Saturday, 22 November 2014
Allow Jonathan Fizzle Slowly Without Nigeria Falling With Him -Sheikh Gumi
Sheik Ahmad Gumi today reacted over the invasion of the National Assembly by policemen on Thursday. In a statement, the popular Sheikh said Nigerians should allow President Goodluck Jonathan fizzle slowly and not drag Nigeria down to fall with him. Gumi in the statement titled ‘NASS blockade: Sign of Good Omen’, argued that President Jonathan is already in crisis following internal division within his People Democratic Party (PDP).
Sheik Ahmad Gumi today reacted over the invasion of the National Assembly by policemen on Thursday.
In a statement, the popular Sheikh said Nigerians should allow President Goodluck Jonathan fizzle slowly and not drag Nigeria down to fall with him.
Gumi in the statement titled ‘NASS blockade: Sign of Good Omen’, argued that President Jonathan is already in crisis following internal division within his People Democratic Party (PDP).
Sheikh Ahmad Gumi
See full text of Gumi's statement below:
“The National assembly is the heart of our collective existence. It's the core of the democratic governance and the antidote to political impunity and despotism. For long it has been paralyzed by the executive which capitalizes on their human weakness - greed. Now the hour is come. The NASS can never be the same again. This one and the next elected members by God's leave. Nigerians are learning and very fast indeed.
“As for Goodluck Ebele Jonathan-who didn't listen to the words of wisdom before- has already entered a cul-de-sac with his party. To many analysts he has failed, and all his strategies are flunking one after another. He is going down the drain of the merciless history and falling at acceleration. In fact, you only need to be at the peak to start falling down.
“Please Nigerians allow him to fizzle out slowly and naturally without dragging Nigeria to fall with him. He was told by his mentor that he was divisive. His sycophants said no. Now he is even able to break the honorables. This particular incidence has eroded his political potency if only his advisers will for once tell him the truth. PDP is this what you want to recycle? A divided nation?
“Sorry the Nigerian Military cannot come into the scene to any rescue - if that is in the pipeline. Our democracy has matured enough and thanks to the lopsided composition of the force that has weaken it even in the face of fragile almajiris.
“Any mutiny will be circumscribed and excised neatly. The nation is too big too large too diverse for any few adventurist and power hungry cabal. I don't advice any military man to commit suicide.
“Let us surrender Nigeria under God to Nigerians.NASS and I.N.E.C over to you. May Allah continue to heal the nation for all. Amin.”
Sunday, 19 October 2014
Nigeria, Boko Haram reach ceasefire deal, kidnapped girls to go free, official says
(CNN) -- Nigeria has reached a ceasefire agreement with the Islamist terror group Boko Haram that includes the release of more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls, Nigerian officials said Friday.
The deal came Thursday night after a month of negotiations with representatives of the group, said Hassan Tukur, principal secretary to President Goodluck Jonathan.
"We have agreed on the release of the Chibok schoolgirls, and we expect to conclude on that at our next meeting with the group's representative next week in Chad," Tukur said.
Officials provided few details about the release.
Doyin Okupe, a government spokesman, did not specify when the girls would be freed. He said not all would be let go at once, but a "significant number" would be released soon.
Ceasefire with Boko Haram to free girls
Nigeria: Girls are well, returning soon
Nigeria: Schoolgirls to be free 'shortly'
"A batch of them will be released shortly, and this will be followed by further actions from Boko Haram," he said. "It is a process. ... It is not a question of hours and days."
The Nigerian government consented to some demands by Boko Haram, but Okupe declined to provide details.
The government, he said, "is looking beyond the girls. We want to end the insurgency in this country."
"On the war front," he added, "we can say there is peace now."
The agreement was first reported by Agence France-Presse.
What is Boko Haram?
The terrorist group abducted an estimated 276 girls in April from a boarding school in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria. Dozens escaped, but more than 200 are still missing.
Nigerian officials met with Boko Haram in Chad twice during talks mediated by Chadian President Idriss Deby, according to Tukur.
"The group has shown willingness to abide by the agreement which it demonstrated with the release of the Chinese and Cameroonian hostages few days ago," Tukur said.
In cross-border attacks by Boko Haram this week, eight Cameroonian soldiers and 107 group members were killed in heavy fighting that lasted two days in northern Cameroon, the country's defense ministry said Friday, according to state broadcaster CRTV.
The militants led an incursion near Limani, close to the border with Nigeria, on Wednesday, equipped with heavy weapons, including at least one tank, CRTV said, citing information from the defense ministry.
The fighting lasted two hours and resumed on Thursday, when Cameroonian soldiers forced the militants back across the border into Nigeria. Seven Cameroonian soldiers were injured. A Boko Haram tank and other vehicles were destroyed and weapons and ammunition were seized by Cameroonian forces, according to CRTV.
A source involved in talks with the militants told CNN last month that Nigerian government officials and the International Committee of the Red Cross had discussions with Boko Haram about swapping imprisoned members of the group for the more than 200 schoolgirls. It is unclear, however, whether the deal includes a prisoner swap.
Where are the missing girls?
Boko Haram hostages freed in Cameroon
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
The name "Boko Haram" translates to "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language. The militant group is trying to impose strict Sharia law across Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa.
In recent years, its attacks have intensified in an apparent show of defiance amid the nation's military onslaught. Its ambitions appear to have expanded to the destruction of the Nigerian government.
The militant group has bombed schools, churches and mosques; kidnapped women and children; and assassinated politicians and religious leaders alike.
The group has said its aim is to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Nigeria, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.
