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{{Hundreds of men have been flocking Gasabo’s Kibagabaga hospital to undergo circumcision for free.}}

The program which started in June with training, the actual circumcision starting October intends to cover 2 million men by the year 2013.

Kibagabaga Hospital carries circumcision every weekend but this time it carried it on Monday, the boxing day due to Christmas feastive.

Circumcision has been recognized as one of the tools to reduce risks of acquiring HIV.

In 2009, the Minister of Health Dr Agnes Binagwaho published a paper on PLoS Medicine website to show Male Circumcisions (MC) cost effectiveness. It is also said that Binagwaho is a board member PLoS Medicine.

PLoS Medicine is an open-access, peer-reviewed medical journal that publishes outstanding human studies that substantially enhance the understanding of human health worldwide.

According to the paper now on the PLoS medicine website, MC is one of the oldest and most common surgical procedures with approximately 30% of men circumcised worldwide.

While MC is almost universal in North Africa and most of West Africa, it is less common in Southern Africa where HIV prevalence is much higher.

In Rwanda, MC is not a traditional procedure and it is estimated that only about 15% of men are circumcised. Nonetheless, due to the ongoing debate about MC in the country, demand for the service is increasing according to the Ministry of Health.

Conclusive evidence from three randomised control trials conducted in Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa showed that MC reduces the risk of HIV infection by about 55%: 51% in Uganda , 53% in Kenya , and 60% in South Africa.

Studies also report a substantially reduced risk of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among circumcised men, such as syphilis (summary risk ratio (RR) = 0.67, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.54–0.83) and chancroid (RR 0.12–1.11).

There is also evidence that MC protects against urinary tract infections (RR = 0.13, CI 0.01–2.63) [8]; invasive penile cancer and reduces prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) (adjusted RR 0.65, 95% CI 0.46–0.90; p = 0.009).

Most studies report a reduced risk of gonorrhoea and chlamydia trachomatis infection in female partners Moreover, MC protects against balanitis, posthitis, phimosis, and paraphimosis.

The paper presented by Dr Binagwaho indicate that infant MC, total costs (US$2,250,000) are lower than discounted total savings (US$3,808,523) meaning the intervention is cost-saving.

For adolescents and adults, total costs (US$8,850,000) are higher than total savings, for net costs of US$2,940,180 and US$3,407,951, respectively.

The cost-effectiveness ratio (net cost per infection averted) is US$3,932 and US$4,949 for adolescents and adults, respectively.

The findings from the analysis in Rwanda show that neonatal MC is less expensive than adolescent and adult MC (US$15 instead of US$59 per procedure) and is cost-saving; even though savings from infant circumcision will be realized later in time.

The fact that MC of infants in Rwanda is a cost-saving intervention means that for each MC performed, the government of Rwanda will save money.

Simoni Kanyaruhango who is heading the program through Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC), noted that there’re efforts to enhance the program which for the past four years of its existence hasn’t shown much progress.

“So far we’re equipping all District hospitals countrywide with necessary tools, we also have plans to take similar services in rural areas,”

A report by the Ministry of Health show that only 12% of men were circumcised by the year 2007. Kanyaruhango noted that the idea was to reduce the risks of men acquiring HIV/AIDS and other sexual transmitted diseases.

Also this report shows that 50 to 60% of circumcision men in the region had lesser risks of acquiring HIV/AIDs.

Fabien Kalisa aged 25 was among hundreds of male lining up to undergo the minor surgery done in three theater rooms, decided to be circumcised after learning from one of the RBC campaign.

“I commend the initiative of this hospital in giving out free circumcision since many are reluctant to pay the amount while others don’t fully understand the advantages, the doctor has told us that after seven days I will be fine and ready to get back to work and my genital hygiene will improve too,” he remarked.

Due to the big number of people interested for the free service, the Director of Kibagabaga hospital Christian Ntizimira noted that the exercise intends to end its first phase by February followed by evaluation then continue till 2013.

He says that every weekend between 80 and 90 men are circumcised and that between 300-400 men have been circumcised so far and all operations have been successful, Ntizimira said.

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has killed more than 25 million people since 1981 and more than 31 million people (22 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone) are now infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS.

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{{Kigali City mayor Fidele Ndayisaba has refuted allegations of a ban against overnight parties and concerts that go until break of dawn.
“I didn’t say that. Rwandans should have fun anytime they want.”}}

In a phone interview, Ndayisaba insisted that during the festive season everyone should enjoy, visit their friends and family and there’s no time limit for celebrations.

“I wish all city dwellers and Rwandans at large a merry Christmas and a happy new year.”

However he cautioned people to party responsibly by avoiding drink driving or engaging in fights, “security will be tight as usual”.

