Because these South Africans live in fear of the day Mandela dies. It is widespread. Search the words “fear, Mandela and death” and the headings of websites include “Blacks will massacre whites after Mandela’s death”, “South Africans fear Mandela’s death” and “White genocide after Mandela’s death in SA?”.

There are thousands of websites from interest groups to social networks and news sites. It happens whenever Mandela is admitted to hospital.

There is a fear on the part of some white people that black people will no longer hold back – that they will wield sjamboks, knives and guns and take what they believe is owed to them. It will be chaos, they say; the country will burn.

Far right organisations warn white people to be prepared, protect their families, unless they have handed in their firearms as the ANC government requested a few years ago. This, they say, was the government’s plan all along.

This week Media 24 reported how the SANDF had been placed on standby after a secret contingency plan kicked in when Mandela took ill. Soldiers were warned to prepare themselves about 10 days ago, before Mandela was even admitted to hospital.

Most notable were the comments from ordinary citizens expressing fear.

One user, Oamis Lacad Ariedlac, wrote that the story of “uhuru” against the white population was widespread.

“I’ve been informed that payback is on it’s way after Mandela departs. All we need is a small group of like-minded individuals to fulfil this prophecy. I hope I’m wrong, but reality cannot be ignored, nor the high level of impoverishment/ dissatisfaction at grass roots level. Now with Malema and his ilk seeking a following, more fiery rhetoric will be expected, further exacerbating the potential for conflict.”

Leon Wolfe wrote: “The poorest of the poor will use it as an excuse to loot, the stupidest of the stupid will use it as an excuse to murder. The ANC will run away, the US (already on their way) will use it as an excuse to “restore order” and secure SA’s mineral resources for themselves. And then it’s going to hit the fan. Sing your praises about harmony and ubuntu if you like. See the number of violent service delivery protests as an example of the reigning mentality in this country. Be ready or be dead.”

The reports stretch from as far afield as Australia, the UK and the US. This is what some South Africans are telling them.

Earlier this year Father Sebastian Rossouw, of the Regina Mundi Catholic Church in Soweto expressed his fear to The Australian: “Many of us fear that what he stood for will also die. It’s a concern that when Mandela goes there will be a threat of civil war. People are concerned that if he dies, will we still have democracy? Will we still have peace?”

Ernst Roets, deputy chief executive of racial minority rights group AfriForum, told The Guardian that peacekeeping organisations are working to resolve people’s concerns.

“We get a lot of fear. We do get calls from people saying they’re scared about the day Mandela dies and what they should do. There are fringe organisations that say ‘flee the country’. We are encouraging people to be aware and look after their own safety.”

Political commentator Max du Preez was lambasted after he criticised the naysayers.

“A softer version of the ‘white genocide’ scare is that the ANC would regard the end of Mandela as a kind of licence to start behaving like Zimbabwe’s Zanu-PF because the last voice of tolerance, reason and reconciliation had fallen silent. Even more moderate people believe Mandela’s death would lead to a sharp decline in the worth of the rand and the stock exchange,” he wrote.

“I suspect the only consequence of Mandela’s death is going to be a period of sadness, nostalgia and a feeling of national coherence. It will remind South Africans of all groups and persuasions of the almost miraculous transition from apartheid to democracy and of the golden era under his presidency after 1994.” – Saturday Star

Suyima Torres, 28, died in April, and police are treating it as manslaughter connected to the unlicensed practice of medicine.

Suyima reportedly visited Cuerpos Health and Aesthetics for a $1,500 procedure in which an oily yellow substance was injected into each of her butt cheeks, according to court documents.

A few weeks later she had another round of injections and felt dizzy right after. She died ten hours later.

She paid $2,300 in total cash for the injections.

Though her cause of death has not been determined, police are treating it as a homicide.

Miami Dade Police seized records, medications, and computers from Cuerpos Health and Aesthetics LLC.

No charges have been filed but authorities still have few details for family members and a suspect believed to have left the country.

Ruth Planas, the owner of Cuerpos Health and Aesthetics LLC, is refusing to provide any information on the ‘Venezuelan Doctor’.

