IGIHE

Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

  • 10 foods that will help improve a man’s performance in the bedroom

    Every man ought to treat his pen*s like a luxury car and you can do this by watching what you eat. The pen*s needs sufficient blood flow to perform efficiently and some foods can get the blood vessels in the pen*s clogged with fat and cholesterol thereby restricting blood flow to the penis.

    Eating the right food is important and here are foods that will help improve a man’s performance in bed.

    {{1. Coffee }}

    According to researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Centre at Houston, men who consume coffee are less likely to have erectile dysfunction. This is because caffeine in triggers a series of effects in the body which help the arteries in the pen*s relax and increase blood flow to the pen*s.

    {{2. Almonds }}

    Almonds are a great source of healthy fats which are good for the heart and therefore the penis.

    {{3. Pistachios }}

    According to researchers from Turkey, men who consume pistachios have a significant improvement in erectile function, and s*x drive after just three weeks.

    {{4. Walnuts }}

    Just like almonds, walnuts are a great source of healthy fats which are good for the heart and therefore the pen*s.

    {{5. Salmon }}

    Salmon is rich in vitamin D and according to researchers in Austria, vitamin D boost a man’s testosterone levels. The researchers also claim that low levels of vitamin D may increase a man’s risk of erectile dysfunction.

    {{6. Spinach }}

    Spinach is a rich source of vitamin C and according to a research from the University of Texas Medical Branch, vitamin C helps improve a man’s sperm quality.

    {{7. Olive oil }}

    According to researchers, olive oil is good for the heart thereby benefitting the pen*s. Heart disease is one of the common causes of erectile dysfunction.

    {{8. Oranges }}

    Eating oranges can work wonders for the pen*s. According to a Harvard University study, men who ate foods packed with certain flavanoids like anthocyanins, flavanones, and flavones are less likely to have erectile dysfunction than men who didn’t eat much of these type of foods.

    Oranges are rich in flavonoid and according to the researchers, flavonoids help improve the health of the blood vessels by relaxing the arteries.

    {{9. Egg yolk }}

    Egg yolk is a rich source of vitamin D and insufficient levels of vitamin D in a man decreases nitric oxide in the body, a compound that helps the blood vessels function.

    {{10. Yellow pepper }}

    Yellow pepper is rich in vitamin C and according to researchers, vitamin C protects the sperm’s DNA from cell-damaging free radicals.

    Source:Elcrema

  • First clues about the social lives of extinct human relatives

    {A new study from The Australian National University (ANU) of the bony head-crests of male gorillas could provide some of the first clues about the social structures of our extinct human relatives, including how they chose their sexual partners.}

    The study looks at the sagittal crest, a bone ridge on the top of the skull, in four species of apes.

    Lead researcher of the study Dr Katharine Balolia of the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology said that while the crests were long thought to develop in apes to provide extra space for the muscles used for chewing, this study indicates they could also be a form of social signalling that results from sexual selection.

    “We found that for male gorillas and orangutans, it is not just chewing that drives crest formation. There is also a social element to it. For example, females prefer male gorillas with larger sagittal crests,” Dr Balolia said.

    Dr Balolia said the findings may provide clues to the social structures of some extinct human relatives.

    “Some species of extinct human relatives have a sagittal crest,” she said.

    “And if sagittal crest size and social behaviour are linked in this way, then we could potentially establish that some of our extinct human relatives had a gorilla-like social system.

    “This would be a first, because otherwise the human fossil record provides precious little about how our extinct relatives chose their mates.”

    The study used 3D scans of skull specimens and found two lines of evidence to support the finding.

    “In terms of gorilla social structures, the males establish dominance shortly after their wisdom teeth emerge. We found the sagittal crest appears right after their wisdom teeth emerge, so that fits in with the timing of social dominance,” she said.

    “In contrast, in orangutans some males only become dominant quite late in their adult life, and the sagittal crest appears later,” she said.

    In addition, statistical modelling suggests that, when present, crests in gorillas and orangutans are larger than what would be expected if they were simply there to provide more space for the larger chewing muscles needed by the big males.

    This is the sagittal crest of a male gorilla skull.

    Source:Science Daily

  • Taking stock of Rwanda’s performance in EALA

    {The third five-year term of East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) will end on 4th June 2017 a day before new legislators swear in. }

    The assembly is composed of 45 parliamentarians from five member states each having nine representatives. The new committee anticipated in June 2017 will incorporate legislators from South Sudan which officially became EAC member recently.

