Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

Tanzania: Police ‘endorsed’ the overloaded bus

{Lucky Vincent School has suspended classes amid reports that the driver of the ill-fated school bus was speeding to compensate for the time lost with the traffic police.}

Traffic Police at Makuyuni junction, suspecting the bus to have been overloaded, reportedly stopped the school vehicle that was later involved in the grisly accident, killing 32 Standard seven pupils, two teachers and the driver on Saturday morning.

The newly bought minibus was not yet marked with the school name or logo, compelling the driver to present lengthy explanations to convince the police that the van belonged to the school and was taking pupils for examinations in Karatu.

Having been delayed, the bus was left behind by other school buses, prompting the driver to speed up to reach Karatu on time despite the lost time. The students were on their way to write the Inter- School mock examinations at Tumaini Junior Primary School in Karatu.

A day before the tragedy, the school owner is reported to have spent some good time with the pupils. Speaking for the first time since the catastrophe, Lucky Vincent Nursery and Primary School owner and director Innocent Mushi, spoke of how he had coached the pupils on the exams.

“I spent the evening with the pupils as they were preparing for the inter-school mock examinations at Tumaini Junior Primary School in Karatu on Saturday,” said Mr Mushi, adding that even before Saturday exams, he had the tradition of coaching the children every evening.

“I cannot speak further…my heart is heavy, this is the worst thing to have ever happened to my life, those children were the candidates in the forthcoming National Examinations in September,” he lamented. The school management has suspended academic activities at the school, following the tragedy.

The ill-fated bus reportedly departed from Arusha City at around 12.30 am heading to Karatu where the pupils were to participate in the inter-school mock examinations with their Tumaini Primary School counterparts of Karatu District.

After the mock tests, the pupils, all candidates for the 2017 National Examinations for Primary Schools were penciled to have an excursion into the Ngorongoro Crater.Rescuers and eyewitnesses, who arrived first at the scene of the horrendous Saturday morning accident, found all pupils and teachers who died in the crash stacked together in the front section of the bus. Speculations were viral yesterday from people gathered at the Regional Mount Meru Hospital here that the death toll had reached 36.

It however turned out that, the victim suspected to have died had simply fainted. But, two school pupils, Sadiel Ismail and Wilson Tarimo, who survived the crash are meanwhile under Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Mount Meru hospital.

As preparations for the deceased’s communal mass continued here yesterday, wananchi and government institutions retrieved the ill-fated Mitsubishi Rosa Minibus, with registration number T-871 BYS, out of the deep River Malera Ravine, in Rhotia area, some 150 kilometres from Arusha City.

Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan is already in Arusha to lead the communal mass at Sheikh Amri Abeid where she will be accompanied by Minister of State in the President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government, George Simbachawene and Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training Minister Professor Joyce Ndalichako. Arusha District Commissioner Fabian Daqarro said the mass, which was initially scheduled for Sunday, will now take place today at the stadium.

He said the government is funding the mass, transportation and burial costs for all the victims. The names of deceased as displayed on the notice board are Mteage Amos, Justine Alex, Irene Kishari, Praise Ronald, Shadrack Biketh, Junior Mwashuya, Aisha Saidi, Heri Rashid, Gema Gerald, Rebecca Daudi, Hagai Lucas, Sada Ally, Lucy Ndemna, Mussa Kasim and Neema Martin.

Others are Witness Mosses, Rukia Khalfani, Naomi Hosea, Hevenight Hosea, Eliapanda Eliudi, Anorld Alex, Marion Mrema, Rehema Msuya, Sabrina Said, Prisca Charles, Grayson Robson Massawe, Witness Mosses, Lara Tarimo and Neema Eliwahi.

Source:Daily News

May 8, 2017
Nairobi to host UN meeting

{The 26th Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) opens in Nairobi Monday.}

A statement from the Office of the President in Kenya said the meeting will run till Friday.

It will be the first since the UN-Habitat III council gathering in Quito, Ecuador in October, 2016.

{{Political tone}}

President Uhuru Kenyatta will attend the meeting.

The theme of the conference is; “Opportunities for the effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda”.

The conference is expected to set the political tone and shape the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.

The Governing Council serves as the decision-making body for the UN-Habitat and approves the agency’s biennial work programme and budget.

