{Former Old Kampala DPC Joram Tumwesigye has been convicted for beating Mr Andrew Lwanga, a freelance journalist attached to the defunct WBS TV.}
However, prosecution failed to prove the case of malicious damage against Tumwesigye prompting the presiding magistrate, Gladys Kamasanyu to acquit him on malicious damage of Mr Lwanga’s camera.
Source:Daily Monitor
{A sixty-year old woman identified as Mukarusine Valerie, and her 5-year niece, Uwase residing in Rubengera sector, Karongi district, Western Province perished as their house collapsed last night. }
The executive secretary of Rubengera sector,Niyigaba Belarmi has told IGIHE that the cause of collapse remains unknown.
“An old woman and her niece died last night as the house in which they slept collapsed. It remains unclear what caused the collapse because the house was neither old nor did rain. It was however covered by clay roofing tiles which might have sucked in water for long leading to the collapse,” he said.
Niyigaba said that they plan to mobilize residents to inspect the status and strength of their houses to deter similar incidences.
{Paul Kagame, president of the Republic of Rwanda, will receive the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson award for Outstanding Friendship with the Jewish People from the World Values Network. It will be presented at the WVN’s annual gala on May 21 at Cipriani in Manhattan.}
Paul Kagame, president of the Republic of Rwanda, will receive the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson award for Outstanding Friendship with the Jewish People from the World Values Network. It will be presented at the WVN’s annual gala on May 21 at Cipriani in Manhattan.
The award recognizes President Kagame’s position as one of the world’s foremost fighters against genocide as well as Rwanda’s productive relations with Israel and its connection to the global Jewish community.
President Kagame is credited with ending the 1994 genocide against Tutsi which caused the deaths of more than one million people.
The World Values Network, founded and led by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, promotes universal values and champions the democratic values represented by the United States and the State of Israel in mainstream and international media. Together with world leaders, it tackles pressing issues through global media, debates, panels, forums, and lectures at venues worldwide.
The WVN places a special emphasis on genocide education and prevention. In 2013 the World Values Network launched the Champions of Jewish Values International Awards gala to recognize people who strive to affect society positively.
Source:Jewish Standard
{Many have read the book by Immaculée Ilibagiza, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.}
In Left to Tell, Immaculée shares her miraculous story of how she survived during the 1994 genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. She and seven other women huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor’s house for 91 days.
In this captivating and inspiring book, Immaculée shows how to embrace the power of prayer, forge a profound and lasting relationship with God, and discover the importance of forgiveness and the meaning of truly unconditional love and understanding — through our darkest hours.
She will speak on Wednesday, March 15, at 6:45 p.m. at St. Ann Church in Stoughton. In her presentation, she will share her amazing story, focusing on the power of prayer, the importance of forgiveness, and the meaning of truly unconditional love. All are invited to attend this evening of inspiration, reflection, and growth in our faith.
{{Her life}}
Immaculée Ilibagiza was born and raised in a small village in Rwanda. She enjoyed a peaceful childhood with her loving parents and three brothers.
Education was very important in her household, so it was no surprise that she did well in school and went on to the National University of Rwanda to study electrical and mechanical engineering. It was while she was home from school on Easter break in 1994 that her life was transformed forever.
As genocide began on 7th April 1994, not even rural communities like hers were spared from house-by-house slaughtering of men, women, and children.
To protect his only daughter from rape and murder, her father told her to run to a local pastor’s house for protection. The pastor quickly sheltered her and seven other women in a hidden three by four foot bathroom. For the next 91 days, she and the other women huddled silently in this small room, while the genocide raged outside the home and throughout the country.
{{Turned to prayer}}
While in hiding, anger and resentment were destroying her mind, body, and spirit. It was then that she turned to prayer. Prior to going to the pastor’s home, her father, a devout Catholic, gave her a set of Rosary beads. She began to pray the Rosary as a way of drowning out the anger inside her and the evil outside the house. It was that turning point towards God and away from hate that saved Immaculée.