    Rwanda joined EAC in 2007. In a press briefing held yesterday, the representative of Rwanda’s parliamentarians in EALA, MP Patricia Hajabakiga said they did all their best in regional activities.

    “We lead the telecommunication commission, business and investment commission, political commission and agriculture commission until today, accountability commission and budgeting and citizens welfare up to date,” she said.

    Hajabakiga explained that the law reducing Non-Tariff barriers is among the achievements. In Rwanda, she explained the time of transporting goods from Dar es Salaam to Kigali has been reduced from 21 to three days.

    “There were too many weigh bridges along the way that have since been reduced, leaving only three between Rwanda and Dar Es Salaam while five operate between Kigali and Mombasa because we cross two countries,” she said.

    She also lauded making One Stop Border Posts possible.

    Oda Gasinzigwa who joined EALA in October 2016 has said that Rwandans contributed a lot in EALA raising concerns for law revisions.

    “Both the law banning plastic bags and the law related to reproductive health were proposed by MP Odette Nyiramirimo which shows Rwandans contribution,” she said.

    MP Nyiramirimo who completes her second term explained that they passed 27 laws since 2012 along with other projects that will have been passed before ending tenure in June 2017.

    “Rwandan MPs introduced six laws. We tried our best and I think we didn’t disappoint the country,” she added.

    {{Unsolved problems }}

    Failure of EAC member states’ failure to contribute to the Community budget has been a major challenge. Each member state had to contribute $8 378 108 in the 2016/2017 budget but only 44.51%, had been realized by 13th March 2017. Rwanda had paid 48.08% at the time.

    MP Hajabakiga said recent communication with the Ministry of Infrastructure shows how far is the project of regional railway project.

    “First Uganda has to avail the railway infrastructures at Rwanda’s border as Tanzania has to do the same so Rwanda can follow the chain of the project. This means Rwanda can’t do anything before these countries’ executions,” he said.

    Rwanda’s parliamentarians in EALA posing for a photo after a press conference.

  • Eight Malian soldiers killed in military convoy ambush

    {Troops’ vehicle attacked by gunmen after hitting a mine, in latest assault in area regularly targeted by armed groups.}

    At least eight Malian soldiers have been killed in an ambush on a military convoy in the country’s west-central region, according to an army spokesman.

    Armed assailants attacked the troops’ vehicle on Tuesday after it hit a mine near the town of Nampala in the restive Segou province.

    “The provisional toll is eight dead and some people wounded,” Colonel Diaran Kone, an army spokesman, told the Reuters news agency, holding unspecified groups responsible.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but rebel groups – some linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) – have stepped up a series of attacks in recent months in a campaign against the Malian government and its international allies.

    Last July, 17 soldiers were killed in an attack on a military base in Nampala, which sits close to the Mauritanian border. The attack was claimed by the Ansar Dine group.

    A similar attack on the garrison town in January 2015 claimed the lives of 11 Malian soldiers.

    Northern Mali fell to groups linked to AQIM in March 2012. They were driven out of key towns by a French-led military intervention the following year, but have now spread further south.

    The Mali security forces are struggling to keep security despite the presence of French and United Nations troops.

    Last weekend, the government extended a state of emergency by six months.

    Three Malian groups with previous al-Qaeda links recently joined forces to create the “Group to Support Islam and Muslims” (GSIM), led by Iyad Ag Ghaly of Ansar Dine, and have already killed soldiers further east near the Burkina Faso border.

    France said it killed more than 20 fighters hiding in a forest near the border last weekend in an operation that involved both air and ground strikes.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • ‘Dozens killed’ in ISIL attack on northeast Syria

    {Civilians, SDF members killed in ISIL attack on Kurdish-held crossing used by civilians fleeing violence, monitor says.}

    At least 37 people, including dozens of civilians, have been killed in an attack by ISIL fighters targeting a crossing along Syria’s northeastern border with Iraq, according to a monitoring group.

    The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said five suicide bombers detonated explosives before dawn on Tuesday in Rajm al-Salibi, a village in Hasaka province that is home to a temporary camp sheltering hundreds of displaced people.

    The explosions were followed by gun battles between other ISIL attackers and US-backed Kurdish fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) at a nearby checkpoint, leaving dozens of people wounded.

    “The area where the attacks took place is where many refugees escaping violence in Iraq were gathering,” Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of Observatory, told the DPA news agency, adding that the attackers might have come from Iraq.

    The Observatory monitors Syria’s conflict via a network of contacts on the ground.