{{Human settlements}}

GC is also responsible for setting UN-Habitat’s policies by developing and promoting policy objectives, priorities and guidelines on existing and planned programmes of work on human settlements

The council meets biennially and reports to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) through the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

Source:The East African

May 8, 2017
Decades of data on world’s oceans reveal a troubling oxygen decline

{A new analysis of decades of data on oceans across the globe has revealed that the amount of dissolved oxygen contained in the water — an important measure of ocean health — has been declining for more than 20 years.}

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology looked at a historic dataset of ocean information stretching back more than 50 years and searched for long term trends and patterns. They found that oxygen levels started dropping in the 1980s as ocean temperatures began to climb.

“The oxygen in oceans has dynamic properties, and its concentration can change with natural climate variability,” said Taka Ito, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences who led the research. “The important aspect of our result is that the rate of global oxygen loss appears to be exceeding the level of nature’s random variability.”

The study, which was published April in Geophysical Research Letters, was sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The team included researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University of Washington-Seattle, and Hokkaido University in Japan.

Falling oxygen levels in water have the potential to impact the habitat of marine organisms worldwide and in recent years led to more frequent “hypoxic events” that killed or displaced populations of fish, crabs and many other organisms.

Researchers have for years anticipated that rising water temperatures would affect the amount of oxygen in the oceans, since warmer water is capable of holding less dissolved gas than colder water. But the data showed that ocean oxygen was falling more rapidly than the corresponding rise in water temperature.

“The trend of oxygen falling is about two to three times faster than what we predicted from the decrease of solubility associated with the ocean warming,” Ito said. “This is most likely due to the changes in ocean circulation and mixing associated with the heating of the near-surface waters and melting of polar ice.”

The majority of the oxygen in the ocean is absorbed from the atmosphere at the surface or created by photosynthesizing phytoplankton. Ocean currents then mix that more highly oxygenated water with subsurface water. But rising ocean water temperatures near the surface have made it more buoyant and harder for the warmer surface waters to mix downward with the cooler subsurface waters. Melting polar ice has added more freshwater to the ocean surface — another factor that hampers the natural mixing and leads to increased ocean stratification.

“After the mid-2000s, this trend became apparent, consistent and statistically significant — beyond the envelope of year-to-year fluctuations,” Ito said. “The trends are particularly strong in the tropics, eastern margins of each basin and the subpolar North Pacific.”

In an earlier study, Ito and other researchers explored why oxygen depletion was more pronounced in tropical waters in the Pacific Ocean. They found that air pollution drifting from East Asia out over the world’s largest ocean contributed to oxygen levels falling in tropical waters thousands of miles away.

Once ocean currents carried the iron and nitrogen pollution to the tropics, photosynthesizing phytoplankton went into overdrive consuming the excess nutrients. But rather than increasing oxygen, the net result of the chain reaction was the depletion oxygen in subsurface water.

That, too, is likely a contributing factor in waters across the globe, Ito said.

Source:Science Daily

May 8, 2017
Researchers identify 6,500 genes that are expressed differently in men and women

{Genes that are mostly active in one sex or the other may play a crucial role in our evolution, health}

Men and women differ in obvious and less obvious ways — for example, in the prevalence of certain diseases or reactions to drugs. How are these connected to one’s sex? Weizmann Institute of Science researchers recently uncovered thousands of human genes that are expressed — copied out to make proteins — differently in the two sexes. Their findings showed that harmful mutations in these particular genes tend to accumulate in the population in relatively high frequencies, and the study explains why. The detailed map of these genes, reported in BMC Biology, provides evidence that males and females undergo a sort of separate, but interconnected evolution.

Several years ago, Prof. Shmuel Pietrokovski and Dr. Moran Gershoni of the Weizmann Institute’s Molecular Genetics Department asked why the prevalence of certain human diseases is common. Specifically, about 15% of couples trying to conceive are defined as infertile, which suggested that mutations that impair fertility are relatively widespread. This seems paradoxical: Common sense says that these mutations, which directly affect the survival of the species by reducing the number of offspring, should have been quickly weeded out by natural selection. Pietrokovski and Gershoni showed that mutations in genes specific to sperm formation persist precisely because the genes are expressed only in men. A mutation that is problematic for only half the population, no matter how detrimental, is freely passed on to the next generation by the other half.

In the present study, the researchers expanded their analyses to include genes that, though not necessary for fertility, are still expressed differently in the two sexes. To identify these genes, the scientists turned to the GTEx project — a very large study of human gene expression recorded for numerous organs and tissues in the bodies of close to 550 adult donors. That project enabled, for the first time, the comprehensive mapping of the human sex-differential genetic architecture.

Pietrokovski and Gershoni looked closely at around 20,000 protein-coding genes, sorting them by sex and searching for differences in expression in each tissue. They eventually identified around 6,500 genes with activity that was biased toward one sex or the other in at least one tissue. For example, they found genes that were highly expressed in the skin of men relative to that in women’s skin, and they realized that these were related to the growth of body hair. Gene expression for muscle building was higher in men; that for fat storage was higher in women.