Boko Haram was founded 12 years ago by Mohammed Yusuf, a charismatic cleric who called for a pure Islamic state in Nigeria. Police killed him in 2009 in an incident captured on video and posted to the Internet.
The deal came Thursday night after a month of negotiations with representatives of the group, said Hassan Tukur, principal secretary to President Goodluck Jonathan.
"We have agreed on the release of the Chibok schoolgirls, and we expect to conclude on that at our next meeting with the group's representative next week in Chad," Tukur said.
Officials provided few details about the release.
Doyin Okupe, a government spokesman, did not specify when the girls would be freed. He said not all would be let go at once, but a "significant number" would be released soon.
Ceasefire with Boko Haram to free girls
Nigeria: Girls are well, returning soon
Nigeria: Schoolgirls to be free 'shortly'
"A batch of them will be released shortly, and this will be followed by further actions from Boko Haram," he said. "It is a process. ... It is not a question of hours and days."
The Nigerian government consented to some demands by Boko Haram, but Okupe declined to provide details.
The government, he said, "is looking beyond the girls. We want to end the insurgency in this country."
"On the war front," he added, "we can say there is peace now."
The agreement was first reported by Agence France-Presse.
What is Boko Haram?
The terrorist group abducted an estimated 276 girls in April from a boarding school in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria. Dozens escaped, but more than 200 are still missing.
Nigerian officials met with Boko Haram in Chad twice during talks mediated by Chadian President Idriss Deby, according to Tukur.
"The group has shown willingness to abide by the agreement which it demonstrated with the release of the Chinese and Cameroonian hostages few days ago," Tukur said.
In cross-border attacks by Boko Haram this week, eight Cameroonian soldiers and 107 group members were killed in heavy fighting that lasted two days in northern Cameroon, the country's defense ministry said Friday, according to state broadcaster CRTV.
The militants led an incursion near Limani, close to the border with Nigeria, on Wednesday, equipped with heavy weapons, including at least one tank, CRTV said, citing information from the defense ministry.
The fighting lasted two hours and resumed on Thursday, when Cameroonian soldiers forced the militants back across the border into Nigeria. Seven Cameroonian soldiers were injured. A Boko Haram tank and other vehicles were destroyed and weapons and ammunition were seized by Cameroonian forces, according to CRTV.
A source involved in talks with the militants told CNN last month that Nigerian government officials and the International Committee of the Red Cross had discussions with Boko Haram about swapping imprisoned members of the group for the more than 200 schoolgirls. It is unclear, however, whether the deal includes a prisoner swap.
Where are the missing girls?
Boko Haram hostages freed in Cameroon
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
The name "Boko Haram" translates to "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language. The militant group is trying to impose strict Sharia law across Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa.
In recent years, its attacks have intensified in an apparent show of defiance amid the nation's military onslaught. Its ambitions appear to have expanded to the destruction of the Nigerian government.
The militant group has bombed schools, churches and mosques; kidnapped women and children; and assassinated politicians and religious leaders alike.
The group has said its aim is to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Nigeria, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.
Boko Haram was founded 12 years ago by Mohammed Yusuf, a charismatic cleric who called for a pure Islamic state in Nigeria. Police killed him in 2009 in an incident captured on video and posted to the Internet.
Bono: 'I have glaucoma'
Washington (CNN) -- There's a lot of information out there on the Ebola crisis. And now, the issue's gone political with increasingly vocal talk on Capitol Hill and in midterm campaigns calling for a travel ban to keep the disease from spreading in the U.S.
Let's sort through the muck and get to the facts:
What's all this talk about a travel ban to deal with the Ebola outbreak?
Some Republican lawmakers and a handful of Democrats are calling for a travel ban on people from the West African countries most affected by the disease.
In Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, more than 4,400 people have died of the disease and one person has died of the disease in the U.S.
That patient was diagnosed and ultimately died at a Texas hospital and now Gov. Rick Perry is joining calls for a travel ban after two nurses at the hospital contracted the disease.
"Air travel is, in fact, how this disease crosses borders and it's certainly how it got to Texas in the first place," Perry said. "I believe it is the right policy to ban air travel from countries that have been hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak."
Gov. John Kasich of Ohio said Saturday that such a travel ban "makes sense."
His state is on high alert after Amber Vinson, the second Dallas nurse to fall ill, flew to Cleveland and spent four days there after she had contracted the virus.
But health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization aren't recommending a travel ban, and CDC chief Dr. Tom Frieden has even said the ban could hurt efforts to prevent an outbreak in the United States
Has the U.S. ever enforced that kind of a blanket travel ban?
Not really. The U.S. has not banned people from a certain country from coming to the U.S. because of an epidemic.
But President Ronald Reagan in 1987 did ban anyone infected with HIV/AIDS from entering in the United States. And for more than 20 years, that was U.S. government policy until President Barack Obama struck it down in 2009.
That travel ban came at a time when AIDS was heavily stigmatized in the United States and amid misinformation and some public fear that the disease could spread through casual contact.
Rep. Upton: We should not allow people in
Consultant: CDC 'not competent'
W.H. not considering Ebola travel ban
Source: Obama to name Ebola czar
Anyway, there's not much evidence to suggest that travel ban was successfully enforced or effective. Today, more than 1.1 million people are HIV positive.
But remember, Ebola is nothing like AIDS according to Sen. (and Dr.) Rand Paul.
Wait, just checking, Ebola can't be spread through the air right?
No. No, no, no. The Ebola virus is only spread through contact with the bodily fluids of a person who has started showing symptoms of the disease.
