fastest-selling single of the year, has drawn criticism from some Africans and other recording artists who say it is patronizing and perpetuates unhelpful myths about the continent's problems.

The track's organizers have strongly rejected those comments, saying it will raise much-needed funds to fight Ebola. It generated 1 million pounds within minutes of its launch, they say.

The single pushed last week's number one, a celebrity cover version of Avicii's "Wake Me Up", in aid of charity Children in Need, into seventh place.

In the album charts, a new release by boy band One Direction called "Four" dethroned British progressive rock group Pink Floyd's new album "The Endless River" which fell to fourth place.

(Reuters) - Band Aid 30's reworked version of "Do They Know it's Christmas", a song intended to raise money to fight the spread of Ebola in Africa, went straight to the top of Britain's single charts on Sunday, the Official Charts Company said.

The track was inspired by a celebrity song of the same name with different lyrics which was recorded in 1984 and raised millions of pounds to fight famine in Africa. Bob Geldof, former lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, helped mastermind the track, as he did the original.

The new song, which sold over 200,000 copies in the last week to become the fastest-selling single of the year, has drawn criticism from some Africans and other recording artists who say it is patronizing and perpetuates unhelpful myths about the continent's problems.

The track's organizers have strongly rejected those comments, saying it will raise much-needed funds to fight Ebola. It generated 1 million pounds within minutes of its launch, they say.

The single pushed last week's number one, a celebrity cover version of Avicii's "Wake Me Up", in aid of charity Children in Need, into seventh place.

In the album charts, a new release by boy band One Direction called "Four" dethroned British progressive rock group Pink Floyd's new album "The Endless River" which fell to fourth place.

Source: reuters

War against Ebola in West Africa remains a tough fight

MONROVIA, Liberia — A snapshot of the Ebola epidemic raging across West Africa shows a wildfire of infections only slightly contained.

While cases have been on the decline in Liberia, the outbreak is worsening in neighboring countries, where basic Ebola-fighting tools are impractical.

Identifying the infected and those they've touched, and isolating them to break the transmission chain are all but impossible in Sierra Leone's capital of Freetown as well as the jungles of Guinea, says Jordan Tappero, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's second-in-command for the regional response.

The new surge of Ebola in Sierra Leone follows a devastating one in Monrovia two months ago. Such a furious spread is something disease trackers say they've never seen in the 38 years since the virus was first identified.

"This is kind of unprecedented or uncharted territory for (fighting) Ebola," Tappero says, particularly in the congested streets of Freetown. "When you get these large urban outbreaks, there's just too many people. Contact tracing teams can't track everybody."

USATODAY

Reporter's Notebook: Inside Liberia's Ebola fight

Here in Liberia, new cases continue to pop up, though on a smaller scale, and there are adequate treatment facilities — virtually the only goods news right now in the Ebola war. But as infection clusters still emerge in rural areas of the country, CDC teams rush in like firefighters to assess and assist and are increasingly exhausted, says team leader Kevin DeCock.

"People are stretched. They're running 18 hours a day. It's difficult. And everyone is doing that," DeCock says.

An undated United Methodist News Service photograph shows Martin Salia, left, performing surgery at the Kissy Hospital outside Freetown, Sierra Leone, in April. Salia died Nov. 17 while being treated at a biocontainment unit at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. (Photo: Mike DuBose, United Methodist News Service, via European Pressphoto Agency)

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Next Slide

All it took to trigger the current outbreak in Mali was an ailing 70-year-old grand imam from Guinea, who crossed into the country last month and checked into a clinic where he died within two days of Ebola, according to the World Health Organization. Five died and more than 400 required isolation as a result.

"I don't think we can say it's under control" in Mali, Tappero says.

Sierra Leone, where there is a shortage of treatment facilities, is the leading edge of the epidemic right now. In 17 days through Nov. 21, infections increased by 30% to more than 6,000 cases and more than 1,200 deaths, WHO reported. In the same time frame, infections jumped 18% in Guinea and 8.5% in Liberia. Overall, more than 5,400 have died from the virus across West Africa.

In Sierra Leone, the best responders can do is ensure bodies are quickly retrieved and burials carried out safely because of the inability to trace those who have come into contact with Ebola patients, Tappero says.

In neighboring Guinea, key problems are simply reaching infected areas in far-flung villages and overcoming local superstitions that blame Ebola deaths on treatment efforts.

"There is still a great deal of fear in some remote areas that ETUs (Ebola treatment centers) are killing patients," according to a CDC assessment. "We are working out ways to investigate that further and develop counter-messages ... working with a local imam in (the capital) Conakry to push out religious-themed messages which seem to resonate."

Source:usatoday.com