{{Yet another difference}}

The two then looked at tendencies to accumulate mutations, to see if natural selection puts more or less pressure on genes that are specific to men or women. That is, to what extent are harmful mutations weeded out or tolerated in the population? Indeed, the researchers found that the efficiency of selection is weaker in many such genes. “The more a gene was specific to one sex, the less selection we saw on the gene. And one more difference: This selection was even weaker with men,” says Gershoni. Although they do not have a complete explanation for this additional difference, the researchers point to a theory of sexual evolution first proposed in the 1930s: “In many species, females can produce only a limited number of offspring while males can, theoretically, father many more; so the species’ survival will depend on more viable females in the population than males,” explains Pietrokovski. “Thus natural selection can be more ‘lax’ with the genes that are only harmful to males.”

Aside from the sexual organs, the researchers discovered quite a few sex-linked genes in the mammary glands — not so surprising, except that about half of these genes were expressed in men. Because men have fully fitted but basically nonfunctional mammary equipment, the scientists made an educated guess that some of these genes might suppress lactation.

Less obvious locations included genes that were found to be expressed only in the left ventricle of the heart in women. One of these genes, which is also related to calcium uptake, showed very high expression levels in younger women that sharply decreased with age; the scientists think that they are active in women up to menopause, protecting their hearts, but leading to heart disease and osteoporosis in later years when the gene expression is shut down. Yet another gene that was mainly expressed in women was active in the brain, and though its exact function is unknown, the scientists think it may protect the neurons from Parkinson’s — a disease that has a higher prevalence and earlier onset in men. The researchers also identified gene expression in the liver in women that regulates drug metabolism, providing molecular evidence for the known difference in drug processing between women and men.

“The basic genome is nearly the same in all of us, but it is utilized differently across the body and among individuals,” says Gershoni. “Thus, when it comes to the differences between the sexes, we see that evolution often works on the level of gene expression.” Pietrokovski adds: “Paradoxically, sex-linked genes are those in which harmful mutations are more likely to be passed down, including those that impair fertility. From this vantage point, men and women undergo different selection pressures and, at least to some extent, human evolution should be viewed as co-evolution. But the study also emphasizes the need for a better understanding of the differences between men and women in the genes that cause disease or respond to treatments.”

Prof. Shmuel Pietrokovski’s research is supported by the Leo and Julia Forchheimer Center for Molecular Genetics; and the estate of Georges Lustgarten. Prof. Shmuel Pietrovski is the incumbent of the Herman and Lilly Schilling Foundation Professorial Chair.

The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world’s top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.

Source:Science Daily

May 8, 2017
Banking is more than numbers-Kagame

{President Paul Kagame has said that the importance of a dynamic and competitive banking sector for Rwanda’s development cannot be emphasised enough. He made the remarks last evening at a Gala dinner to celebrate Bank of Kigali’s 50-year anniversary.}

In his address, President Kagame highlighted that the story of Bank of Kigali, which is one of the oldest and largest banks in the country, is the story of Rwanda’s financial sector as a whole.

“Surviving for 50 year is not the real achievement. It is what the Bank of Kigali has become in that time that we are here to celebrate,” President Kagame said.

The Head of State further pointed out that investment requires confidence in stable and reliable financial institutions, able to supply adequate capital at affordable rates. He pledged Government’s support in creating a level playing field through sound regulation and an attractive business climate.

President Kagame reminded Bank of Kigali staff management, staff and shareholders that banking is not just numbers.

“Banking is really about the hopes and dreams of real people. It is about building home for our families, saving for our children’s education. It is also about having the personal financial security to be able to face life challenges without undue anxiety,” President Kagame emphasised.

The President called on the Private Sector to continue working together with Government towards making credit products more plentiful and affordable.

May 6, 2017
Aid agencies halt work in CAR after attacks on staff

{Four agencies temporarily suspend operations in Ouham in the country’s northern region, UN says.}

Four international aid agencies have temporarily suspended their operations in northern Central African Republic due to attacks on aid workers by armed groups, the United Nations said.

In the country’s Ouham region, aid workers have been attacked on 16 occasions since March, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday.

“It is one of the most dangerous and difficult countries for humanitarian work, particularly in the northern prefecture of Ouham,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said, adding that there had been a recent concentration of attacks against aid workers.

“This temporary withdrawal will certainly have an impact on many people who depend on aid,” he told a news briefing in Geneva.