And while some have stoked fears that the disease could go airborne, the World Health Organization and other experts have said the chances that could happen are near to nil and are unaware of a virus that has ever mutated in that way.
Can you catch Ebola on a plane?
What about epidemics like SARS and swine flu that have infected and killed way more people than Ebola? Why weren't there travel bans for those outbreaks?
Nope. No travel bans for those diseases.
Swine flu, also known as H1N1 flu, killed more than 284,000 people between 2009 and 2010 according to the CDC -- of which about 12,000 Americans. The WHO did not recommend a travel ban then either.
And the United States never banned travel from China, the epicenter of the 2003 SARS outbreak, which tallied roughly the same number of cases -- over 8,000 -- in the same seven-month period as the Ebola epidemic.
In fact, U.S. airports never implemented SARS passenger screenings at airports at a time when many other countries did.
So why are politicians so certain a travel ban is the right way to go here?
Rand Paul: Ebola is not like AIDS
Will US ban travel from Ebola hotspots?
Cruise ship isolates Ebola lab worker
Simply put, a lot of members of Congress just want to keep the disease out of the United States and prevent any more cases from spring up at home.
And they believe the best way to do that is to bar anyone who's been in West Africa recently -- or who has a passport from one of those countries.
U.S. health officials grilled on Ebola at congressional hearing
Rep. Tim Murphy, who led the house panel that sharply questioned top health officials over Ebola on Thursday, insisted airport screenings aren't enough to keep people out of the country -- especially since infected people can carry the disease for up to 21 days without showing any symptoms.
And Rep. Fred Upton said Ebola "needs to be solved in Africa, but until it is we should not be allowing these folks in. Period."
OK, that sounds like it makes sense. Why are health experts saying the ban's a bad idea?
The CDC's Frieden gets why that's the knee-jerk reaction to such a deadly disease.
But a ban might actually make things worse, he said, because it could encourage people to lie about their travel to West Africa.
And without that crucial information, Frieden said people infected with Ebola could slip into the United States without the CDC being able to track and monitor them for symptoms.
But aren't more than two dozen African countries now enforcing some kind of travel ban?
Yes. A few of the neighboring West African countries have actually sealed their borders altogether while many other countries on the continent are banning travel to and from those West African countries.
But it's not clear how effective those bans are at keeping West Africans out in a region known for especially porous borders.
"Even when governments restrict travel and trade, people in affected countries still find a way to move and it is even harder to track them systematically," Frieden said last week.
So you're saying it probably wouldn't work?
Nope. At least not according to health officials. In fact, there are no direct flights to the United States from either Libera, Sierra Leone or Guinea, the three most affected countries.
There are direct flights from Nigeria, which has dealt with 20 cases, but that country has been much more effective in containing the outbreak.
Latest Ebola developments
How else could a travel ban hurt?
The ban would especially hurt efforts in West Africa to contain the disease, where foreign health care workers have been central to the fight against the epidemic.
And if American health workers are afraid they can't return to the United States, they might decide not to go at all.
Preventing the disease from spreading further in West Africa is crucial to keep Ebola from continuing to spread.
Complete coverage on Ebola
Let's sort through the muck and get to the facts:
What's all this talk about a travel ban to deal with the Ebola outbreak?
Some Republican lawmakers and a handful of Democrats are calling for a travel ban on people from the West African countries most affected by the disease.
In Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, more than 4,400 people have died of the disease and one person has died of the disease in the U.S.
That patient was diagnosed and ultimately died at a Texas hospital and now Gov. Rick Perry is joining calls for a travel ban after two nurses at the hospital contracted the disease.
"Air travel is, in fact, how this disease crosses borders and it's certainly how it got to Texas in the first place," Perry said. "I believe it is the right policy to ban air travel from countries that have been hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak."
Gov. John Kasich of Ohio said Saturday that such a travel ban "makes sense."
His state is on high alert after Amber Vinson, the second Dallas nurse to fall ill, flew to Cleveland and spent four days there after she had contracted the virus.
But health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization aren't recommending a travel ban, and CDC chief Dr. Tom Frieden has even said the ban could hurt efforts to prevent an outbreak in the United States
Has the U.S. ever enforced that kind of a blanket travel ban?
Not really. The U.S. has not banned people from a certain country from coming to the U.S. because of an epidemic.
But President Ronald Reagan in 1987 did ban anyone infected with HIV/AIDS from entering in the United States. And for more than 20 years, that was U.S. government policy until President Barack Obama struck it down in 2009.
That travel ban came at a time when AIDS was heavily stigmatized in the United States and amid misinformation and some public fear that the disease could spread through casual contact.
Rep. Upton: We should not allow people in
Consultant: CDC 'not competent'
W.H. not considering Ebola travel ban
Source: Obama to name Ebola czar
Anyway, there's not much evidence to suggest that travel ban was successfully enforced or effective. Today, more than 1.1 million people are HIV positive.
But remember, Ebola is nothing like AIDS according to Sen. (and Dr.) Rand Paul.
Wait, just checking, Ebola can't be spread through the air right?
No. No, no, no. The Ebola virus is only spread through contact with the bodily fluids of a person who has started showing symptoms of the disease.
And while some have stoked fears that the disease could go airborne, the World Health Organization and other experts have said the chances that could happen are near to nil and are unaware of a virus that has ever mutated in that way.
Can you catch Ebola on a plane?
What about epidemics like SARS and swine flu that have infected and killed way more people than Ebola? Why weren't there travel bans for those outbreaks?
Nope. No travel bans for those diseases.