In addition to finding faith, peace, and hope during those three months of hiding, Immaculée also taught herself English. She was already fluent in Kinyarwanda and French. Using only a Bible and a dictionary, she spent countless hours in that cramped bathroom learning her third language.
{{After the genocide}}
After 91 days, Immaculée was finally liberated from her hiding place only to face a horrific reality. She emerged from that small bathroom weighing just 65 pounds and finding her entire family brutally murdered, with the exception of one brother who was studying abroad. She also found a million of her extended family, friends, neighbors, and fellow Rwandans massacred.
After the genocide, Immaculée came face-to-face with the man who killed her mother and one of her brothers. After enduring months of physical, mental, and spiritual suffering, Immaculée was still able to offer the unthinkable, telling the man, “I forgive you.”
{{Sharing her story}}
In 1998, Immaculée emigrated from Rwanda to the United States where she continued her work for peace through the United Nations. She shared her story with co-workers and friends who were so impacted by her testimony they insisted she write it down.
Three days after finishing her manuscript, she met best-selling author Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, who, within minutes of meeting her, offered to publish her book. Dyer is quoted as saying, “There is something much more than charisma at work here — Immaculée not only writes and speaks about unconditional love and forgiveness, but she radiates it wherever she goes.”
Immaculée’s first book, Left to Tell; Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust (Hay House), was released in March of 2006. It quickly became a New York Times Best Seller. Her story has also been made into a documentary entitled The Diary of Immaculée.
Immaculée has written six additional books: Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide, Our Lady of Kibeho, If Only We Had Listened, Visit from Heaven, The Boy Who Met Jesus, and The Rosary.
Today, Immaculée is regarded as one of the world’s leading speakers on faith, hope, and forgiveness. She has shared this universal message with world leaders, school children, multinational corporations, churches, and at events and conferences around the world.
A major motion picture about her story is under production with an international release in theaters in 2018.
Source:Catholic Herald
{28 February 2017: The Republic of the Marshall Islands became the first country to ratify the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol to phase down the production and use of greenhouse gases (GHGs) known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The Republic’s parliament, the Nitijela, approved ratification on 28 February 2017, and Foreign Affairs Minister John Silk said he will ask the Marshall Islands’ Permanent Mission to the UN to deposit the instrument of ratification as soon as possible.}
After the ratification vote, President Hilda Heine urged other nations to follow suit as soon as possible, in order to minimize global temperature rise: “Our rapid ratification of the Kigali Amendment is yet another demonstration of our commitment to the Paris Agreement. We now need others to quickly do the same in order to help keep global temperature increases within 1.5°C. This deal is good for our people, the planet, and the profits of those that follow in our footsteps.”
We need others to quickly do the same in order to help keep global temperature increases within 1.5°C, said Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine.
Mattlan Zackhras, Minister-in-Assistance to the President and convener of the High Ambition Coalition, a coalition of developed and developing countries that emerged at the Paris Climate Change Conference and which also pushed for an ambitious Kigali Amendment, said that the Marshall Islands and its Coalition allies will work hard this year to ensure the Amendment comes into effect as soon as possible.
The Republic of the Marshall Islands was the first small island developing State (SIDS) to submit its intended post-2020 GHG emissions reduction target during 2014, and one of the first to submit its intended national determined contribution (INDC) ahead of the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015. It was also the first country to deposit its instrument of ratification of the Agreement during the special signing ceremony at UN Headquarters in April 2016.
The Kigali Amendment was agreed at the 28th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol (MOP 28), which took place from 10-14 October 2016, in Kigali, Rwanda. The Amendment contains HFC phase-down schedules for both developed and developing countries, with a view to cut HFC production and use by over 80% within 30 years.
Source:SDG Knowledge Hub
{Leonce Ndarubagiye, one of five representatives of Burundi in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) who had at first declined to attend the EALA sitting in Kigali citing personal security reasons arrived in Kigali yesterday for activities of the assembly.}
MP Ndarubagiye is a member of CNDD-FDD Burundi’s leading political party.
