Category: World

US warship leaves after Iran’s warning

A US warship has left the area where Iran is performing major military exercises following a warning issued by an Iranian naval patrol aircraft.

The patrol aircraft belonging to the Airborne Division of Iran’s Navy warned the vessel, along with warships from other extra-regional countries, to leave the area during a reconnaissance flight on Sunday.

The vessels left the area immediately after receiving the warning message.

Iran’s Army is currently performing major military drills code-named Mohammad Rasoulallah (Mohammad, the Messenger of God) south of the country.

The fourth phase of the massive military drill began on Sunday.

Iran’s Navy chief, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, has said that a zone has been marked for firing missiles and torpedoes during the drills, calling on foreign forces to leave the area.

Under international regulations, those who refuse to leave the drilling zone will be held responsible for any consequences, Sayyari said.

In the fourth phase of the maneuvers, Iran’s naval forces will lay mines to prevent mock enemy from entering coastal areas. The mines will be cleared immediately to reconnect the lines between troops.

The Iranian Army’s F-4 Phantom fighter jets will also join in to support naval forces during the drills.

The Islamic Republic has frequently announced that its military might poses no threat to other countries, stating that its defense doctrine is based on deterrence.

Source: PressTV

Chinese blogger predicted AirAsia’s disappearance

A mysterious Chinese blogger has provoked a storm of speculation online over claims he predicted the disappearance of an AirAsia flight thirteen days before one vanished.

In a series of posts which have gone viral, the man appears to warn that the airline would be targeted by a shadowy group he calls the ‘Black Hand’ which he claims brought down Malaysian Airlines flights MH17 and MH370 earlier this year.

An AirAsia flight went missing with 162 people on board after losing contact en route from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore in the third crisis for a Malaysian carrier this year.

Since its disappearance, social media users have reacted with astonishment at the apparent prediction, while others claim the posts were probably just edited afterwards to make it look authentic.

In one comment on December 15, which has been loosely translated by a Reddit member, the blogger apparently warns: ‘Black hand has hijacked and shot down MH370 and MH17.

‘This has pretty much killed the sixth largest airline: Malaysian airline.
‘Now the black hand are targeting AirAsia to ruin this airline cause (sic) it too belong to Malaysia.

‘Given how powerful the black hand are I suggest that all Chinese thinking about travelling to avoid AirAisa, so that you don’t disappear like those on MH370.’

Since the disappearance of Flight 8051, many have reacted with astonishment at the apparent prediction, with speculation rife that he was a Chinese intelligence official or a hacker who had obtained information from the group allegedly responsible.

Source: Daily Mail

Argentine court grants orangutan human rights

In an unprecedented decision, an Argentine court has ruled that the Sumatran orangutan ‘Sandra’, who has spent 20 years at the zoo in Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires, should be recognized as a person with a right to freedom.

The ruling, signed by the judges unanimously, would see Sandra freed from captivity and transferred to a nature sanctuary in Brazil after a court recognized the primate as a “non-human person” which has some basic human rights. The Buenos Aires zoo has 10 working days to seek an appeal.

The “habeas corpus” ruling in favor of the orangutan was requested last November by the Association of Professional Lawyers for Animal Rights (AFADA) alleging that Sandra suffered “unjustified confinement of an animal with proven cognitive ability.”

Lawyers argued that just as a person, the ape is capable of maintaining emotional ties and has the ability to reason, while feeling frustrated with her confinement. Furthermore, the legal team claimed that the 29-year old orangutan can make decisions, has self-awareness and perception of time. And therefore, all things considered, Sandra’s presence at the Zoo constituted illegal deprivation of liberty.

Habeas corpus is a fundamental legal term in human rights, dating back to the early fourteenth century during the reign of Edward I in England. At that time courts began requiring the monarchy to report the reasons behind restricted freedom of a subject.

“This opens the way not only for other Great Apes, but also for other sentient beings which are unfairly and arbitrarily deprived of their liberty in zoos, circuses, water parks and scientific laboratories,” the daily La Nacion newspaper quoted AFADA lawyer Paul Buompadre as saying.

Sandra who was born in 1986 in the German zoo of Rostock, arrived in Buenos Aires in September 1994, where she’s spent 20 years behind bars. The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) claims Sumatran orangutan to be the most endangered of the orangutan species. Found only in the northern and western provinces of Sumatra, Indonesia, the species is fast losing its natural habitat to agriculture and human settlements.