Torres’ mother, Coralia Espinosa, told NBCMiami her daughter was rushed to the hospital accompanied by Ruth Planas after the second procedure.

But she never told the doctors about the procedure.

‘Maybe if that woman would’ve told them early my daughter would still be here,’ she told NBCMiami.

The business appears to be closed, locked down and packages are being left on the doorstep.

Torres’ death happened just 16 days after 20-year-old Dailen Garcia says she received buttocks injections at the same center and then suffered vision problems and bleeding of the lungs.

She was hospitalized in an intensive care unit, NBC Miami reports.

The most famous butt enhancement case came when the so-called ‘toxic tush’ nurse allegedly injected patients with Fix-A-Flat and Super Glue.

One of Oneal Morris’ patients died after receiving the toxic serum in her buttocks, hips and breasts. She was later charged with manslaughter.

Shatarka Nuby, a 31-year-old mother, was the first of Morris’ patients to die from the procedures. Nuby told friends the injection sites became hard and hot and that her skin turned black.

Morris, 32, was already facing multiple charges in Broward County, Florida, after other patients reported getting sick after she pumped them with an unhealthy concoction of chemicals as part of a black market plastic surgery business that she allegedly performed in hotels and in patients’ homes.

Read more: DailyMail

The 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero and the country’s first black president was taken to hospital early on Saturday for a recurring lung infection.

“The situation is serious this time but doctors have assured us he is comfortable,” presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj told television station eNCA.

Mr Mandela has been ill for some days but deteriorated overnight and was transferred to a hospital in Pretoria.

He led the fight against apartheid and is regarded as the father of democratic South Africa.

He has recently suffered a series of health problems and this is his fifth visit to hospital in two years.

In April he was released from hospital after a 10-day stay caused by pneumonia.

His illness was described on Saturday as a recurrence of a lung infection, which has troubled him repeatedly.

Mr Mandela was taken to hospital, from his home in a suburb of Johannesburg, at about 01:30 local time (23:30 GMT Friday).

Mac Maharaj, South Africa’s presidential spokesman, told the BBC he was receiving expert medical care.

Doctors were doing everything possible to make him comfortable and better, he added.

“What I am told by doctors is that he is breathing on his own and I think that is a positive sign,” he said.

Mr Maharaj said at least one close member of Mr Mandela’s family was with him in hospital.

“Naturally the immediate members of the family have access to him and it’s always good for the patient that he has been accompanied by one or other of them, and that has happened,” he said.

Mr Mandela’s wife, Graca Machel, has cancelled a scheduled appearance at a meeting in London on Saturday.

‘Symbol of hope’

“President Jacob Zuma, on behalf of government and the nation, wishes Madiba a speedy recovery and requests the media and the public to respect the privacy of Madiba and his family,” Mr Maharaj said in a statement, using the clan name by which Mr Mandela is often known.

On the streets of Pretoria, people expressed their affection for their former president and their concern.

Mamoshomo Tswai, a trader, said: “As long as Tata [father] is still alive then poor people like me, people who are down down, single mothers like me, we still have hope. South Africa is nothing without him.”

But another informal trader in Pretoria, who did not want give their name, said: “We must just accept that he is old. We love him, we all do, but we must start to accept that he is a very old man.”

Keith Khoza, a spokesman for the governing ANC, said Mr Mandela continued to be “a symbol of hope, to be a symbol of reconciliation” for South Africa.

“We are certainly concerned about his health and we called on South Africans to pray for him and his family.

“Even if you have an elderly person in the family who is sick and you expect something – once it happens the shock is still there.”

Damaged lungs

Mr Mandela served as president from 1994 to 1999.

He was previously imprisoned for 27 years, and is believed to have suffered damaged lungs while working in a prison quarry.

He contracted tuberculosis in the 1980s while being held in jail on the windswept Robben Island.

He retired from public life in 2004 and has been rarely seen in public since.

There was a row in April when South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) – Mr Mandela’s party – filmed a visit to see him and broadcast the pictures of him with President Zuma and other party figures.

