UN agency says conventional measures to control deadly virus are not working, with patients overflowing new clinics Ebola is spreading fast in Liberia, where many thousands of new cases are expected over the coming three weeks, the World Health Organisation has said. "Transmission of the Ebola virus in Liberia is already intense and the number of new cases is increasing exponentially," the...
Trippy, electro-beat song created to help get message across about how to avoid incurable disease in Guinea and Liberia Few viruses can boast of being the inspiration for hit dance tunes. But then ebola which can kill up to 90% of victims, has no vaccine or cure, and causes horrific internal and external bleeding is not your average pathogen. When an epidemic struck west Africa's music-crazy nations...
Chelsea manager's new job at World Food Programme kicks off with visit to Liberia to witness the effects of malnutrition On the football pitches of Europe he is known as "the special one", but José Mourinho may soon be referred to as "the humble one" as he learns firsthand what it is like to go hungry during a trip to Liberia with the UN. Continue reading... ...
Medical authorities in Guinea and other neighbouring African countries are struggling to contain an outbreak of Ebola, one of the world's deadliest viruses. The tropical pathogen, which can trigger haemorrhagic fever and organ failure, has a fatality rate of up to 90%. The outbreak has killed more than two-thirds of those who have been infected, including 101 people in Guinea and neighbouring Liberia...
Virus has claimed 84 lives and jumped borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, raising concerns that it could sweep across region Late last month, villagers in Guinea's remote south-eastern region of Nzérékoré were greeted by a sight so alarming that many barricaded themselves indoors. A group of doctors dressed in protective suits and helmets were visiting the centre of an Ebola epidemic...
Visas suspended for Muslim pilgrims from Guinea and Liberia due to contagious nature of deadly disease Saudi Arabia has announced the suspension of visas for Muslim pilgrims from Guinea and Liberia, two countries hit by an outbreak of the deadly ebola epidemic. The Saudi health ministry recommended the measure "due to the danger of the disease and its highly contagious" nature, the state...
Guinea faces an epidemic of a 'magnitude never before seen', with nearly 80 deaths so far. So what's being done to stop its spread? The medical aid charity Médecins sans Frontières warned this week that Guinea faces an Ebola epidemic of a magnitude never before seen as the nations president appealed for calm amid a rising death toll. Since January, Guinea health authorities have reported...
Court jails editor and shuts down newspaper responsible for exposing a series of corruption scandals In 1951 when muckraking Liberian school-teacher and journalist Albert Porte wrote an open letter to the Liberian president questioning his purchase of a luxury yacht on the nation's dime, William Tubman wrote back, accusing Porte of having an anarchical spirit and inviting him for a cruise: Your spirit...
After the closure of a newspaper and imprisonment of its editor, a high-level appeal to the president to intervene Her Excelency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf President of the Republic of Liberia Executive Mansion Capitol Hill, Monrovia Republic of Liberia Dear President Sirleaf ...
s inhabitants are online . While mobile phone usage is widespread at 72%, this masks regional differences. Eritrea's mobile penetration rate, for example, is just 5%. The internet's limited reach is compounded further because the language of the web is English and mobile connectivity is limited as only 18% of Africa's mobiles are smartphones . Organisations need to address these barriers and some are...
s performance. And like the World Bank , the UN is worried about the risks associated with a possible bumpy exit from quantitative easing programmes by the US Federal Reserve that have pumped money into the global economy. "Our forecast is made in the context of many uncertainties and risks coming from possible missteps as well as non-economic factors that could stymie growth," Shamshad Akhtar, UN...
aid dependency merry-go-round' Development funding has historically been tied to the priorities of donor countries. As their priorities shift, so does funding. Aid recipients must deal with the consequences, which can have negative effects on development. Without steady and predictable aid flows many aid-dependent countries fail to achieve their development objectives. In many cases, these are countries...
incomes Musa Sayee Konneh stands on a street corner in Monrovia amid a fleet of parked motorbikes, with faded Liberian dollars folded around his middle finger. On a good day, grubby bills would fan from his hands. But since the government banned motorbike taxis from the capital city's main roads this month, Konneh's work has been curtailed. So far today he has earned just 90 Liberian dollars (70p)...
In November, the Liberian government banned motorcycle taxis from the main roads of the capital, Monrovia Paige McClanahan ...
s convoy, detained with three other men after crossing from Sierra Leone Liberia's drug enforcement agency has arrested the head of the presidential motorcade for allegedly using an official vehicle to smuggle 297kg (654lb) of marijuana into Liberia from neighbouring Sierra Leone, officials have said. The motorcade commander, Perry Dolo, was detained at the weekend along with three other men after...
salaries Robin Hood's brand of wealth redistribution could help turn around the fortunes of Liberia, where the education system was recently described as a "mess" by its president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. In August, the west African country made headlines around the world when all 25,000 students who sat the entrance exam for the University of Liberia failed . Reactions ranged from denial to despondency....
s justice minister, Jeremy Wright, confirmed the pending transfer last Thursday , despite Taylor...
s film about his late friend, colleague and regular collaborator Tim Hetherington, there is an eerie shot, prosaic yet haunting. The camera pans jerkily across the back seat of a car, as the Bee Gees's How Deep Is Your Love blasts tinnily from the radio, and a caption tells us we are looking at Chris Hondros and Guy Martin. Those familiar with the circumstances of Hetherington's death during an assault...
s struggles. They had posted the exact same record just four years earlier. Through it all, Hali maintained his own usual high standards. Nine sacks in 15 games last season were enough to earn him selection to the Pro Bowl for a third consecutive year. But he never fooled himself into thinking that he alone could turn his team's fortunes around. Nor, indeed, did he believe that any other player might....
s offer to enforce any sentence imposed on former President Taylor by the SCSL was crucial to ensuring that he could be transferred to The Hague to stand trial for his crimes." He said the decision had wide cross party support when it was passed in June 2007 and that "Her Majesty's government would meet the associated costs". "International justice is central to foreign policy. It is essential for...