{{752 youths at Iwawa rehabilitation centre have been presented with certificates after successful completition of training in vocational skills.}}

The director of Iwawa Nicolas Niyongabo during the Award ceremony announced a profit of Frw75 million accumulated from products made by the youths at the center.

Niyongabo highlighted that some of the courses include farming, construction, carpentry and bee keeping.

He added that the center faces challenges of infrastructure, “we don’t have enough electricity and water.We use charcoal for cooking and our health facilities are substandard.”

In his remarks the minister of youth Protais Mitali urged the graduates to fully utilise skills acquired to improved their welfare and promote the country’s development.

They were urged to avoid indulgence in drug abuse and immoral activities.

Charles Kabanda a parent whose son graduated, commended the center’s performance but added that more improvement is needed especially in improving the curriculum, more workers and better classrooms and toilets.

Saidi Zirarushya one of the graduates noted that for the past two years he has studied at the center and is able to read and write. “i used to be a drug addict from Rubavu district but now I’m reformed.”

{{Four people died last night on the eve of Christmas succumbing to road accidents, The police spokesman supt. Theos Badege has said.}}

Among the four death tolls countrywide, included two who died in a motorcycle accident on the road from town to Nyarutarama via Utexrwa textile company near Redcross.

Badege added that also six people were arrested country wide due to reckless driving while drunkard.

While 15 others were also arrested at Muhima police station for over drinking and distabilising their neigbours though they were not driving.

However, Badege says generally the country was safe and at peace through the eve of Christmas.

“I think Rwandan have started knowing and understanding to have discipline in their lives and they really took police warnings seriously,” Badedge said by cell phone.

“This not alarming though, if you compare last weekend’s accidents they are equal to what was recorded last night, so we can’t actually associate it with celebrations,” Badege added.

Police had begun an earlier warning through different media to drivers and the public to have safe celebrations.

Particularly the police warned against sound pollution, over speeding and the like the only issue was the extended traffic jam ciculation.

Though it extended compared to daily hours traffic policemen had been deployed in different joints to assist in the increased traffic that could have been caused by different people going to and coming from shopping for Christmas.

But also partly due to weddings since it was a Saturday that always sees weddings takeoff, traffic jam at Remera, Gipoloso for example almost stretched upto 11:00pm .

According to Badege, all those collective celebrations like concerts took place in the given time, and wedding or home parties made sure that they do it calmly not to interfere in their neighbor’s freedom.

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{{US. President Barack Obama Thursday announced $113Million in emergency relief assistance to Horn of Africa.}}

More than 13 million people are at risk of starvation in this region of Africa including Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.

The new emergency relief assistance will go for food, health, shelter, water and other needs.

Calling the crisis “urgent,” Obama said in a statement that the additional aid would come on top of the $870 million in assistance the United States has already provided to help countries hit by the worst drought in decades.

“The heartbreaking accounts of lives lost and of those struggling to survive remind us of our common humanity and the need to reach out to people in need,” President Obama said.

“Importantly, and even as we help to meet the emergency needs of the people of this region, we are also investing in their long-term food security,” Obama added.

{{The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has urged policymakers to fully involve scientific experts and technocrats in disaster management in efforts to reduce and build resilience against catastrophes.}}

This follows the recent floods that devastated Dar es Salaam Capital of Tanzania.

The Speaker,Abdirahin Haithar Abdi, said when addressing a UN disaster conference in Geneva early this week that drought currently ravaging the Horn of Africa has long been predicted but nothing has been done to curb its effects.

“This is a clear sign of disparity between scientists and legislators. If meaningful advances in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and disaster management is to be realized, we need to urgently close ranks and begin working together for the betterment of the communities,” he said.

He said Eala would soon call together regional parliaments to share experiences on disaster management and put DRR on the radar. He remarked that disasters were hindering development and that it was time for action.

Parliaments, he noted, must carry out their functions of legislation, oversight, budgeting and representation with more deligence “but must be true ambassadors who are accountable on disaster matters.

On what the East African Community was dealing with the issue,Abdi revealed that the EAC Transboundary Ecosystems Bill 2010 was likely to be brought before the House for its second reading when the Assembly convenes in Kampala, Uganda late next month.

The Bill inter-alia aims at providing a legal framework to streamline management of trans-boundary ecosystems with the view of enhancing quality of environment and ensuring sustainable utilization of shared natural resources.

At the same time, Eala shall look into the possibility and way forward towards finalization of the model legislation on DRR for the EAC region.

Participants at the meeting hailed the parliaments of Uganda and Senegal for the positive progress on the DRR realized.
Both nations have a positive parliamentary fora on DRR, a move termed as positive in efforts to address disaster risks at the high level.

According to a Uganda MP Alex Byarugaba, Uganda has developed and refined its policy on DRR and was headed towards instituting an Act of Parliament which will be the first in the region.

Abdou Sane of the Parliament of Senegal said it was time legislators formed networks consisting of parliamentarians, media, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), citizens and other stakeholders to champion DRR.