    {{‘They thought I was dead’}}

    The International Rescue Committee said thousands of people from the Iraqi city of Mosul, where Iraqi forces have been battling ISIL fighters, have travelled west to the Rajm al-Salibi crossing since October, often via people smugglers.

    In a statement, it said several children were among the dead and wounded.

    “It was three in the morning when Daesh came and started to shoot at people,” Abdulah Khalef Hamid, an Iraqi refugee from Mosul, told the Associated Press news agency, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL.

    “I was wounded and they thought I was dead so they left me. We were around 200 families, they left at sunrise,” he said, adding that his mother-in-law was killed in the attack

    Nasser Haj Mansour, an adviser to the SDF, confirmed to the Reuters news agency that several civilian casualties included people who fled ISIL from Syria’s Deir Az Zor and Iraq.

    Redur Khalil, a spokesman for the main Kurdish fighting force in Syria, told AP the attack came a few hours after ISIL suicide bombers dressed in civilian clothes sneaked into al-Shadadi town and attacked SDF forces, triggering clashes.

    ISIL, which stands for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and is also known as ISIS, said that a group of 16 fighters had launched an attack on Kurdish checkpoints, killing and wounding dozens.

    It said some ISIL fighters carried out four attacks inside al-Shadadi which mainly targeted military posts, while others carried out attacks inside Hariri village and a sixth squad hit the barracks at Rajm al-Salibi.

    The attacks came as Kurdish fighters backed by the US-led, anti-ISIL coalition continued their mission in the town of Tabqa, which sits on a strategic supply route about 55km west of Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIL in Syria.

    “After taking the old city, we now control around 90 percent of Tabqa … we advanced against the ISIL and pushed further to the other parts of the city,” Jihan Sheikh, of the Ghadab al-Furat, a Kurdish group fighting under the SDF, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.

    The SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, has seized large swathes of northern Syria from ISIL in a campaign to drive the group out of Raqqa.

    SDF has recently captured parts of ISIL-held Tabqa town

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Michael Slager pleads guilty to killing of Walter Scott

    {White former police officer pleads guilty to federal civil rights charges for killing an unarmed black man in 2015.}

    A white former police officer whose killing of an unarmed black man running from a traffic stop was captured on video has pled guilty to federal civil rights charges that could send him to prison for 20 years.

    The plea from Michael Slager, 35, came five months after a jury deadlocked on state murder charges against him in the 2015 shooting of Walter Scott.

    South Carolina prosecutors had planned to retry Slager, but as part of Tuesday’s plea bargain, they agreed to drop the murder case.

    Slager admitted violating Scott’s civil rights by shooting him without justification.

    He could get up to life in prison and a $250,000 fine at sentencing, though prosecutors agreed to ask for more than 20 years behind bars. No sentencing date was set.

    Slager pulled Scott over for a broken brake light in North Charleston on April 4, 2015.

    The 50-year-old Scott got out of his car and tried to flee. Slager chased him and shot him with a Taser, knocking him down.

    When Scott got up and ran again, Slager shot him five times in the back, killing him.

    READ MORE: When do US police use body cams?

    Slager had claimed that Scott tried to attack him with the Taser. A mobile phone video of the incident made by a bystander showed that Slager was in no danger and had no apparent reason for shooting Scott as he ran.

    Scott’s family said he may have bolted because he was worried about going to jail because he was $18,000 behind on child support.

    Slager, who has been out on bail for much of the time since the shooting, was led away in handcuffs as the family looked on.

    “God never fails,” Scott’s mother, Judy Scott, said outside court.

    ‘Unnecessary and excessive force’

    The chilling video helped fuel the Black Lives Matter movement that emerged around the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

    It was seized on by many as vivid proof of what they had been arguing for years: that white officers too often use deadly force unnecessarily against black people.

    According to the Mapping Police Violence database, police killed at least 308 black people in the US in 2016, and black people are three times more likely to be killed by police than white people.

    The plea agreement made no mention of race but said Slager used deadly force knowing that it was “unnecessary and excessive, and therefore unreasonable under the circumstances”.

    The state prosecutor who pursued the murder charges, Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, said in a statement that she was satisfied with the case’s resolution.

    She said it “vindicates the state’s interests” by holding Slager accountable.

    The officer, who was fired after the video became public, testified at the murder trial that he feared for his life because Scott was trying to grab his stun gun.

    The video showed Slager picking the Taser up off the ground and dropping it near Scott’s body in what prosecutors suggested was an attempt to plant evidence.

    Slager denied that, testifying he was following his training in accounting for his weapons.