Sandra’s case is not the first in which “habeas corpus” was invoked to secure the release of wild animals in human captivity. However, in the US the two recent cases failed. A New York court, earlier this month has ruled that Tommy chimpanzee was not legally a person and is therefore not entitled to human rights. And in 2011, a lawsuit against SeaWorld to free five wild-captured orca whales was dismissed by the San Diego court.

Castro reaffirms Communist rule in Cuba

President Raúl Castro declared victory for the Cuban Revolution on Saturday in a wide-ranging speech, thanking President Obama for “a new chapter” while also reaffirming that restored relations with the United States did not mean the end of Communist rule in Cuba.

In a televised speech before Parliament and a group of favored guests — including Elián González, the center of a tug of war in 2000 between Cuban exiles and Havana, and the three men convicted of spying in the United States who were released as part of the historic agreement announced on Wednesday — Mr. Castro alternated between conciliatory and combative statements directed at the United States.

He stoked the flames declaring near the end of his statement, “We won the war.” But he also praised Mr. Obama for starting the biggest change in United States-Cuba policy in more than 50 years.

“The government in Cuba will still repress and throw into jail anyone who opposes the Castro regime,” said Blanca Gonzalez, 65, who moved to the United States 13 years ago. Her son Normando Hernandez spent seven years in a Cuban prison, she said, for “practicing independent journalism”; he was freed in 2011.

“All Obama is doing is throwing a lifeline to the Castros so that they can continue crushing the people of Cuba,” said Roberto Delgado Ramos,78, who said he was arrested twice, in 1960 and 1964, for “counterrevolutionary activities” and served a total of 12 years in prison. “The Castros are the ones who need to pay for the blood that they have spilled.”

Source: NYT

Eight children found stabbed in indigenous area of Australia

Eight children ranging from babies to teenagers were found dead at a home in the Australian city of Cairns on Friday, police said, reportedly in a gruesome mass stabbing that comes just days after a deadly siege in Sydney.

Cairns police said they were called to the scene in the northern city and found the bodies of the children, aged between 18 months and 15 years.

A woman aged 34 was injured in the incident in the suburb of Manoora, 10 minutes from the city centre. TV footage showed her being stretchered into an ambulance. Police said she was in a stable condition and assisting detectives with their inquiries, but was not in custody.

CNN reported that police believed she is the mother of the eight children. It quoted detective inspector Bruno Asnicar as saying that police so far have no suspects in the case, but they do not believe the murders are terror-related.

Cairns Post reporter Scott Forbes, who is on the scene, said the area where the bodies were found has a large indigenous population.

“All of the people here are actually related to the people who were involved in this incident,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation of those who live on the same street.

The Australian Associated Press cited the injured woman’s cousin, Lisa Thaiday, as saying the children were all siblings and the woman was their mother. She said a 20-year-old man arrived home to find his siblings dead inside the house.

Reports widely said the children had been stabbed while the Cairns Post reported they were also suffocated, although police did not immediately confirm this.

Sky News, whose news anchor broke down in tears as the drama unfolded, said a stepfather was known to live at the house, but his whereabouts were unknown.

A couple who live around the corner said they did not feel safe in the area and it was not uncommon to hear fighting and drinking at night.

“It’s pretty scary. Oh my God,” the man, who did not want to be named, told reporters.

Cairns is a tropical city with a population of more than 150,000 people and is popular with international tourists as a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, one of Australia’s biggest tourist sites.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

WIN/Gallup poll: US represents threat to world peace

Is the most dangerous country in the world the United States of America? According to a new poll from WIN and Gallup International, the U.S. represents the largest threat to world peace today.

In their annual End of Year poll, researchers for WIN and Gallup International surveyed more than 66,000 people across 65 nations and found that 24 percent of all respondents answered that the United States “is the greatest threat to peace in the world today.” Pakistan and China fell significantly behind the United States on the poll, with 8 and 6 percent, respectively. Afghanistan, Iran, Israel and North Korea all tied for fourth place with 4 percent.