Critics called it an invasion of his privacy.

Mr Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 jointly with former President FW de Klerk for ending apartheid and bringing democracy to South Africa.

Reuters/BBC

Her mother Debbie Rowe is understood to have confirmed the reports to Entertainment Tonight and said the 15-year-old is currently at a Los Angeles hospital.

A source closely connected to Paris also told TMZ … she has “tried this [a possible suicide attempt] in the past” but “this was far more serious. It was not a cry for help.”

Paris was taken out of her Calabasas family house on a stretcher at around 2 AM and taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.

The 911 call came in at 1:27 AM. We’re told the caller reported a possible overdose, although a source connected to the emergency response said there were multiple cuts on one of her wrists.

On Tuesday night … Paris posted some cryptic tweets, including, “I wonder why tears are salty?” … and “yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away now it looks as though they’re here to stay.”

We’re told she’s doing ok.

A lawyer for Katherine Jackson, Paris’ grandmother, also appeared to confirm the suicide bid.

‘She’s suffered with the loss of her father,’ the lawyer told the New York Daily News. ‘But we don’t know what she was exposed to that precipitated this.’

Read more: Paris Jackson Possible Suicide Attempt Rushed to Hospital

Doctors realised the patient was female after they found the swelling came from a large cyst on an ovary, the Hong Kong Medical Journal reported.

The condition was the result of two rare genetic disorders.

The subject had Turner syndrome, which affects girls and women and results from a problem with the chromosomes, with characteristics including infertility and short stature.

But he also had congenital adrenal hyperplasia, increasing male hormones and making the patient, who had a beard and a “micropenis”, appear like a man.

“Were it not due to the huge ovarian cyst, his intriguing medical condition might never have been exposed,” seven doctors from two of the city’s hospitals wrote in the study published Monday.

The 1.37 meters tall patient, who grew up as an orphan, was found to have no testes, a history of urinary leakage since childhood, and stopped growing after puberty at the age of 10.

The doctors said there have been only six cases where both genetic disorders have been reported in medical literature. Turner Syndrome on its own affects only one in 2 500 to 3 000 females.

The Vietnam-born Chinese patient decided to continue “perceiving himself as having a male gender with the possible need of testosterone replacement,” according to the journal.

Most men have a X and a Y chromosome and most women have a pair of X chromosomes. But people with Turner Syndrome tend to have only one X chromosome or are missing part of their second X chromosome.

Sapa-AFP

The star, who fought a six month battle with the disease from August 2010 until January 2011, had initially believed that it was his years of smoking and drinking that had lead to the illness.

However, in a new interview the 68-year-old said that the particular strain he had suffered with was caused by human papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted disease.

Douglas made the frank admission about how he developed the illness during an interview with The Guardian newspaper when he was asked if he had regretted smoking and drinking in the past.

Douglas candidly replied: ‘No. Because without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus.’

Douglas, who is married to Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, was diagnosed with cancer in August 2010 after a walnut-sized tumour was found on his tongue.

His health troubles started just a few months after his eldest son Cameron – from his first marriage to Diandra Luker – was jailed for drug possession and dealing.

The actor admitted he initially believed his disease had been triggered by the stress over his son’s legal troubles.

He explained: ‘I did worry if the stress caused by my son’s incarceration didn’t help trigger it. But yeah, it’s a sexually transmitted disease that causes cancer. And if you have it, cunnilingus is also the best cure for it.’

Douglas was diagnosed with stage four of the disease and underwent an intense course of chemotherapy and radiation.

Eventually, he was given the all-clear, although he still has to undergo check-ups with doctors every six months.

However, the actor is optimistic he has conquered the disease once and for all.

‘With this kind of cancer, 95 per cent of the time it doesn’t come back,’ he said.

More than 20 years ago, Michael was hospitalised for an addiction, which many reports at the time claimed was to sex.

However, he has since denied that he was a sex addict, insisting that he was being treated for alcohol abuse.

HPV is a sexually transmitted virus which is more widely known as a cause of cervical and anal cancer.