    Slager also testified last year that he regretted what happened, saying, “My family has been destroyed by it. The Scott family has been destroyed by it. It’s horrible.”

    Outside court on Tuesday, Chris Stewart, an attorney who won $6.5m for the Scott family in a settlement with the city of North Charleston, said: “We know what justice truly looks like. It doesn’t look like a big settlement check. It looks like today.”

    As for what punishment Slager should receive, Scott’s brother, Anthony, said, “Murder deserves life in prison.”

    Slager attorney Andy Savage had little to say outside court. “This is a day for the Scott family and the government,” he said.

    {{Alton Sterling case}}

    Separately on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that the US justice department has decided not to charge two white Baton Rouge police officers in the death of a black man whose fatal shooting was captured on mobile phone video, sparking protests in Louisiana’s capital and beyond.

    Federal authorities opened a civil rights investigation immediately after the July 5, 2016, police shooting that killed Alton Sterling, 37, outside a convenience store where he was selling homemade CDs.

    A person familiar with the decision disclosed it to the AP on Tuesday on condition of anonymity.

    The department’s decision does not preclude state authorities from conducting their own investigation and pursuing their own criminal charges.

    Two videos of Sterling’s deadly struggle with two white officers, Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II, quickly spread on social media after the shooting.

    A police report says Sterling was initially jolted with a stun gun after he did not comply with the officers’ commands to put his hands on the hood of a car.

    The report also says the officers saw the butt of a gun in one of Sterling’s pants pockets and saw him try to reach for it before he was shot.

    Video of the shooting shows Scott running away from Slager and being shot in the back

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Blast hits NATO convoy in central Kabul

    {At least eight people killed in attack near US embassy in centre of Afghanistan’s capital, officials say.}

    Kabul, Afghanistan – At least eight people were killed in a large explosion in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, officials said, with reports saying the target was a NATO convoy.

    The attacker blew up his explosives-laden vehicle next to the convoy near a National Defence Security (NDS) checkpoint on Shash Darak road in the central Macroyan area early on Wednesday, military officials said.

    At least eight Afghan civilians were killed and 23 others wounded, including three US service members, officials said.

    “The injured were transferred to two hospitals in the area; the Wazir Akbar Khan hospital and the Emergency Hospital,” Wahid Majrouh, a health ministry spokesman, told Al Jazeera.

    “Some of the wounded are in a critical condition,” Majrouh added.

    “There are dead bodies lying on the road here, several are believed to be from the NDS,” Abdul Haq, a witness, told Al Jazeera.

    “Police are clearing the area and the city is high alert,” he added.

    The blast occurred in an area not far from the US embassy and a compound used by the NATO-led Resolute Support mission.

    {{‘Spring offensive’}}

    No group has claimed responsibility for the attack as of yet .

    The blast came several days after the Taliban announced their so-called “spring offensive”, in which they vowed to target foreign troops.

    Kabul last month endorsed US general John Nicholson’s call for thousands of additional coalition troops in Afghanistan to fend off the group during the spring offensive.

    Extra troops were needed to end the stalemate in the war, Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, told the US Congress.

    Separately, the Pentagon this year said it would deploy some 300 US Marines this spring to Helmand province alone.

    The Marines will assist a NATO-led mission to train Afghan forces, in the latest sign that foreign forces are increasingly being drawn back into the worsening conflict.

    A recent UN report showed that Kabul province had the highest number of civilian casualties in the first quarter of the year due to attacks in the capital.

    The body had called on all groups to “take every measure possible to prevent unnecessary and unacceptable harm to Afghan civilians”.

    A damaged military vehicle was being pulled near the site of the attack in Kabul

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • US Congress rejects Trump’s cuts in aid to Africa

    {The US Congress is expected to vote soon in support of a budget deal that preserves most Africa assistance programmes and provides nearly $1 billion to respond to current and threatened famines.}

    The pending agreement announced on Monday rejects many of the aid cuts sought by Republican President Donald Trump.

    That outcome results from the unwillingness of key Republicans in Congress to slash funding for the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAid).

    The most ardent congressional supporters of Mr Trump’s proposed cuts were sidelined as a result of Republican leaders’ decision to seek compromises with the Democratic Party minority. President Trump thus suffered a significant setback for his effort to “put American first” at the expense of poor countries. But the president has nevertheless said he will accept Congress’ version of the federal government spending plan.

    The Republican-Democratic deal applies to the US budget for the 2017 fiscal year that ends on September 30. Mr Trump is vowing to push again for steep reductions in State Department and USAid allocations for fiscal 2018.