Swine flu, also known as H1N1 flu, killed more than 284,000 people between 2009 and 2010 according to the CDC -- of which about 12,000 Americans. The WHO did not recommend a travel ban then either.
And the United States never banned travel from China, the epicenter of the 2003 SARS outbreak, which tallied roughly the same number of cases -- over 8,000 -- in the same seven-month period as the Ebola epidemic.
In fact, U.S. airports never implemented SARS passenger screenings at airports at a time when many other countries did.
So why are politicians so certain a travel ban is the right way to go here?
Rand Paul: Ebola is not like AIDS
Will US ban travel from Ebola hotspots?
Cruise ship isolates Ebola lab worker
Simply put, a lot of members of Congress just want to keep the disease out of the United States and prevent any more cases from spring up at home.
And they believe the best way to do that is to bar anyone who's been in West Africa recently -- or who has a passport from one of those countries.
U.S. health officials grilled on Ebola at congressional hearing
Rep. Tim Murphy, who led the house panel that sharply questioned top health officials over Ebola on Thursday, insisted airport screenings aren't enough to keep people out of the country -- especially since infected people can carry the disease for up to 21 days without showing any symptoms.
And Rep. Fred Upton said Ebola "needs to be solved in Africa, but until it is we should not be allowing these folks in. Period."
OK, that sounds like it makes sense. Why are health experts saying the ban's a bad idea?
The CDC's Frieden gets why that's the knee-jerk reaction to such a deadly disease.
But a ban might actually make things worse, he said, because it could encourage people to lie about their travel to West Africa.
And without that crucial information, Frieden said people infected with Ebola could slip into the United States without the CDC being able to track and monitor them for symptoms.
But aren't more than two dozen African countries now enforcing some kind of travel ban?
Yes. A few of the neighboring West African countries have actually sealed their borders altogether while many other countries on the continent are banning travel to and from those West African countries.
But it's not clear how effective those bans are at keeping West Africans out in a region known for especially porous borders.
"Even when governments restrict travel and trade, people in affected countries still find a way to move and it is even harder to track them systematically," Frieden said last week.
So you're saying it probably wouldn't work?
Nope. At least not according to health officials. In fact, there are no direct flights to the United States from either Libera, Sierra Leone or Guinea, the three most affected countries.
There are direct flights from Nigeria, which has dealt with 20 cases, but that country has been much more effective in containing the outbreak.
Latest Ebola developments
How else could a travel ban hurt?
The ban would especially hurt efforts in West Africa to contain the disease, where foreign health care workers have been central to the fight against the epidemic.
And if American health workers are afraid they can't return to the United States, they might decide not to go at all.
Preventing the disease from spreading further in West Africa is crucial to keep Ebola from continuing to spread.
Complete coverage on Ebola
An Ebola travel ban would be completely unprecedented -- Here's why
Washington (CNN) -- There's a lot of information out there on the Ebola crisis. And now, the issue's gone political with increasingly vocal talk on Capitol Hill and in midterm campaigns calling for a travel ban to keep the disease from spreading in the U.S.
Let's sort through the muck and get to the facts:
What's all this talk about a travel ban to deal with the Ebola outbreak?
Some Republican lawmakers and a handful of Democrats are calling for a travel ban on people from the West African countries most affected by the disease.
In Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, more than 4,400 people have died of the disease and one person has died of the disease in the U.S.
That patient was diagnosed and ultimately died at a Texas hospital and now Gov. Rick Perry is joining calls for a travel ban after two nurses at the hospital contracted the disease.
"Air travel is, in fact, how this disease crosses borders and it's certainly how it got to Texas in the first place," Perry said. "I believe it is the right policy to ban air travel from countries that have been hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak."
Gov. John Kasich of Ohio said Saturday that such a travel ban "makes sense."
His state is on high alert after Amber Vinson, the second Dallas nurse to fall ill, flew to Cleveland and spent four days there after she had contracted the virus.
But health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization aren't recommending a travel ban, and CDC chief Dr. Tom Frieden has even said the ban could hurt efforts to prevent an outbreak in the United States
Has the U.S. ever enforced that kind of a blanket travel ban?
Not really. The U.S. has not banned people from a certain country from coming to the U.S. because of an epidemic.
But President Ronald Reagan in 1987 did ban anyone infected with HIV/AIDS from entering in the United States. And for more than 20 years, that was U.S. government policy until President Barack Obama struck it down in 2009.
That travel ban came at a time when AIDS was heavily stigmatized in the United States and amid misinformation and some public fear that the disease could spread through casual contact.
Rep. Upton: We should not allow people in
Consultant: CDC 'not competent'
W.H. not considering Ebola travel ban
Source: Obama to name Ebola czar
Anyway, there's not much evidence to suggest that travel ban was successfully enforced or effective. Today, more than 1.1 million people are HIV positive.
But remember, Ebola is nothing like AIDS according to Sen. (and Dr.) Rand Paul.
Wait, just checking, Ebola can't be spread through the air right?
No. No, no, no. The Ebola virus is only spread through contact with the bodily fluids of a person who has started showing symptoms of the disease.
And while some have stoked fears that the disease could go airborne, the World Health Organization and other experts have said the chances that could happen are near to nil and are unaware of a virus that has ever mutated in that way.
Can you catch Ebola on a plane?
What about epidemics like SARS and swine flu that have infected and killed way more people than Ebola? Why weren't there travel bans for those outbreaks?
Nope. No travel bans for those diseases.
Swine flu, also known as H1N1 flu, killed more than 284,000 people between 2009 and 2010 according to the CDC -- of which about 12,000 Americans. The WHO did not recommend a travel ban then either.