Last year, Cancer Research UK said the rising rates of HPV16-positive cases of oral cancer could be linked to oral sex.

Read more: DailyMail

Over 2 billion people worldwide already supplement their diet with insects

Eating more insects could help fight world hunger, according to a new UN report.

The report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says that eating insects could help boost nutrition and reduce pollution.

It notes than over 2 billion people worldwide already supplement their diet with insects.

However it admits that “consumer disgust” remains a large barrier in many Western countries.

Wasps, beetles and other insects are currently “underutilised” as food for people and livestock, the report says. Insect farming is “one of the many ways to address food and feed security”.

“Insects are everywhere and they reproduce quickly, and they have high growth and feed conversion rates and a low environmental footprint,” according to the report.

Nutritional value

The authors point out that insects are nutritious, with high protein, fat and mineral content.

They are “particularly important as a food supplement for undernourished children”.

Insects are also “extremely efficient” in converting feed into edible meat. Crickets, for example, need 12 times less feed than cattle to produce the same amount of protein, according to the report.

Most insects are are likely to produce fewer environmentally harmful greenhouse gases than other livestock.

The ammonia emissions associated with insect-rearing are far lower than those linked to conventional livestock such as pigs, says the report.

Insects are regularly eaten by many of the world’s population, but the thought may seem shocking to many Westerners.

The report suggests that the food industry could help in “raising the status of insects” by including them in new recipes and adding them to restaurant menus.

It goes on to note that in some places, certain insects are considered delicacies.

For example some caterpillars in southern Africa are seen as luxuries and command high prices.

Most edible insects are gathered in forests and serve niche markets, the report states.

It calls for improved regulation and production for using insects as feed.

“The use of insects on a large scale as a feed ingredient is technically feasible, and established companies in various parts of the world are already leading the way,” it adds.

BBC

The World Health Organisation says it is closely monitoring the novel coronavirus

The World Health Organization says it appears likely that the novel coronavirus (NCoV) can be passed between people in close contact.

This comes after the French health ministry confirmed a second man had contracted the virus in a possible case of human-to-human transmission.

Two more people in Saudi Arabia are also reported to have died from the virus, according to health officials.

NCoV is known to cause pneumonia and sometimes kidney failure.

World Health Organization (WHO) officials have expressed concern over the clusters of cases of the new coronavirus strain and the potential for it to spread.

Since 2012, there have been 33 confirmed cases across Europe and the Middle East, with 18 deaths, according to a recent WHO update.

Cases have been detected in Saudi Arabia and Jordan and have spread to Germany, the UK and France.

“Of most concern… is the fact that the different clusters seen in multiple countries increasingly support the hypothesis that when there is close contact this novel coronavirus can transmit from person to person,” the World Health Organization said on Sunday.

“This pattern of person-to-person transmission has remained limited to some small clusters and so far, there is no evidence to suggest the virus has the capacity to sustain generalised transmission in communities,” the statement adds.

France’s second confirmed case was a 50-year-old man who had shared a hospital room in Valenciennes, northern France, with a 65-year-old who fell ill with the virus after returning from Dubai.

“Positive results [for the virus] have been confirmed for both patients,” the French health ministry said, adding that both men were being treated in isolation wards.

Meanwhile, the Saudi deputy minister of health said on Sunday that two more people had died from the coronavirus, bringing the number of fatalities to nine in the most recent outbreak in al-Ahsa governorate in the east of Saudi Arabia, Reuters news agency reports.

The Saudi health ministry said that 15 people had died out of the 24 cases diagnosed since last summer.

WHO officials have not yet confirmed the latest deaths.

In February, a patient died in a hospital in Birmingham, England, after three members of the same family became infected.

It is thought a family member had picked up the virus while travelling to the Middle East and Pakistan.

Novel coronavirus is from the same family of viruses as the one that caused an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) that emerged in Asia in 2003.

However, NCoV and Sars are distinct from each other, the WHO said in its statement on Sunday.

Coronavirus is known to cause respiratory infections in both humans and animals.