Much of the animosity toward America comes from Muslim Middle Eastern and North African nations, all located in a region most likely to be affected by American military actions over the past decade. Forty-four percent of Pakistani respondents, for instance, voted America as the most dangerous nation, despite Pakistan’s acceptance of U.S. foreign aid. The Chinese and Russians rated the United States as dangerous even more than Pakistanis did, at 54 and 49 percent, respectively.

However, a plurality of people polled in several officially American-allied nations also rated the United States as dangerous. Thirty-seven percent of Mexicans and 17 percent of Canadians view their neighboring country with suspicion on the world stage. A surprising 13 percent of American respondents rated their own nation the biggest threat to world peace as well.

While poll respondents seem anxious about the United States’ role in world affairs, many of them would have no problems moving to America if they could. The United States topped WIN/Gallup’s list of top countries people would move to with 9 percent of the vote. Canada and Australia came in second with 7 percent apiece, while 38 percent said they were happy exactly where they are.

Overall, responders seemed remarkably optimistic about their own futures, despite any misgivings about the United States. Nearly 50 percent of responders say that 2014 will be better than 2013, the first time since 1990 that people thought a better year was on the way.

“Despite an unstable economic situation, our happiness index is extremely high all over the world except in Europe,” Jean-Marc Leger, President of WIN/Gallup International Association, said in a statement. “Moreover people think that 2014 will be better than 2013. Optimism is back in the world.”

Australia warned of ISIS security risk

Up to 160 Australians have either been involved in fighting in the Middle East or actively supporting it, officials have said.

At leats 20 are believed to have returned to Australia and pose a security risk, the head of the national spy agency said last week, according to Reuters.

As The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

Highlighting the risk of homegrown militants returning from the Middle East, Abbott pledged on Sunday to send a 600-strong force as well as strike aircraft to join a U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq.

Top terrorist recruiter Mohammad Baryalei is behind an Islamic State plot to murder Australians on video, police say, sparking the nation’s biggest ever counter-terrorism raids and prompting warnings of a high alert for a further 18 months.

NSW and federal police as well as ASIO officers raided homes across Sydney and Brisbane on Thursday morning, arresting 15 men, some of them as young as 18 or 19.

They swooped amid fears for the public’s safety after Baryalei allegedly spoke by phone with Omarjan Azari on Tuesday to discuss a plan to kidnap and murder – presumably by beheading – a random person on camera, the footage of which would then be posted online by the Islamic State’s sophisticated and powerful propaganda wing.

Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Neil Gaughan told Fairfax Media that the terrorism alert level would have to stay on “high” despite the arrests – perhaps for a further 18 months.

“There is no doubt in my view the terror alert needs to stay high for the foreseeable future. We have seen an unprecedented increase in activity over the last 12 months,” he said.

“And it’s based on a lot of factors – ISIL, the declaration of the caliphate, an intent by people to do things in support of that, people continuing to recruit … We are in totally uncharted waters. I do not see any respite in the next 18 months.”

Led by a “British-speaking” murderer, ISIS released beheading videos of US journalists initially.

Australian police have now raided hundreds of homes foiling a direct ISIS provocation to publicly behead a random citizen in Sydney.

As Reuters reports, more than 800 police were involved in the pre-dawn security operation in Sydney and Brisbane, which was described as the largest in Australian history.

A 22-year-old Sydney man was arrested, after links were found to top ISIS recruiter Mohammad Baryalei that PM Abbot stated were “clearly designed to shock and horrify, perhaps terrify” the community.

Armed Sydney attacker hoists black Islamic flag

A police operation is underway at a café in central Sydney, where up to 40 hostages are being held by an armed attacker and a black flag with Arabic inscriptions can be seen. Australia is contributing to the US-led operation against the Islamic State.

As the siege was about to enter its sixth hour, at least five people apparently escaped from the building. Live footage showed heavily-armed police regrouping near the cafe’s door, but not entering it.

A senior Lindt Australia official said that 10 staff and up to 30 customers could be held inside the Lindt Chocolate Café in Martin Place. There were “probably 30 customers” at the time of the attack, Sky Business quoted Lindt Chief Executive Steve Loane as saying.

There was no immediate confirmation of the exact number of assailants.

Live TV footage showed people standing inside the café with their hands pressed against the windows. At least one attacker was caught on camera wearing a traditional Islamic cap.

The hostages were forced to hold a black flag with an Arabic inscription, prompting fears that ruthless Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants were behind the attack.