    Backers of continued US assistance to Africa are praising the agreement reached by Republican and Democratic negotiators.

    “The funding for the State Department and USAid demonstrates strong bipartisan support as negotiations move forward on next year’s budget, particularly as proposals surface that would pull America back from the world,” declared Liz Schrayer, head of the US Global Leadership Coalition. That group represents some 500 businesses and NGOs that call for diplomacy and development to be given as much priority as US military initiatives.

    Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, specifically hailed the commitment to allocate $990 million to alleviate acute food shortages in Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen.

    “With 20 million people on the brink of starvation, there’s no question that this money will save lives,” Ms Lee said.

    The legislation also extends US support for health programmes important to Africa, such as the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Congress also plans to provide $30 million for the African Development Foundation, which Mr Trump had favoured eliminating.

    But the compromise package does contain some of the funding reductions for international organisations that Mr Trump had targeted.

    No money is to be allocated for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or the Green Climate Fund. And the United Nations is facing a $640 million cut in Washington’s $10 billion share of the UN budget.

    The proposal prohibits any US spending for implementation of the UN Arms Trade Treaty. Kenya played a leading role in fashioning that international agreement, which is opposed by the US gun lobby.

    Congress appears willing to give Mr Trump about half of the $54 billion increase in US military spending that he had urged. The Pentagon’s $521 billion budget would grow by five percent under the terms of the compromise reached by Congress.

    Source:Daily Nation

  • Britain sending 400 troops to join UN’s S.Sudan force

    {About 400 British soldiers will join the UN peacekeeping force in South Sudan in the next weeks in one of Britain’s largest operational deployments worldwide, the force said Tuesday.}

    A statement said the first of the British troops, “proudly wearing their distinctive blue UN berets, arrives in Juba today to join the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.”

    The British contingent, the first to join the 13,000-member UNMISS force since it was set up in 2011, is made up of medics and military engineers.

    The engineers will be deployed at UN camps housing displaced civilians in Bentiu and Malakal in the north, where they will help improve routes, security and drainage.

    Almost 80 medics will staff a hospital in Bentiu that provides care for civilians as well as for the 1,800 UN peacekeepers based there.

    The deployment of the troops comes three weeks after Britain’s International Development Minister Priti Patel said the targeted killings of specific ethnic groups in South Sudan amounted to “genocide”.

    But the decision to join UNMISS dates back to the former government headed by David Cameron.

    After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, the country descended into war in December 2013, leaving tens of thousands dead and more than 3.5 million people displaced.

    More than 1.9 million people are internally displaced and more than 1.7 million have fled to safety across the country’s borders.

    In February, South Sudan and the United Nations formally declared a famine in parts of northern Unity State affecting 100,000 people, a disaster UN officials said was “man-made” and could have been averted.

    A boy suffering from cholera and severe malnutrition sits on the floor of a tent converted into a temporary field hospital near the remote village of Dor, South Sudan on April 28, 2017. About 400 British soldiers will join the UN peacekeeping force in South Sudan.

    Source:AFP

  • Uganda police concludes investigations against king Mumbere, royal guards

    {The Police have completed carrying out investigations into the second file in which a total of 181 suspects including Rwenzururu king Charles Wesley Mumbere are being charged in connection with last year’s bloody clashes in Kasese.}

    Briefing the Jinja Chief Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, state prosecutor Mr James Muliro said that the committal papers are being drafted in a bid to have the suspects sent to the International Crimes Division of the High Court (ICD) at the next court session to stand trial.

    To that effect, presiding Chief Magistrate John Francis Kaggwa adjourned the case to May 25 when the king and his subjects are expected to be committed to the ICD.

    The Omusinga alongside his royal guards were arrested in November last year after the police and military stormed his palace looking for people they suspected to have taken refuge, a raid that left over 100 people dead including police officers.

    Following the bloody clashes, the state has since slapped several charges ranging from treason and terrorism, to murder and aggravated robbery.

    Speaking on the sidelines of the court, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Ms Winfred Kiiza tasked the state to speed up the investigations and have this case heard.

    She lamented that the state has spent six months without concluding the investigations and have sent the accused on trial before the ICD.

    Ms Kiiza added that the problem with the state is that they first arrest suspects before they commence carrying out investigations, a scenario she said is a bad practice.

    The Rwenzururu king is currently out on bail alongside his Prime Minister Johnson Thembo Kitsumbire.

    The duo despite being out on bail, have had their movements limited to the districts of Kampala, Wakiso and Jinja.

    Rwenzururu king Charles Wesley Mumbere

    Source:Daily Monitor