And the United States never banned travel from China, the epicenter of the 2003 SARS outbreak, which tallied roughly the same number of cases -- over 8,000 -- in the same seven-month period as the Ebola epidemic.
In fact, U.S. airports never implemented SARS passenger screenings at airports at a time when many other countries did.
So why are politicians so certain a travel ban is the right way to go here?
Rand Paul: Ebola is not like AIDS
Will US ban travel from Ebola hotspots?
Cruise ship isolates Ebola lab worker
Simply put, a lot of members of Congress just want to keep the disease out of the United States and prevent any more cases from spring up at home.
And they believe the best way to do that is to bar anyone who's been in West Africa recently -- or who has a passport from one of those countries.
U.S. health officials grilled on Ebola at congressional hearing
Rep. Tim Murphy, who led the house panel that sharply questioned top health officials over Ebola on Thursday, insisted airport screenings aren't enough to keep people out of the country -- especially since infected people can carry the disease for up to 21 days without showing any symptoms.
And Rep. Fred Upton said Ebola "needs to be solved in Africa, but until it is we should not be allowing these folks in. Period."
OK, that sounds like it makes sense. Why are health experts saying the ban's a bad idea?
The CDC's Frieden gets why that's the knee-jerk reaction to such a deadly disease.
But a ban might actually make things worse, he said, because it could encourage people to lie about their travel to West Africa.
And without that crucial information, Frieden said people infected with Ebola could slip into the United States without the CDC being able to track and monitor them for symptoms.
But aren't more than two dozen African countries now enforcing some kind of travel ban?
Yes. A few of the neighboring West African countries have actually sealed their borders altogether while many other countries on the continent are banning travel to and from those West African countries.
But it's not clear how effective those bans are at keeping West Africans out in a region known for especially porous borders.
"Even when governments restrict travel and trade, people in affected countries still find a way to move and it is even harder to track them systematically," Frieden said last week.
So you're saying it probably wouldn't work?
Nope. At least not according to health officials. In fact, there are no direct flights to the United States from either Libera, Sierra Leone or Guinea, the three most affected countries.
There are direct flights from Nigeria, which has dealt with 20 cases, but that country has been much more effective in containing the outbreak.
Latest Ebola developments
How else could a travel ban hurt?
The ban would especially hurt efforts in West Africa to contain the disease, where foreign health care workers have been central to the fight against the epidemic.
And if American health workers are afraid they can't return to the United States, they might decide not to go at all.
Preventing the disease from spreading further in West Africa is crucial to keep Ebola from continuing to spread.
Complete coverage on Ebola
Let's sort through the muck and get to the facts:
What's all this talk about a travel ban to deal with the Ebola outbreak?
Some Republican lawmakers and a handful of Democrats are calling for a travel ban on people from the West African countries most affected by the disease.
In Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, more than 4,400 people have died of the disease and one person has died of the disease in the U.S.
That patient was diagnosed and ultimately died at a Texas hospital and now Gov. Rick Perry is joining calls for a travel ban after two nurses at the hospital contracted the disease.
"Air travel is, in fact, how this disease crosses borders and it's certainly how it got to Texas in the first place," Perry said. "I believe it is the right policy to ban air travel from countries that have been hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak."
Gov. John Kasich of Ohio said Saturday that such a travel ban "makes sense."
His state is on high alert after Amber Vinson, the second Dallas nurse to fall ill, flew to Cleveland and spent four days there after she had contracted the virus.
But health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization aren't recommending a travel ban, and CDC chief Dr. Tom Frieden has even said the ban could hurt efforts to prevent an outbreak in the United States
Has the U.S. ever enforced that kind of a blanket travel ban?
Not really. The U.S. has not banned people from a certain country from coming to the U.S. because of an epidemic.
But President Ronald Reagan in 1987 did ban anyone infected with HIV/AIDS from entering in the United States. And for more than 20 years, that was U.S. government policy until President Barack Obama struck it down in 2009.
That travel ban came at a time when AIDS was heavily stigmatized in the United States and amid misinformation and some public fear that the disease could spread through casual contact.
Rep. Upton: We should not allow people in
Consultant: CDC 'not competent'
W.H. not considering Ebola travel ban
Source: Obama to name Ebola czar
Anyway, there's not much evidence to suggest that travel ban was successfully enforced or effective. Today, more than 1.1 million people are HIV positive.
But remember, Ebola is nothing like AIDS according to Sen. (and Dr.) Rand Paul.
Wait, just checking, Ebola can't be spread through the air right?
No. No, no, no. The Ebola virus is only spread through contact with the bodily fluids of a person who has started showing symptoms of the disease.
And while some have stoked fears that the disease could go airborne, the World Health Organization and other experts have said the chances that could happen are near to nil and are unaware of a virus that has ever mutated in that way.
Can you catch Ebola on a plane?
What about epidemics like SARS and swine flu that have infected and killed way more people than Ebola? Why weren't there travel bans for those outbreaks?
Nope. No travel bans for those diseases.
Swine flu, also known as H1N1 flu, killed more than 284,000 people between 2009 and 2010 according to the CDC -- of which about 12,000 Americans. The WHO did not recommend a travel ban then either.
And the United States never banned travel from China, the epicenter of the 2003 SARS outbreak, which tallied roughly the same number of cases -- over 8,000 -- in the same seven-month period as the Ebola epidemic.
In fact, U.S. airports never implemented SARS passenger screenings at airports at a time when many other countries did.
So why are politicians so certain a travel ban is the right way to go here?