The flag – which appeared different from the one typically used by the IS – was identified as the shahada, or the statement of Islamic faith. The shahada itself only contains the religious inscription “There is no god but the God, Mohammed is the messenger of the God.”

The armed Islamist gunman reportedly contacted a local radio station saying that four bombs were planted and demanding negotiations with Australian PM Tony Abbott.

The attack, which took place in Sydney’s central business district, forced nearby buildings in Martin Place – including the Reserve Bank of Australia – into lockdown.

The US has evacuated its Sydney consulate, which is close to the Lindt Cafe, Reuters quoted a spokeswoman as saying.

Reports on the ground suggest that young women being held hostage in the cafe are being used as a shield.

Earlier, Australian 2GB radio host Ray Hadley said that the captor had demanded to speak with Prime Minister Tony Abbott live on the radio.

Hadley added that hostages inside the cafe contacted him, but he declined to air their conversation due to safety concerns of those inside the building.

Another report claimed that gunmen have explosive suicide belts.

Meanwhile, NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said that no direct contact was made with the captor(s).

Dozens of police, including a SWAT team, were dispatched to the scene, and a couple hundred people were held back by cordons amid the evacuation of nearby buildings.

Media speculations connecting the attack to the Islamic State have sprung up, as Australia has been supporting the US-led anti-IS coalition in Syria and Iraq. Back in September, Canberra contributed 600 troops and up to 10 military aircraft to the campaign.

In October, Australia launched its first fighter jet mission in Iraq against the IS. “The Super Hornet aircraft conducted an air interdiction and close air support mission over northern Iraq overnight,” the Australian Defence Force said in a statement.

ABC News live video showed that at least three people escaped through the emergency exit. A Sydney police representative confirmed that the hostages who had managed to escape were safe.

Calls for Russian isolation melt as Putin and Modi strike deals

It seems that the Indian premier, Narendra Modi, did not get the memo from Britain: “Russia faces global isolation – again“.

On Thursday, during the visit of the Russian president to India, Modi tweeted: “Wonderful day with President Putin. Our meeting was comprehensive. India’s partnership with Russia is incomparable.”

At a joint news conference after meeting Putin, Prime Minister Modi emphasized India’s deep defense ties with Russia, cryptically observing. “Even if India’s options have increased, Russia remains our most important defense partner.”

The United States on Thursday expressed its disapproval of India concluding defense and nuclear deals with Russia, saying it is not time for “business as usual” with Moscow in the backdrop of its aggression in Ukraine.

Washington also said it is troubled by the presence of the leader of the breakaway Crimean region in President Putin’s delegation to India and has sought clarifications from New Delhi about it.

The Russian leader’s engagement in New Delhi, particularly his being accompanied by Sergey Aksyonov, the Prime Minister of Crimea, evoked sharp reaction in Washington, where preparations are already underway for President Obama’s visit to India at the end of January.

The fact that Russia and India are trumpeting business ties, particularly in the area of nuclear power at a time the US-India civilian nuclear deal is yet to attain fruition, appeared to gall Washington, which has tried to isolate Putin for a referendum in Crimea. India does not support western sanctions against Russia for his actions in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko meanwhile lashed out at India, saying India was placing more importance on money than values by welcoming the “criminal” Aksyanov, and it was ”not standing with civilization” against Russian aggression.

The flap could cast a shadow over Obama’s visit to New Delhi late January, when the US president will be chief guest at India’s Republic Day parade, which also serves as an occasion for New Delhi to showcase its military hardware.

“Our view remains that it’s not time for business as usual with Russia,” spokesperson Jen Psaki at the US State Department briefing, said.

 

US, France brace for Africa

Molotov cocktails explode and tear gas fill the streets as U.S. Marines from SPMAGTF Crisis Response – Africa and French gendarmes with Mobile Gendarmerie Armored Group try to control a crowd of rioters in a city street.

That is how the scenario played out as the Marines and gendarmes trained together in crowd and riot control techniques at National Gendarmerie Training Center in St. Astier, France, from Dec. 1 to 5, 2014.

The Gendarmerie, like the Marines of SPMAGTF-CR-AF, are called to locations of instability to restore peace and protect national interests abroad. The idea to have the Marines and Gendarmes train together came about 10-12 years ago. Both are called by their nations to reinforce embassies in the face of a threat or an event of crisis.