Solidarités International, Intersos, Danish Church Aid, and Person in Need Relief Mission will withdraw their staff to the capital, Bangui, while other aid groups have decided to scale back to focus only on life-saving operations, according to OCHA.

Central African Republic has been plagued by conflict since March 2013, when mainly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power, triggering reprisals by Christian “anti-balaka” militias.

The Seleka and other groups have since splintered, prompting further violence despite the election in March 2016 of President Faustin-Archange Touadera, which raised hopes of reconciliation.

Around 425,000 people have been uprooted by the fighting within the Central African Republic, some 465,000 have fled to neighbouring countries, and more than 2.2 million, nearly half the population, need humanitarian aid, according to OCHA.

The lives of more than one million children are under threat amid a lack of funding, said the UN children’s fund (UNICEF).

More than 40 percent of children are suffering from chronic malnutrition, one in seven will die before they turn five, and a third are out of school, according to figures from UNICEF.

The country’s humanitarian response plan for 2017 has only been 12 percent funded – $47m of a requested $400m – to date, the UN’s Financial Tracking Service (FTS) shows.

“We cannot allow the Central African Republic to become a forgotten crisis,” Christine Muhigana, UNICEF representative in the Central African Republic, said in a statement.

Source:Al Jazeera

May 6, 2017
French investigators: EgyptAir MS804 crash an accident

{Investigators rule out Egyptian bombing theory as no explosives were found on remains of victims aboard EgyptAir MS804.}

No traces of explosives were found on the remains of French victims aboard an EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean in May 2016, a source close to the French investigation said.

The revelation, the source said, “closes the door” on a theory advanced by Egypt that the Airbus A320 was blasted out of the sky as it made its way from Paris to Cairo, killing all 66 people on board.

EgyptAir MS804 disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean on May 19, crashing into the water between Crete and the coast of northern Egypt.

“There were no explosive charges” aboard the plane, the source said, because “no traces of powder were found” by police in samples taken from the remains of eight of the 15 French nationals killed.

Egyptian authorities had handed the remains to their families in January.

According to the source, the long-awaited results were “recently” reported to the three investigating judges in charge of the case in Paris.

The findings “only serve to confirm the theory by French investigators since the beginning, that this was an accident and not an act of terror”, the source said, adding that “this definitively closes the door on the claim of terrorism”.

In December, an official Egyptian investigative committee had said it found traces of explosives on victims’ remains, but French officials at the time refused to draw conclusions on the cause of the accident.

No group also came forward to claim responsibility for the crash, which also killed 40 Egyptians, including the 10-member crew.

French investigators have always favoured the theory of a mechanical fault as the crash cause, saying a fire broke out in or near the cockpit of the plane before it plunged 22,000 feet and swerved sharply before disappearing from radar screens.

“At this stage, the combustion or self-combustion of a tablet in the cockpit is the working hypothesis,” the source said, but “elements” needed to prove it – such as debris from “the cabin or flight recorders … which “are in Egypt and the Egyptians have not shown a great willingness to collaborate”.

Source:Al Jazeera

May 6, 2017
Ismail Haniya elected new political chief of Hamas

{Khalid Meshaal, who preceded Haniya as leader of the political bureau, confirms transition to Al Jazeera.}

Ismail Haniya has been elected as the new leader of Hamas’ political bureau, according to the Palestinian movement’s news agency.

The announcement on Satuday came just days after Hamas unveiled a more moderate stance towards Israel.

Khalid Meshaal, who preceded Haniya as leader of the bureau, confirmed the transition of power to Al Jazeera.

“I would like to announce that this new council has elected Abu al-Abed, my brother Ismail Haniya, the president of the political bureau of the movement,” Meshaal, who had been in charge of the political wing for the past 10 years, said in a statement.

READ MORE: What is next for Hamas?

“The new leadership will announce any other names in the appropriate time. The movement blesses this election which came in a consultative, democratic way that is homogenous with the lists and that shows the unity of the movement.”

Haniya, 54, is expected to remain in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave run by Hamas since 2007, unlike Meshaal who lives in exile in Qarar’s capital, Doha, and has completed the maximum two terms in office.

Haniya’s has been the group’s deputy leader, and served as prime minister of Gaza between 2007 and 2014.

On Monday, Hamas unveiled a new policy document easing its stance on Israel after having long called for its destruction.

The document notably accepts the idea of a Palestinian state in territories occupied by Israel in the war of 1967.

It also says its struggle is not against Jews because of their religion but against Israel as an occupier.