Rand Paul: Ebola is not like AIDS
Will US ban travel from Ebola hotspots?
Cruise ship isolates Ebola lab worker
Simply put, a lot of members of Congress just want to keep the disease out of the United States and prevent any more cases from spring up at home.
And they believe the best way to do that is to bar anyone who's been in West Africa recently -- or who has a passport from one of those countries.
U.S. health officials grilled on Ebola at congressional hearing
Rep. Tim Murphy, who led the house panel that sharply questioned top health officials over Ebola on Thursday, insisted airport screenings aren't enough to keep people out of the country -- especially since infected people can carry the disease for up to 21 days without showing any symptoms.
And Rep. Fred Upton said Ebola "needs to be solved in Africa, but until it is we should not be allowing these folks in. Period."
OK, that sounds like it makes sense. Why are health experts saying the ban's a bad idea?
The CDC's Frieden gets why that's the knee-jerk reaction to such a deadly disease.
But a ban might actually make things worse, he said, because it could encourage people to lie about their travel to West Africa.
And without that crucial information, Frieden said people infected with Ebola could slip into the United States without the CDC being able to track and monitor them for symptoms.
But aren't more than two dozen African countries now enforcing some kind of travel ban?
Yes. A few of the neighboring West African countries have actually sealed their borders altogether while many other countries on the continent are banning travel to and from those West African countries.
But it's not clear how effective those bans are at keeping West Africans out in a region known for especially porous borders.
"Even when governments restrict travel and trade, people in affected countries still find a way to move and it is even harder to track them systematically," Frieden said last week.
So you're saying it probably wouldn't work?
Nope. At least not according to health officials. In fact, there are no direct flights to the United States from either Libera, Sierra Leone or Guinea, the three most affected countries.
There are direct flights from Nigeria, which has dealt with 20 cases, but that country has been much more effective in containing the outbreak.
Latest Ebola developments
How else could a travel ban hurt?
The ban would especially hurt efforts in West Africa to contain the disease, where foreign health care workers have been central to the fight against the epidemic.
And if American health workers are afraid they can't return to the United States, they might decide not to go at all.
Preventing the disease from spreading further in West Africa is crucial to keep Ebola from continuing to spread.
Complete coverage on Ebola
WHO to review Ebola response amid criticism of its efforts
(CNN) -- The World Health Organization vowed Saturday to make public a full review of its response to the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa once the crisis is under control.
But the United Nations health agency, which is among those leading the battle against a scourge that has claimed more than 4,500 lives in West Africa, declined to comment on a scathing internal document, cited in an Associated Press report, describing its response as botched and riddled with incompetence.
"Nearly everyone involved in the outbreak response failed to see some fairly plain writing on the wall," WHO said in the document, according to the Associated Press. "A perfect storm was brewing, ready to burst open in full force."
WHO called the leaked document a first draft that had not been fact-checked or reviewed by its staff as part of its continuing review of the response.
Aid workers train to battle Ebola
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McCormick: Contact with Duncan was flawed
"We cannot divert our limited resources from the urgent response to do a detailed analysis of the past response," WHO said in a statement. "That review will come, but only after this outbreak is over."
A timeline of the outbreak showed that WHO missed opportunities to stop the spread of the disease after it was first diagnosed in West Africa, the Associated Press reported. The document also said WHO experts failed to recognize that traditional containment methods wouldn't work in the region.
The leaked document said that Dr. Bruce Aylward, normally in charge of polio eradication, alerted WHO Director-General Margaret Chan via email in June that national health organizations and charities believed the U.N. agency was "compromising rather than aiding" the Ebola response. "None of the news about WHO's performance is good," Aylward wrote, according to the Associated Press.
According to the WHO, there have been more than 9,200 confirmed, probable or suspected Ebola cases since the outbreak began months ago, with more than 4,500 deaths. Those figures -- documenting cases in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain and the United States -- likely underestimate the impact, since many cases were never diagnosed, especially in locales that are more remote, do not have a vibrant health care system or do have stigmas that may have led some not to seek treatment.
And, authorities warn, it could get exponentially worse if the world doesn't step up.
Opinion: Where's the empathy for Ebola's African victims?
Appeals for countries to do more in Ebola fight
This response goes well beyond the World Health Organization.
The United Nations last month appealed to countries to contribute $1 billion toward corralling the outbreak in West Africa. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that only one-third of that figure has been raised.
Without a concerted effort by the international community, Kerry said, "Ebola has the potential to become a scourge like HIV or polio that we will end up fighting -- all of us -- for decades."
The secretary made the remarks to a room of foreign ambassadors at the State Department in Washington. He called on them to use their influence to bring stronger commitments to the Ebola fight, which has plagued Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, and has spread as far as the United States and Europe.
Despite the political differences between Cuba and the United States, the Caribbean island has also joined the fight against the deadly virus. In an editorial published on Saturday, former leader Fidel Castro said he would "gladly cooperate with American personnel on this task."
"We understand that in carrying out this task with the maximum preparation and efficiency, we will be protecting our people, and our brothers in the Caribbean and Latin America, and prevent its spread, which sadly has been introduced and could spread further in the United States, which has so many personal links and interchanges it maintains with the rest of the world," said Castro in Granma, the official newspaper of the central committee of the Cuban Communist Party.
Castro also emphasized this is "not in search of peace between the two countries that have been adversaries for so many years, but, in any case, for world peace, an objective that can and should be sought."
On Saturday, British Prime Minister David Cameron joined those appealing for aid in urging the European Union to invest 1 billion Euros ($1.3 billion) and send 2,000 aid workers to fight it.