The five MPs had filed complaints to the speaker of EALA,Daniel Fred Kidega through a written letter saying they could not attend the sittings, citing personal security reasons. Other MPs boycotting the assembly include Bucumi Emerence, Jean Marie Muhirwa, Ndahayo Isabelle and Nengo Emmanuel.
When a journalist asked Ndarubagiye about why he delayed coming for the sittings, he declined to comment.
In a press briefing following the launch of EALA General Assembly, the speaker Daniel Fred Kidega said that Burundians absence could not interrupt the sessions.
“To assume a quorum, each country has to be represented by at least three members,” he said.
Ndarubagiye joins four Burundi MPs who arrived earlier during the launch of Kigali-EALA sitting including Amb Jeremie Ngendakumana, Ngenzebuhoro Frederic K, Dr Martin Nduwimana and Nsabimana Yves.
{The Rwanda National Police (RNP) has called upon owners of dogs to take appropriate measures to control and prevent them from roaming in communities where they are likely to cause insecurity.}
The call follows two separate incidents in Mageragere Sector of Nyarugenge District where stray dogs killed at least 24 goats in the last one week.
The latest incident occurred on Wednesday when stray dogs killed seven goats.
“We are investigating to identify owners of the dogs to take the right course of action. There are clear laws under which a dog should be handled,” Supt. Emmanuel Hitayezu, the police spokesperson for the City of Kigali, said.
“If you own a dog, you are required to keep it indoor or leash it when walking with it,” he added.
Dogs are said to be causing rabies.
“Under no circumstances should a dog be left to roam in communities unattended; it must be under full control of its owner or chained and held by an accountable and mature person.”
The ministerial order No. 009/11.30 of 18/11/2010 on animal husbandry especially in its articles 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, underlines the requirements and procedures to own a dog, penalties to owners of abandoned dogs and action taken against stray dogs.
Source:Police
{Using marijuana raises the risk of stroke and heart failure even after accounting for demographic factors, other health conditions and lifestyle risk factors such as smoking and alcohol use, according to research scheduled for presentation at the American College of Cardiology’s 66th Annual Scientific Session.}
Coming at a time when marijuana, medically known as cannabis, is on track to become legal for medical or recreational use in more than half of U.S. states, this study sheds new light on how the drug affects cardiovascular health. While previous marijuana research has focused mostly on pulmonary and psychiatric complications, the new study is one of only a handful to investigate cardiovascular outcomes.
“Like all other drugs, whether they’re prescribed or not prescribed, we want to know the effects and side effects of this drug,” said Aditi Kalla, MD, Cardiology Fellow at the Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia and the study’s lead author. “It’s important for physicians to know these effects so we can better educate patients, such as those who are inquiring about the safety of cannabis or even asking for a prescription for cannabis.”
The study drew data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, which includes the health records of patients admitted at more than 1,000 hospitals comprising about 20 percent of U.S. medical centers. Researchers extracted records from young and middle-aged patients — age 18-55 years — who were discharged from hospitals in 2009 and 2010, when marijuana use was illegal in most states.
Marijuana use was diagnosed in about 1.5 percent (316,000) of more than 20 million health records included in the analysis. Comparing cardiovascular disease rates in these patients to disease rates in patients not reporting marijuana use, researchers found marijuana use was associated with a significantly increased risk for stroke, heart failure, coronary artery disease and sudden cardiac death.
Marijuana use was also linked with a variety of factors known to increase cardiovascular risk, such as obesity, high blood pressure, smoking and alcohol use. After researchers adjusted the analysis to account for these factors, marijuana use was independently associated with a 26 percent increase in the risk of stroke and a 10 percent increase in the risk of developing heart failure.
“Even when we corrected for known risk factors, we still found a higher rate of both stroke and heart failure in these patients, so that leads us to believe that there is something else going on besides just obesity or diet-related cardiovascular side effects,” Kalla said. “More research will be needed to understand the pathophysiology behind this effect.”