During the multi-day event, the Marines and gendarmes shared historical lessons learned, trained in convoy escort and riot control procedures, conducted live-fire training, and built esprit through combined obstacle courses. The training culminated with a scenario that simulated the Marines and gendarmes conducting a partnered mission responding to a crisis in a foreign country, protecting the U.S. and French embassies, and conducting crowd and riot control.

“The facilities and training at St. Astier offered a unique experience that we are unable to replicate on Morón Air Base,” said Capt. Brian Green, the exercise officer in charge for SPMAGTF Crisis Response – Africa. “The ability to utilize rubber projectiles, Molotov cocktails, and CS gas during a mock riot brought a higher sense of realism to the training. The French gendarmes and U.S. Marines definitely built a lasting relationship that will continue to grow through further training in the future and will be proven strong if called to work together in Africa.”

The interoperability gained though the training evolution was invaluable as the two units may work together in the future. The exercise allowed the Marines to gain greater knowledge of non-lethal tactics, techniques and procedures while enhancing interoperability with the French Gendarmerie and strengthening the U.S. partnership with France.

“Both our nations have been allied for a long time, we even consider ourselves the oldest allies,” said French Gendarmerie Maj. Andre Rakoto, an officer with the Paris Gendarmerie Command. “It makes sense that we may want to combine our forces to conduct joint operations in Africa. In a time of crisis, the French may have to help American nationals and the Marines may have to help French nationals, making this training very good for our future.”

SPMAGTF-CR-AF is postured to respond to a broad range of military operations in the U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility, including: U.S. Embassy reinforcement, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel (TRAP), training with partner nations, and other missions as directed.

Source: www.dvidshub.net

Tanzania: ‘Albinos killed like animals’

In the rural areas of Tanzania, men, women, and children with albinism–a lack of pigment that makes them appear glaringly white–are waging an extensive human rights campaign against communities who routinely attack them for their hair or body parts, used in potions to attract wealth and good luck.

As BBC explains, the tradition of cooking albinos into potions is not a new one in Tanzania, and the parents of albino parents are forced to fear that, at any minute, a band of men may kidnap their children to sell to wealthy sectors of society for use in witchcraft.

It is estimated, the BBC notes, that 30,000 albinos live in Tanzania. Within that population, the number of violent attacks resulting in death in recent years is alarming: more than 70 albinos killed for their skin and hair. Of those, the BBC reports that only ten convictions have occurred, which activists attribute to the fact that well-connected and wealthy people were behind the attacks.

One activist, Mashaka Benedict of the Sengerema Albino Society, tells BBC that educated and wealthy people in rural areas are the greatest threat to albinos. “How can a poor man offer $10,000 [£6,300] for a body part? It’s the businessmen and politicians who are involved,” he alleges, noting the lack of logic in the claim that albinos bring money and good luck. “If that’s the case, why are we not rich?”

In May, one of the few cases of justice regarding albino killings made it to court in Tanzania. Two men were arrested for hacking an albino woman to death and taking her left leg, two fingers, and a nail from one of her thumbs. The men were witch doctors, and that case was the first of its kind since February 2013. Officials responded to the outrage in the albino community by telling the BBC that witch doctors cannot practice without a certificate from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which–of course–prohibits murder for the sake of herbalist tradition.
The most dangerous year for albinos in Tanzania has been 2014.

Following the May killing, August went on record as one of the most violent months for albinos in years. As Vice notes, within weeks of each other, a 15-year-old girl lost half her arm to attackers working in the service of a witch doctor, while a man was killed for defending his albino wife as attackers took away half her left arm. The three men who attacked the teen girl were arrested. A witch doctor was reportedly offering up to $600 for the girl’s arm.

Few outside Tanzania’s albino community have done much to help prevent these attacks. Police tell the BBC they have tried to prevent them and raise awareness against killing albinos, but their public service announcements and government decrees rarely get to the rural interior of the nation. At least one foreign nation, Turkey, has committed money to the fight to protect albinos in Tanzania–both from witchcraft-based attacks and from the heightened health risks a lack of pigment brings them in a hot African nation.