Canada contributed not money, but potentially life-saving medicine, to the cause on Saturday. Its Public Health Agency announced it will ship 800 vials of an experimental Ebola vaccine to the WHO in Geneva beginning Monday.
"Our nation didn't waste a minute to respond to international organizations' call for help to fight against the brutal epidemic unfolding in West Africa."
"We understand that in carrying out this task with the maximum preparation and efficiency, we will be protecting our people, and our brothers in the Caribbean and Latin America, and prevent its spread, which sadly has been introduced and could spread further in the United States, which has so many personal links and interchanges it maintains with the rest of the world. We will gladly cooperate with American personnel on this task, and not in search of peace between the two countries that have been adversaries for so many years, but, in any case, for world peace, an objective that can and should be sought."
The results of clinical trials for the vaccine, which started at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland this month, are expected in December. The vaccine showed promising results in animal research, the agency said.
Germ-zapping robot sets its sights on Ebola
France starts screening passengers on Guinea flight
Other countries, meanwhile, are focusing on combating or preventing Ebola within its border.
This includes the United States -- which has seen a handful of cases, including one that ended in the death of Thomas Eric Duncan.
Fears of an outbreak there led President Barack Obama to appoint an "Ebola czar." Ron Klain is a former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Al Gore.
France began screening air passengers, on the single daily flight arriving from Guinea, for symptoms of Ebola. Passengers were given forms to fill out and had their temperatures checked.
In Spain, a nurse's assistant who contracted Ebola after caring for a missionary with the virus is being treated at the Carlos III Hospital in Madrid. Teresa Romero Ramos helped treat one of two Spanish missionaries who were brought to the hospital after becoming infected in West Africa. Both missionaries eventually died at the hospital.
A special committee set up by the Spanish government to handle the outbreak said 87 people were being monitored for Ebola in Spain. Of those, 67 were at home under observation and have not displayed symptoms. At Carlos III Hospital, two patients with symptoms were being monitored along with 15 others who have not displayed any symptoms. In the Canary Islands, three other people were under observation.
Romero was the first person to contract Ebola outside Africa in the current outbreak.
Another Spanish missionary, who had returned from Liberia last week and was being monitored, has been released from the Carlos III Hospital, the special committee said Saturday. After the preliminary Ebola test came back negative earlier this week, the second test on the missionary also came back negative, a hospital source with direct knowledge said.
Complete coverage on Ebola
But the United Nations health agency, which is among those leading the battle against a scourge that has claimed more than 4,500 lives in West Africa, declined to comment on a scathing internal document, cited in an Associated Press report, describing its response as botched and riddled with incompetence.
"Nearly everyone involved in the outbreak response failed to see some fairly plain writing on the wall," WHO said in the document, according to the Associated Press. "A perfect storm was brewing, ready to burst open in full force."
WHO called the leaked document a first draft that had not been fact-checked or reviewed by its staff as part of its continuing review of the response.
Aid workers train to battle Ebola
Ebola spreading concerns investors
McCormick: Contact with Duncan was flawed
"We cannot divert our limited resources from the urgent response to do a detailed analysis of the past response," WHO said in a statement. "That review will come, but only after this outbreak is over."
A timeline of the outbreak showed that WHO missed opportunities to stop the spread of the disease after it was first diagnosed in West Africa, the Associated Press reported. The document also said WHO experts failed to recognize that traditional containment methods wouldn't work in the region.
The leaked document said that Dr. Bruce Aylward, normally in charge of polio eradication, alerted WHO Director-General Margaret Chan via email in June that national health organizations and charities believed the U.N. agency was "compromising rather than aiding" the Ebola response. "None of the news about WHO's performance is good," Aylward wrote, according to the Associated Press.
According to the WHO, there have been more than 9,200 confirmed, probable or suspected Ebola cases since the outbreak began months ago, with more than 4,500 deaths. Those figures -- documenting cases in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain and the United States -- likely underestimate the impact, since many cases were never diagnosed, especially in locales that are more remote, do not have a vibrant health care system or do have stigmas that may have led some not to seek treatment.
And, authorities warn, it could get exponentially worse if the world doesn't step up.
Opinion: Where's the empathy for Ebola's African victims?
Appeals for countries to do more in Ebola fight
This response goes well beyond the World Health Organization.
The United Nations last month appealed to countries to contribute $1 billion toward corralling the outbreak in West Africa. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that only one-third of that figure has been raised.
Without a concerted effort by the international community, Kerry said, "Ebola has the potential to become a scourge like HIV or polio that we will end up fighting -- all of us -- for decades."
The secretary made the remarks to a room of foreign ambassadors at the State Department in Washington. He called on them to use their influence to bring stronger commitments to the Ebola fight, which has plagued Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, and has spread as far as the United States and Europe.
Despite the political differences between Cuba and the United States, the Caribbean island has also joined the fight against the deadly virus. In an editorial published on Saturday, former leader Fidel Castro said he would "gladly cooperate with American personnel on this task."
"We understand that in carrying out this task with the maximum preparation and efficiency, we will be protecting our people, and our brothers in the Caribbean and Latin America, and prevent its spread, which sadly has been introduced and could spread further in the United States, which has so many personal links and interchanges it maintains with the rest of the world," said Castro in Granma, the official newspaper of the central committee of the Cuban Communist Party.
Castro also emphasized this is "not in search of peace between the two countries that have been adversaries for so many years, but, in any case, for world peace, an objective that can and should be sought."