But it is not yet clear whether it is a mutation of an existing virus or an infection in animals that has made the jump to humans. BBC

A search has been launched for the patients, some of whom are known to be violent, police told the BBC.

Kenya’s Standard newspaper reports that the group escaped from the state hospital after complaining that the medicine given to them was ineffective.

Mathari is the biggest psychiatric hospital in Kenya.

Senior Nairobi police officer Moses Ombati told the BBC the patients had staged a protest, before overpowering guards and escaping.

The hospital reported the escape to police on Sunday, divisional police chief Samuel Anampiu is quoted by the Standard as saying.

“We have all their particulars and including their pictures and that will make it easy for us to identify them,” he said.

A German cardinal who visited him said he was ‘shocked’ at how his state of health had deteriorated.

Joachim Meisner, the Archbishop of Cologne, visited Benedict on March 18, the day before Pope Francis succeeded him. It was during the time Benedict had been living in Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence outside Rome.

He had resigned from the Seat of St Peter on Feb 28.

Cardinal Meisner told the German Catholic News Agency (KNA) he was shocked at how thin he had become.

He said: ‘He looked like he had halved in size. At first I did not agree with his resignation.

‘But when I saw him my reservations melted away. Mentally, however, he is quite fit, his old self.’

Officially, the 86-year-old resigned because of what is described as ‘a decline in vigour, both in body and spirit’.

For his part, Pope Benedict’s own resignation statement talked of his strengths being ‘no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.’

Paloma Gomez Borrero, an experienced Vatican correspondent from Spain, said that in the last 15 days the former pope had undergone a tremendous physical deterioration.

She said: ‘we won’t have him with us for very much longer’, The Daily Telegraph reports, although this has reportedly been dismissed as sensational by Vatican sources.

It has been said that Benedict is relieved to no longer be Pope.

His brother told the paper that he still suffers the problems of the Church, but is ‘really relieved to no longer have the weight of the Church on his shoulders.’

Georg Ratzinger, 88, who is a priest, said his brother was not suffering from a particular illness.

Read more: DailyMail

They say officers became angry because the hospital mortuary was too full to take the bodies of colleagues killed by suspected Islamist militants.

Fifty-five people died on Tuesday in a pre-dawn raid by suspected Boko Haram fighters to free prisoners in Bama, a town some 70km (44 miles) from Maiduguri.

A police station, military barracks and other government buildings were burned to the ground in the assault.

On Thursday, some of the slain bodies were taken to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, but medical staff say angry scenes broke out when the police were told the mortuary was unable to accommodate all of the corpses.

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) said the siege at the hospital lasted for about five hours.

“This mayhem unleashed on innocent health workers of the hospital, including the acting chief medical director of the hospital, led to the vandalisation of the hospital properties, as well as health workers and patients of the hospital sustaining various degrees of injuries,” the NMA said in a statement.

One doctor’s leg was broken and another doctor was slapped, the president of the resident doctors, Dr Yahaya Muhammed, told the BBC’s Hausa service.

He said the hospital gates were now closed and no new patients were being admitted until the authorities provided for their security.

Some of the hospital’s 300 doctors would attend to those patients already admitted, he said.

Dr Akpufouma Pemu, the NMA’s secretary general, said the Hippocratic oath – by which doctors swear to uphold professional standards – was important, but that the doctors needed to be alive to care for their patients.

“Dead people don’t keep oaths,” he told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.

“As it is now, it is the life of the doctor that is endangered so there is need for us to get some assurances from the security forces that any health worker who goes into that hospital is safe, will not be harassed, will not be brutalised,” he said.

One doctor told the BBC they would not reopen the hospital to new patients until the government provided them with security to do their work in safety.

The police have not yet commented.

Maiduguri is the capital of Borno state, where the dread Boko Haram group is based.

Correspondents say the security forces have been criticised for using excessive force in their efforts to put down the insurgency.

Governor Sullivan Chime

The state commissioner for information, Mr. Chuks Ugwuoke told Vanguard when contacted on the widespread rumour that Governor Chime passed on in India on Wednesday, said the rumour which he described as baseless, was the handiwork of mischief makers.