Research in cell cultures shows that heart muscle cells have cannabis receptors relevant to contractility, or squeezing ability, suggesting that those receptors might be one mechanism through which marijuana use could affect the cardiovascular system. It is possible that other compounds could be developed to counteract that mechanism and reduce cardiovascular risk, Kalla said.
Because the study was based on hospital discharge records, the findings may not be reflective of the general population. The study was also limited by the researchers’ inability to account for quantity or frequency of marijuana use, purpose of use (recreational or medical), or delivery mechanism (smoking or ingestion).
Kalla suggested that the growing trend toward legalization of marijuana could mean that patients and doctors will become more comfortable speaking openly about marijuana use, which could allow for better data collection and further insights into the drug’s effects and side effects.
Source:Science Daily
{The eighth ‘Police Women Convention’ convened yesterday at the Police Training School (PTS) in Gishali, Rwamagana District with over 500 female officers meeting to discuss on skills development as a way of advancing professional policing.}
The convention held every year for the last seven years is a good forum for sharing ideas and experiences between women police officers drawn from different units countrywide, and also get guidance and encouragement from the Rwanda National Police leadership and partners.
The two-day convention is held under the theme: “Towards Gender Equality and Professional Policing”, and comes a day after Rwanda joined the rest of the world to mark the International Women’s Day.
While opening the convention, the Minister of Justice, Johnston Busingye commended Rwanda National Police and its partners for the idea and maintaining this annual event to further uphold the government’s gender mainstreaming policy.
He said that women in Police have been significant in the “impressive performance” of the directorate of gender promotion, gender desks and focal points established in all districts across the country
“This framework has facilitated prevention and combating gender based violence and child abuse. Our women police officers have also played a significant role in international peacekeeping missions. I have no doubt such outstanding achievements will encourage more women to join the police,” said the Minister.
Currently, about 21 percent of the RNP total force are women.
“The most important factor is not just the growth of numbers, but the skills and professionalism in ensuring that people in Rwanda are safe, involved and reassured….Rwandans expect you to be exemplary by upholding national values while executing your policing duties,” the Minister said.
“Apart from being police officers, you are also mothers, guardians, sisters and daughters in your communities, and this is why you must be role models and dignified officers.”
“Records have it that your conduct has been incredibly impressive. The professionalism exhibited by police officers while on duty is incredible and this is evident from the commitment in preserving peace both at home and abroad. Such exceptional performance is not reserved for men…even women can do it, and sometimes even better,” said Minister Busingye.
He hastened to add that women and men Police officers have a duty to support and protect one-another as they serve their nation.
“You have a responsibility of making Rwandans understand that they can trust you at all times; that you are the custodians of their safety, security, law and order,” he said.
The event was also attended by the visiting Minister of Justice for Mali, Mamadou Ismaila Konate and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Emmanuel K. Gasana.
In his address, IGP Gasana thanked the women officers for the efforts invested in ensuring a safer nation and asked them to keep up the momentum, either locally or across the border in peacekeeping missions where they have been recognized for their exceptional performance.
“The executive director of Kigali International Conference Declaration (KICD) is a female Rwandan; the coordinator of Isange One Stop centres is a woman; we have women officers as pilots, in marines, mechanical and civil engineering. Women officers have also demonstrated integrity in fighting corruption,” the IGP said.
He encouraged them to exploit the occasion and draw strong resolutions that will further advance professional policing.
The two-day Convention is expected to deliberate on enhanced gender equality and capabilities of women officers in the force, information sharing and experiences towards professional policing.
The force has put in place several initiatives for gender mainstreaming and women empowerment like gender policy which acts as a guiding tool in streamlining gender in the force.
Currently, deployments of women officers are considered in a way that does not conflict with their family responsibilities.
Source:Police
{A new UCLA study could change scientists’ understanding of how the brain works — and could lead to new approaches for treating neurological disorders and for developing computers that “think” more like humans.}
The research focused on the structure and function of dendrites, which are components of neurons, the nerve cells in the brain. Neurons are large, tree-like structures made up of a body, the soma, with numerous branches called dendrites extending outward. Somas generate brief electrical pulses called “spikes” in order to connect and communicate with each other. Scientists had generally believed that the somatic spikes activate the dendrites, which passively send currents to other neurons’ somas, but this had never been directly tested before. This process is the basis for how memories are formed and stored.