On Saturday, British Prime Minister David Cameron joined those appealing for aid in urging the European Union to invest 1 billion Euros ($1.3 billion) and send 2,000 aid workers to fight it.
Canada contributed not money, but potentially life-saving medicine, to the cause on Saturday. Its Public Health Agency announced it will ship 800 vials of an experimental Ebola vaccine to the WHO in Geneva beginning Monday.
"Our nation didn't waste a minute to respond to international organizations' call for help to fight against the brutal epidemic unfolding in West Africa."
"We understand that in carrying out this task with the maximum preparation and efficiency, we will be protecting our people, and our brothers in the Caribbean and Latin America, and prevent its spread, which sadly has been introduced and could spread further in the United States, which has so many personal links and interchanges it maintains with the rest of the world. We will gladly cooperate with American personnel on this task, and not in search of peace between the two countries that have been adversaries for so many years, but, in any case, for world peace, an objective that can and should be sought."
The results of clinical trials for the vaccine, which started at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland this month, are expected in December. The vaccine showed promising results in animal research, the agency said.
Germ-zapping robot sets its sights on Ebola
France starts screening passengers on Guinea flight
Other countries, meanwhile, are focusing on combating or preventing Ebola within its border.
This includes the United States -- which has seen a handful of cases, including one that ended in the death of Thomas Eric Duncan.
Fears of an outbreak there led President Barack Obama to appoint an "Ebola czar." Ron Klain is a former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Al Gore.
France began screening air passengers, on the single daily flight arriving from Guinea, for symptoms of Ebola. Passengers were given forms to fill out and had their temperatures checked.
In Spain, a nurse's assistant who contracted Ebola after caring for a missionary with the virus is being treated at the Carlos III Hospital in Madrid. Teresa Romero Ramos helped treat one of two Spanish missionaries who were brought to the hospital after becoming infected in West Africa. Both missionaries eventually died at the hospital.
A special committee set up by the Spanish government to handle the outbreak said 87 people were being monitored for Ebola in Spain. Of those, 67 were at home under observation and have not displayed symptoms. At Carlos III Hospital, two patients with symptoms were being monitored along with 15 others who have not displayed any symptoms. In the Canary Islands, three other people were under observation.
Romero was the first person to contract Ebola outside Africa in the current outbreak.
Another Spanish missionary, who had returned from Liberia last week and was being monitored, has been released from the Carlos III Hospital, the special committee said Saturday. After the preliminary Ebola test came back negative earlier this week, the second test on the missionary also came back negative, a hospital source with direct knowledge said.
Complete coverage on Ebola
Friday, 17 October 2014
Federation Cup final fixed for November
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has announced November 23 as the date for the grand finale of this year’s men and women Federation Cup competitions.
At its meeting in Abuja, the NFF Executive Committee endorsed the date and observed that holding the finale on this date would still leave enough time for Nigeria’s flag bearers in the 2015 Caf Confederation Cup to register for the competition.
The grand finale of the 2014 men and women Federation Cup competitions had suffered a couple of postponements due to the governance crisis that rocked the NFF for three months.
Cup holders, Enyimba will confront Dolphins in the men’s final while Rivers Angels and Sunshine Queens face off in the women’s final, to be played on same day at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.
Already, the Lagos State government through its Commissioner for Sports, Honourable Wahid Enitan Oshodi has pledged to ensure even greater glamour for the grand finale, which the centre of excellence has consistently and creditably hosted for a number of years now.
Top Story Walcott returns after injury nightmareArsenal winger Theo Walcott played 45 minutes for the club's Under-21 side against Blackburn on Friday as he finally returned to action after his knee injury nightmare. Walcott had been sidelined for nine months after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the closing stages of Arsenal's FA Cup third round victory against Tottenham in January. The 25-year-old missed Arsenal's FA Cup final win over Hull and England's World Cup campaign while he recovered from the injury and he conceded it had been a gruelling road back to fitness. "It has been a hard, long nine months," Walcott told Sky Sports News after featuring for the first half of Friday's 0-0 draw. "I always need to go out there and play to the best of my ability. I don't think about picking up little knocks - I think about the game. That's what I did tonight, and I got through fine." Although Walcott was relieved to come through unscathed, he ruled out playing in Arsenal's Premier League clash against Hull this weekend and said he had no intention of rushing his return to first-team action. "It was a massive blow when it happened, but I am focused on the present now and I will take it day by day," he said. "I need to be patient with myself. It is important to recover. I need to be patient. The manager will choose to play me when he wants - it (the injury) needs to be managed as well.
Arsenal winger Theo Walcott played 45 minutes for the club's Under-21 side against Blackburn on Friday as he finally returned to action after his knee injury nightmare.
Walcott had been sidelined for nine months after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the closing stages of Arsenal's FA Cup third round victory against Tottenham in January.
The 25-year-old missed Arsenal's FA Cup final win over Hull and England's World Cup campaign while he recovered from the injury and he conceded it had been a gruelling road back to fitness.
"It has been a hard, long nine months," Walcott told Sky Sports News after featuring for the first half of Friday's 0-0 draw.
"I always need to go out there and play to the best of my ability. I don't think about picking up little knocks - I think about the game. That's what I did tonight, and I got through fine."
Although Walcott was relieved to come through unscathed, he ruled out playing in Arsenal's Premier League clash against Hull this weekend and said he had no intention of rushing his return to first-team action.
"It was a massive blow when it happened, but I am focused on the present now and I will take it day by day," he said.
"I need to be patient with myself. It is important to recover. I need to be patient. The manager will choose to play me when he wants - it (the injury) needs to be managed as well.
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