However, Hamas officials said the document in no way amounts to recognition of Israel as demanded by the international community.

Source:Al Jazeera

May 6, 2017
Kenya:Jubilee to unveil Uhuru and Ruto as its candidates

{The Jubilee Party will on Saturday officially unveil Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto as its candidates for the presidency and deputy presidency, respectively, for this year’s General Election.}

The two are expected to use the delegates convention at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi to rally their troops behind them after the just concluded primaries that were characterised by acrimony in many counties.

Sources told the Nation that the party will be seeking to project President Kenyatta as a man of the people and a “feel-good” candidate.

One of the strategies President Kenyatta is employing, the Nation has learned, is encouraging competition from within in what strategists have advised will drive up numbers during the General Election.

As a follow-through of this commitment, the President will be endorsed on Saturday by the various affiliate parties that did not dissolve to form the Jubilee Party. The parties will hold similar delegates meetings in the city.

Kanu will be at the Kasarani Gymnasium, where ODM endorsed its candidate, Mr Raila Odinga, on Friday. Maendeleo Chap Chap will be in Lavington while Narc-Kenya which will be at St Andrews Hall.

The Economic Freedom Party will be at Nyayo Basketball Court while Kenya Patriotic Party will hold its forum at Boma Hotel.

Already, the Frontier Alliance Party, associated with Marsabit governor Ukur Yattani, on Thursday officially endorsed President Kenyatta’s candidature.

Jubilee Party Secretary-General Raphael Tuju said there will be 4,000 delegates attending the convention. “We also expect MPs, senators and governors who lost in the nominations to come. They are still members of NDC (National Delegates Conference) by virtue of them being elected,” he said.

On Friday, President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto spent the better part of the day meeting leaders from 14 counties to map out their campaign strategy ahead of August 8 elections.

They were leaders from Western, Nyanza, Lower Eastern, and Coast regions who will fly the Jubilee flag when decision time comes.

“Last time we had difficulties going to Western. In fact, we only campaigned in Bungoma because we had no one to talk to about the agenda of Jubilee. Now we not only have people but serious candidates,” President Kenyatta said.

At the meeting, attended by governors Ken Lusaka (Bungoma), Hussein Dado (Tana River), Salim Mvurya (Kwale), National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale and Taveta MP Naomi Shaban, Mr Ruto dismissed the perception that the areas which the leaders came from were still Opposition strongholds.

{{‘WAS DIFFICULT’}}

“During the 2013 General Election, it was difficult to talk about Jubilee in Kisii, Coast and Western regions. But this time round we are doing well as our development track record speaks for itself,” said Mr Ruto.

Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki said the NDC will provide a platform for the party members to bond after what he termed as “fiercely competitive” nominations.

“The party leadership will be asking all those who lost not to lose focus on the ultimate prize of re-electing President Kenyatta,” he said, adding that the NDC would kick-start the final leg of campaigns in which they hope to bag 200 MPs in the August election.

“We are also aiming to have 30 senators, 30 governors and a majority in the over 30 county assemblies so that we can safely pass the Jubilee agenda of transforming Kenya,” said Prof Kindiki.

Insiders told the Nation that the convention will not only dwell on policy issues, but will also sell their candidate as a humane, down to earth and people-centred leader.

The party is keen to project its candidate as a unifying figure at home and abroad.

After the forum, the President and his deputy will proceed to Ngong, Kajiado, for a rally.

Source:Daily Nation

May 6, 2017
DRC arrests 14 Chinese for wood smuggling

{Lubumbashi – Fourteen Chinese people suspected of illegally exporting red wood from the Democratic Republic of Congo were arrested on Thursday, local officials said.
}

“We have arrested Chinese people… who were cutting wood in our region,” Celestin Pande, acting governor of the Haut-Katanga region, told AFP.

Pande said 17 000 tons of red wood had been illegally exported to China through Zambia over four months.

“We have arrested 14 Chinese nationals with (tourist) visas, who were involved in cutting and illegally exporting red wood,” an immigration official in Haut-Katanga added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Since the beginning of the year, a crisis linked to exotic wood exports has poisoned relations between DRC and neighbouring Zambia.

Zambia has seized several hundred vehicles transporting padauk, a dense wood used in construction and woodworking, from DRC as part of investigations into exports to China.

Kinshasa has denounced the seizure, but on Thursday a delegation from the capital decided to ban the logging and exportation of red wood from Haut-Katanga.

Haut-Katanga’s forests have been devastated by illegal logging, with wood mostly used for charcoal, the main source of energy for an electricity-deprived population.

Source:News 24

May 6, 2017