Fresh anxiety mounted in the state, Thursday, on account of the speculation as many concerned citizens put calls across to media houses to confirm if what they were hearing about the governor was true.

They cited the reports posted on the social media network, Facebook by some unnamed persons which triggered off the rumour and sought to authenticate the reports.

Vanguard learnt that the peddlers of the rumour is now being sought by security operatives who have already obtained the Personal Identification Number (PIN) of the perpetrator on Facebook website.

The governor, who was seen in Enugu Wednesday, was said to have travelled to Abuja same day on an undisclosed mission.

Ugwuoke described the news of the death of the governor as unfounded as the “governor was hale and hearty.”

He said the governor had no business, health issue or any reason whatsoever to travel to India, vowing that the government would get to the root of the rumour to unmask those behind the incessant posts of such baseless reports on the internet.

A member of the opposition Save Enugu Group (SEG), Ray Nnaji in sharp reaction to the rumour, asked the public to ignore it as it was posted by mischief makers.

Nnaji, also a former commissioner under former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani regretted that those behind the rumours were toying with the life of the governor, adding that Enugu people would not be deceived again by such wicked rumours.

“It is a taboo among the Igbos for people to wish one dead, even if the person is your enemy. These ugly rumours always peddled about our governor by mischief makers must stop. You cannot call that opposition but mischief,” insisted Nnaji.

Nnaji urged the governor not to be distracted by such mischevious insinuations and concentrate in his delivery of democracy dividend to the people of Enugu state.

Governor Rochas Okorocha

Okorocha made the announcement at a news conference shortly after his arrival from Europe where he underwent treatment for the head injury he sustained in the accident.

He said the money was donated to the man to enable him to repair his car which was damaged during the crash.

The governor said he had returned to the state hale and hearty to continue with his work.

He said that he had to travel out of the country for proper medical examination to really ascertain the condition of his head

The governor thanked Imo people for praying for him, adding that his doctor confirmed him fit before coming back.

Okorocha described the auto crash as “one out of a thousand cases of accidents that you find survivors”.

He urged road users in the state to drive carefully, adding that if the incident could happen to a governor, it could as well happen to anybody on the road.

The governor said that he had forgiven the owner of the car that ran into his motorcade, resulting in the accident and added that he had been released by the police.

In his reaction, Nnwuihe apologised to the governor for what happened and thanked God for saving his life and that of the governor.(NAN)

Governor Rochas Okorocha

Okorocha had left Nigeria on April 20, 2013, after he sustained a head injury in a car accident.

When our correspondent made an enquiry from one of his aides on Friday it was learnt that Okorocha had left London for Israel.

Okorocha’s Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Ebere Uzoukwa, confirmed that the governor had left London. “He has left London and he is doing very well. He is currently in Israel,” he said.

Another top government official, who pleaded anonymity told SUNDAY PUNCH that the governor was in Israel for a second round of examination.

Uzoukwa, however, denied that the governor moved to Israel on health grounds.

“He only went to Israel to attend to certain matters and will be back soon,” he said.

Okorocha was involved in a car crash on Orlu-Owerri Road in the state on April 19.

The accident occurred when a Mercedes Benz 200 ran into the governor’s convoy and had a collision with his own car.

Okorocha was on an inspection tour of projects in Orlu area when the crash occurred.

“The accident led to a minor cut on the governor’s scalp,” Uzoukwa had said.

He said Okorocha’s head was bandaged, but noted that he was stable and strong.

Okorocha had said he would seek further medical attention due to the level of impact of the accident on him.

“Although the accident left me with a cut and some minor injuries, I am fine. I will, however, seek further medical attention because of the degree of impact made by the crash,” the governor was quoted as saying after the crash.

The APS new agency said Bouteflika had an “ischemic transitory attack”, or mini-stroke, at 12:30pm (11:30 GMT) on Saturday.

“A few hours ago, the president felt unwell and he has been hospitalised but his condition is not serious at all,” Abdelmalek Sellal, the prime minister, was quoted as saying.