“We in the Ecowas (Economic Community of West African States) are contemplating forming networks in each of the 16 member states of the bloc”, he stated.

An MP from Bangladesh Saber Chowdhury termed mapping of disaster prone areas as essential in the universal bid to contain disasters.

He called for a change of mindset by identifying modalities that build resilience and capacities to handle disasters as opposed to relief and reconstruction which, he said, were reactionary and defeatist.

The two day consutative talks in Geneva concluded with a clarion call by the legislators to re-double their efforts in building global resilience of nations and communities to disasters.

The Parliamentarians called for the enactment of legislation on Disaster Management, increase in resources and scale-up of networking and information to shore up DRR in the local, regional and global communities.

The objective of the meeting was to review progress with regards to the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNIDR) initiative on Parliamentarians in disaster risk reduction,exchange views on challenges that Parliamentarians encountered in promoting DRR and identify priorities for the 2012-2013 Action Plan.

Margareta Wahlstrom, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Disaster Reduction reiterated the UN’s support for DRR as key in sustainable and equitable development.

“We are pursuing this important subject on the multilateral agenda of the UN. Business as usual is not an option adding that it was time for re-definition of development to be sensitive to disasters and climate
risks” she said.

The UN Representative further informed Parliamentarians of major forthcoming events including the next World Conference on Disaster Reduction in 2015 and the UN Conference on Sustainable Development where disaster risk was set to take centre stage in the discussions in line with the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA).

The Hyogo Framework is a blueprint adopted by Member States of the UN in 2005 at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction and it aims at building resilience of nations to disasters.

{{Yahoo is deepening its integration with Facebook’s online social network.
The latest bond announced late Tuesday will enable Facebook users to share more of their activities on Yahoo’s websites, including which stories they are reading.}}

Yahoo has now announced that it would be extending the feature to 26 other parts of Yahoo’s site, including U.S.-based entertainment experiences omg!, Yahoo! TV, Yahoo! Movies, and Yahoo! Games.

By opting-in to the new feature, people can easily let their Facebook friends know what they’re reading on Yahoo

By tying more of its services to Facebook’s popularity, Yahoo is hoping to give people more reasons to visit and stick around its website. Yahoo ultimately wants to sell more online advertising.

That’s an area where Facebook has been gaining ground as its website has emerged as a top Internet hangout.

As Facebook has become more influential, Yahoo has been struggling to remain relevant among Web surfers and online advertisers.

It’s been a daunting challenge so far. Yahoo has gone through three different CEOs in the past four years while its revenue and stock price have drooped.

The difficulties have prompted a board review that will culminate in a sale of all or part of the company.

Yahoo has been pleased with the results of Facebook-sharing so far. Traffic to Yahoo’s news section from Facebook has tripled since that sharing feature was introduced, according to the company, which is based in Sunnyvale, California.

Apparently, a relatively small percentage of Yahoo’s 700 million users want their online social circles to know what they’re reading on the Web.

Yahoo says about 12 million people have opted to share their tastes in news stories so far.

The feature is particularly popular among young adults ranging from 18 to 24 years old, according to Yahoo.

Facebook sharing still isn’t available on two of Yahoo’s most popular sections, finance and sports. The company says those sections will be linked to Facebook early next year.

{{Tens of thousands of tourists and Christian pilgrims have packed the West Bank town of Bethlehem for Christmas Eve celebrations, bringing holiday cheer to the traditional birthplace of Jesus.}}

With turnout at its highest in more than a decade on Saturday, proud Palestinian officials said they were praying the celebrations would bring them closer to their dream of independence.

Bethlehem, like the rest of the West Bank, fell onto hard times after the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation broke out in late 2000. As the fighting has subsided in recent years, the tourists have returned in large numbers.

By late night, the Israeli military, which controls movement in and out of town, said some 100,000 visitors, including foreigners and Arab Christians from Israel, had reached Bethlehem, up from 70,000 the previous year.

Thousands of Palestinians from inside West Bank also converged on the town.

“It’s wonderful to be where Jesus was born,” said Irma Goldsmith, 68, of Suffolk, Virginia. “I watch Christmas in Bethlehem each year on TV, but to be here in person is different. To be in the spot where our saviour was born is amazing.”

After nightfall, a packed Manger Square, along with a 50-foot-tall (15-metre-tall) Christmas tree, was awash in Christmas lights.

Festivities were to culminate with Midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity, built over the grotto where tradition says Jesus was born.

Among the visitors were a surprisingly large number of veiled Muslim women with their families.

“We love to share this holiday with our Christian brothers,” said Amal Ayash, 46, who came to Manger Square with her three daughters, all of them covered in veils.