Scientists have believed that this was dendrites’ primary role.
But the UCLA team discovered that dendrites are not just passive conduits. Their research showed that dendrites are electrically active in animals that are moving around freely, generating nearly 10 times more spikes than somas. The finding challenges the long-held belief that spikes in the soma are the primary way in which perception, learning and memory formation occur.
“Dendrites make up more than 90 percent of neural tissue,” said UCLA neurophysicist Mayank Mehta, the study’s senior author. “Knowing they are much more active than the soma fundamentally changes the nature of our understanding of how the brain computes information. It may pave the way for understanding and treating neurological disorders, and for developing brain-like computers.”
The research is reported in the March 9 issue of the journal Science.
Scientists have generally believed that dendrites meekly sent currents they received from the cell’s synapse (the junction between two neurons) to the soma, which in turn generated an electrical impulse. Those short electrical bursts, known as somatic spikes, were thought to be at the heart of neural computation and learning. But the new study demonstrated that dendrites generate their own spikes 10 times more often than the somas.
The researchers also found that dendrites generate large fluctuations in voltage in addition to the spikes; the spikes are binary, all-or-nothing events. The somas generated only all-or-nothing spikes, much like digital computers do. In addition to producing similar spikes, the dendrites also generated large, slowly varying voltages that were even bigger than the spikes, which suggests that the dendrites execute analog computation.
“We found that dendrites are hybrids that do both analog and digital computations, which are therefore fundamentally different from purely digital computers, but somewhat similar to quantum computers that are analog,” said Mehta, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy, of neurology and of neurobiology. “A fundamental belief in neuroscience has been that neurons are digital devices. They either generate a spike or not. These results show that the dendrites do not behave purely like a digital device. Dendrites do generate digital, all-or-none spikes, but they also show large analog fluctuations that are not all or none. This is a major departure from what neuroscientists have believed for about 60 years.”
Because the dendrites are nearly 100 times larger in volume than the neuronal centers, Mehta said, the large number of dendritic spikes taking place could mean that the brain has more than 100 times the computational capacity than was previously thought.
Recent studies in brain slices showed that dendrites can generate spikes. But it was neither clear that this could happen during natural behavior, nor how often. Measuring dendrites’ electrical activity during natural behavior has long been a challenge because they’re so delicate: In studies with laboratory rats, scientists have found that placing electrodes in the dendrites themselves while the animals were moving actually killed those cells. But the UCLA team developed a new technique that involves placing the electrodes near, rather than in, the dendrites.
Using that approach, the scientists measured dendrites’ activity for up to four days in rats that were allowed to move freely within a large maze. Taking measurements from the posterior parietal cortex, the part of the brain that plays a key role in movement planning, the researchers found far more activity in the dendrites than in the somas — approximately five times as many spikes while the rats were sleeping, and up to 10 times as many when they were exploring.
“Many prior models assume that learning occurs when the cell bodies of two neurons are active at the same time,” said Jason Moore, a UCLA postdoctoral researcher and the study’s first author. “Our findings indicate that learning may take place when the input neuron is active at the same time that a dendrite is active — and it could be that different parts of dendrites will be active at different times, which would suggest a lot more flexibility in how learning can occur within a single neuron.”
Looking at the soma to understand how the brain works has provided a framework for numerous medical and scientific questions — from diagnosing and treating diseases to how to build computers. But, Mehta said, that framework was based on the understanding that the cell body makes the decisions, and that the process is digital.
“What we found indicates that such decisions are made in the dendrites far more often than in the cell body, and that such computations are not just digital, but also analog,” Mehta said. “Due to technological difficulties, research in brain function has largely focused on the cell body. But we have discovered the secret lives of neurons, especially in the extensive neuronal branches. Our results substantially change our understanding of how neurons compute.”
Source:Science Daily