The health of the 76-year-old Bouteflika is a central factor in the stability of the North Africa nation of 37 million people that is emerging from a long conflict against religiously conservative fighters.

Elected in 1999, Bouteflika is a member of a generation of leaders who have ruled Algeria since winning independence from France in a 1954-62 war.

They also defeated religiously conservative armed groups in the 1990s and saw off the challenge of Arab Spring protests two years ago, with Bouteflika’s government defusing unrest through pay rises and free loans for young people.

Bouteflika has served three terms as president and is thought unlikely to seek a fourth at an election due in 2014.

Leaked US diplomatic cables said in 2011 that Bouteflika had been suffering from cancer, but that it was in remission.

It is unknown who might take over Africa’s biggest country, an OPEC oil producer which supplies a fifth of Europe’s gas imports and co-operates with the West in combating the rise of religious extremism.

More than 70 percent of Algerians are aged under 30.

About 21 percent of young people are unemployed, the International Monetary Fund says, and many are impatient with the gerontocracy ruling a country where jobs, wages and housing are urgent concerns.

Aljazeera

Tutu, 81, also will undergo tests at the hospital in Cape Town to determine the cause of the infection, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation said. Details of the infection were not released.

“The archbishop spent the morning in his office today before checking into hospital. He was in good spirits and full of praise for the care he receives from an exceptional team of doctors,” the foundation said.

The nonsurgical treatment is expected to take five days, according to the foundation.

The Anglican cleric was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his efforts to end and heal the wounds of apartheid, South Africa’s system of institutionalized racial segregation.

He served as archbishop of Cape Town — overseeing the church throughout South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho — from 1986 until his retirement in 1996. He retired from public life in 2011.

Tutu was successfully treated in the United States for prostate cancer in 1997.

“We wish him a speedy recovery and trust that he will soon resume his noble duties in the transformative socio-economic agenda of our country,” said South Africa’s governing African National Congress.

Moctar Dembélé who hails from Burukina Faso and Gérard Niyondiko, from Burundi, are the first non American born/citizen, to win the Global Social Venture Competition.

Both are students of the Intsitut International de l’Eau et de l’Envirronement de Ouagadougou (International Institute of water and environment), in Burkina Faso.

The invention will carry the name Faso soap.

“The soap will be available first here, and then given to NGO”, Gerard Niyondiko, Technical Manager of Faso soap said in a video that was posted online on Monday.

The soap is made from karate citronella, and other herbs that are still a secret.

“We want a simple solution, because every one uses soaps, even in the very poor communities”, Moktar Dembélé, General Manager of Faso soap said.

In Africa, the most dangerous is mosquito that is the only cause of malaria. 300 million of cases of Malaria each year are reported in Africa, especially in sub Sahara where 90% cases are and still the main cause of death, according to the explanation of the introduction video.

Faso soap becomes then a solution from Africa to African problems as it requires nothing, even mindset change or big economic efforts.

The GSVC is the only international competition of Social Business Plans, dedicated to students, young graduates, and entrepreneurs with high social and/or environmental start-ups.

More information on GSVC Facebook page.

Runa Begum has had the condition — in which cerebrospinal fluid collects in the skull — since she was born, her mother, Fatima, told Reuters.

Roona Begum’s condition – also known as “water on the brain” – caused her brain to swell to three times its normal size.

She is to have free life-saving surgery.

Doctors say Roona is lucky to be alive, with most sufferers not surviving beyond 12 months.

But thanks to the intervention of medics at India’s largest private hospital in Gurgoan, near Delhi, she is set to have the excess fluid drained in a procedure taking place on Friday.

The procedure is only possible after Roona and her poverty-stricken family, from the rural village of Agartala, were flown free of charge to the hospital by the Fortis Foundation.

Doctors hope the exploratory procedure will relieve the pressure and allow them to properly examine Roona before deciding on further treatment.

Dr Sandeep Vaishya, Director of Neurosurgery at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, who is treating Roona, said: “I was surprised when I saw the baby for the first time. Even though I had seen her pictures, I wasn’t expecting the head to be so big.