Israel turned Bethlehem over to Palestinian civil control a few days before Christmas in 1995, and since then, residents have been celebrating the holiday regardless of their religion.

Pilgrims from around the world also wandered the streets, singing Christmas carols and visiting churches.

John Houston, 58, from Long Beach, California said: “It makes me feel really good to see what I have been learning from the time I was a kid in Sunday school until today.”

Houston said he was surprised by Bethlehem’s appearance, which is a far cry from the pastoral village of biblical times. Today, it is a sprawling town of cement apartment blocs and narrow streets.

Located on the southeastern outskirts of Jerusalem, Bethlehem is surrounded on three sides by a barrier Israel built to stop Palestinian militants from attacking last decade.

Palestinians say the barrier has damaged their economy by constricting movement in and out of town. Twenty-two per cent of Bethlehem residents are unemployed, the Palestinian Authority says.

Most visitors entering Bethlehem, including the top Roman Catholic official in the Holy Land, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, had to cross through an Israeli-controlled checkpoint to reach town.

In his homily, he referred to the Arab Spring, imploring Arab leaders to have “wisdom, insight and a spirit of selflessness toward their countrymen” and praying for reconciliation in Syria, Egypt, Iraq and North Africa.

He also noted the Palestinian campaign to join the United Nations, and complained that the UN was “less than united” in its support for the now-stalled initiative. He also criticised the international community for pushing the Palestinians to “re-engage in a failed peace process”.

The patriarch lamented the Israeli barrier enveloping Bethlehem – “let us tear down the walls of our hearts in order to tear down the walls of concrete” – and prayed for peace for both Palestinians and Israelis.

With peace talks at a standstill, the Palestinians are seeking membership as a state in the United Nations and recently gained admission to UNESCO, the UN cultural agency.

“We are celebrating this Christmas hoping that in the near future we’ll get our right to self-determination, our right to establish our own democratic, secular Palestinian state on the Palestinian land. That is why this Christmas is unique,” said Mayor Victor Batarseh, who is Christian.

Late Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told a meeting of Christian leaders that he is committed to reaching peace with Israel, despite a three-year standstill in negotiations.

Today, only about one-third of Bethlehem’s residents are Christian, reflecting a broader exodus of Christians from the Middle East in recent decades.

AP

{{While speaking to worshipers at the Christmas eve, Pope Benedict XVI decried of the commercialization of Christmas day.}}

Sending his message across to the estimated 1.3 billion Roman Catholics from St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the Pope called upon humanity to remember those who are poor, sick or far away from home.

The 84 year old pope urged that celebration of Christmas should be beyond the superficial gleam and commercialism of the season and rediscover the real meaning of the birth of Jesus Christ.

At the start of a Christmas Eve service, he was wheeled up the central aisle of St Peter’s Basilica standing on a mobile platform which he has been using since October.

The Vatican says it is to conserve his strength, allow more people to see him and guard against attacks such as one on Christmas Eve, 2009, when a woman lunged at him and knocked him to the ground. He is believed to suffer from arthritis in the legs.

But he seemed to be in good shape during the solemn service in Christendom’s largest church as choirs sang, cantors chanted and organ music filled the centuries-old basilica.

Benedict, wearing resplendent gold and white vestments, urged his listeners to find peace in the symbol of the powerless Christ child in a world continually threatened by violence.

“Today Christmas has become a commercial celebration, whose bright lights hide the mystery of God’s humility, which in turn calls us for humility and simplicity,” he said in his sermon to about 10,000 people in the basilica.

“Let us strip away our fixation on what is material, on what can be measured and grasped. Let us allow ourselves to be made simple by the God who reveals himself to the simple of heart,” he said.

The pope, who earlier placed a “candle of peace” on the windowsill of his apartments as the life-size nativity scene in St Peter’s Square was inaugurated, called for an end to violence, for oppressors to put down their “rods” and for all to become peacemakers.

“God has appeared as a child. It is in this guise that he pits himself against all violence and brings a message that is peace,” he said.

“At this hour, when the world is continually threatened by violence in so many places and in so many different ways, when over and over again there are oppressors’ rods and bloodstained cloaks, we cry out to the Lord.” he said.

“We suffer from the continuing presence of violence in the world, and so we also ask you: manifest your power, O God. In this time of ours, in this world of ours, cause the oppressors’ rods, the cloaks rolled in blood and the footgear of battle to be burned, so that your peace may triumph in this world of ours.”

On Christmas Day, the pope will deliver his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message and blessing from the central loge of St Peter’s Basilica.
He continues his Christmas and New Year’s celebrations on Dec 31 with a year-end Mass of thanksgiving known by its Latin name Te Deum.

On January 1 he marks the Roman Catholic Church’s World Day of Peace, on January 6 he marks the Epiphany and on January 8 will baptise several newborns in the Sistine Chapel.

He is due to visit Mexico and Cuba in March.

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