“Her head measures 94 cm, in similar cases the average measurement is around 50-60 cm.

“Her head is swollen to an extent that she is not able to close her eyes completely. We have an opthamologist looking at her eyes, so that there are no complications there.

“We are hopeful that she will make a complete recovery. The challenge is to drain her brain fluid in a gradual manner, so as the brain gets used to it.”

This week the little girl was allowed to rest in her state-of-the-art hotel room, being paid for by the foundation, as she received round-the-clock care.

Roona’s mother Fatima, 24, told Barcroft Media from her daughter’s bedside: “When she was born, I wondered why do children of poor people like us suffer this fate.

“Why is fate cruel to us? Why do rich people who can afford to cure their kids never get diseases like this?

“Before she was born, I went to a doctor twice. Once when I was one month pregnant and than when I was six months pregnant. We did not have money to go more often.

“She was born through a caesarian operation and the doctor told us we had to take her out of Agartala to get her treated. But we did not have any money at all.”

But the devastated mother revealed some family members had been less than supportive.

Fatima added: “When she is better, I hope my in-laws accept her. And she can have the love she deserves from her grandparents.”

Roona’s father Abdul, 19, said: “Even though our neighbours come and play with her, my parents have refused to acknowledge her existence, since she was born.”

Abdul, who works as a labourer thanked those who had helped Roona, saying: “I cannot find work every day. Its hard enough to earn for food, so her treatment would have been impossible had it not been for the press and hospital people who have helped us.”

(Huffingtonpost)

Voice of America reports that health officials have blamed the deaths “on the large variety of snakes and lack of modern facilities in the area.”

The report identified victims of snakebites and mostly farmers in remote villages.

Rhoda Bassey, Rotary International’s representative from the Snake Heaven Project, said the snakes come out in the rainy seasons.

“During the dry season, at that time the snakes go hiding,” Bassey said. “But once the first rain comes they start coming out and during the rainy season its very bad.”

Bassey said Gombe State Hospital sees as many as 16 victims daily during the rainy season, but many more die in their villages or on their way to the hospital.

According to the report a single dose of the anti-venom costs about $125. However, a single dose won’t do and the 20 beds at the Gombe State Hospital proves inadequate.

“They can get the treatment anywhere but this is the only clinic that gives free. It was started by missionaries, but when the missionaries left 30 years back they handed it over to the government and it was a 20-bedded ward,” she said. “And like I told you, by the time we came into it they still had that 20-bedded. Not even one bed added to it.”

You’ve probably spent hundreds of dollars over the years on bras — not to mention time spent finding one that doesn’t dig into your skin, leave red marks on your shoulders and look lumpy under your t-shirts. Perhaps you even cleared out space in your apartment for a special bra-dryer.

And it may all be for naught — at least if a French researcher is to be believed.

Jean-Denis Rouillon, a sports medicine professor from Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Besancon in France, took on the weighty task of studying the effects of bras on women’s breasts. After 15 years, he found that the garments do nothing to prevent breasts from sagging — and may even increase it.

“Our first results confirm the hypothesis that the bra is a false need,” Rouillon said, according to France Info. “Medically, physiologically, anatomically, the breast does not benefit from being deprived of gravity. Instead, it languishes with a bra.”

Wearing a bra inhibits the growth of breast tissue and contributes to poor posture and muscle tone, he said, adding that “the breast will gradually degrade.”

The lengthy study involved 330 women aged 18-35, whose breasts were measured at regular intervals with a slide rule and caliper.

Those who didn’t wear bras saw a nipple lift of about 7 mm a year towards the shoulder. Their breasts also became firmer, and stretch marks faded.

The research is still preliminary, Rouillon said, adding that he doesn’t advise all women to stop wearing bras, at least not yet.

But at least one of the study’s participants is convinced.

Capucine, 28, stopped wearing a bra two years ago, she told France-Info.

“You breathe better, you stand straighter and you have less back pain,” she said.

Credit: Nydailynews.com