Source: Breitbart.com

Russia may build 24 nuclear power stations in India

A new road map on cooperation in the nuclear industry planned as Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Delhi on Thursday

Russia may build 20-24 nuclear power units in India against 14-16 units agreed previously, the Times of India reported Monday, citing Russia’s ambassador Alexander Kadakin.

The new road map on the countries’ cooperation in the nuclear industry can be formed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Delhi on Thursday.

“We have big plans for nuclear energy cooperation,” Kadakin said, addressing a news conference ahead of Putin’s visit. “Russia had agreed to help India build 14-16 nuclear units. Now it seems that demand of India is much bigger and this may rise to 20-24 units.”

The countries plan to start negotiations for the construction of a fifth and sixth units at the Kudankulam nuclear plant soon, he also said. An agreement on the construction of the plant’s third and fourth units will be signed during Putin’s visit, he also said.

Russian nuclear power corporation Rosatom’s unit Atomstroyexport is building the Kudankulam plant in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu under a contract signed in 1988. The plant’s first unit was launched in July 2013, while the construction of the second unit is currently at the final stage.

Source: Itar-TASS

British naval base in Bahrain a disaster waiting to happen

The British decision to establish a naval base at Mina Salman Port in Bahrain as an old colonial power strongly supporting the Sunni monarchy, is a questionable move.

Bahrain has been criticized by international organizations for human rights abuses, however, as the home of the US Fifth Fleet, it has faced little criticism from Western governments.

The monarchy mercilessly crushed demands for democracy and civil rights from the island’s Shia majority during the Arab Spring in 2011.

Their repression was excessive. Shia mosques and holy places were bulldozed. Doctors at the main hospital in Bahrain that treated injured protesters were tortured by being forced to stand without sleep for days on end. Other prisoners were told that unless they sang the praises of the king their interrogators would urinate into their mouths.

The hypocrisy in the claims of the US and Britain to support secular democracy and civil rights in countries such as Libya and Syria, are therefore outrageous.

They do so in alliance with Sunni theocratic repressive monarchies which understandably have no interest in spreading secular democracy anywhere.

In 2011, UAE said it would refuse to join the coalition against the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi if there was any criticism of Bahraini repression.

At the heart of the crisis convulsing this part of the Middle East is a struggle between Sunni and Shia, and Britain has openly taken the side of the former.

It may not necessarily be a good long-term investment, but the British are good at switching sides as Gaddafi found out too late.

The total population of states bordering on the Gulf is about 145 million of whom at least 110 million are Shia.

Nabeel Rajab, one of Bahrain’s leading human rights activists, was arrested on 1 October because he “offended national institutions” by his comments on social media. Rajab had criticised the government for using counterterrorism laws to prosecute human rights defenders.

He also pointed out that a former Bahraini interior ministry officer, Mohamed Isa al-Binali, had joined ISIS and was calling on other interior ministry employees to do likewise.

The opening of a large UK naval base in Bahrain is a reward to London for not speaking out against the royal family’s abuses against dissenters, human rights activist Nabeel Rajab said.

Hundreds of Bahrainis protested the announcement.

It is not at all clear why Britain needs to establish its first permanent naval base in the Middle East since 1970 in Bahrain.

The base in Bahrain will be used to support RAF operations against the Islamic State in Iraq, but these are on such a small scale that they will not do much to affect the outcome of the war with ISIS.

Most British disasters in the Middle East over the past century have stemmed from wishing to be a major player in the region, while underestimating the resources necessary to do so.

Bahrain will pay for the naval base, however.

Tenth doctor dies from Ebola

More people in the US will die this winter from the flu than Ebola

The Sierra Leonean doctor that died from Ebola, is the 10th to succumb to the disease, in what the country’s chief medical officer on Sunday called a shocking trend.

Dr. Aiah Solomon Konoyeima died on Saturday, according to Chief Medical Officer Dr Brima Kargbo. His death came a day after two other doctors died from Ebola.

Konoyeima worked at a children’s hospital in the capital and was treated at the Hastings Ebola Treatment Centre in Freetown.

Because Ebola is transmitted through the bodily fluids of the sick and dead, it is sometimes called the “caretakers’ disease.” Hundreds of health workers have been infected in this outbreak, which overall has sickened more than 17 500 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Of those, about 6 200 have died.

The disease has fallen off the front pages in recent weeks. Influenza is still a major killer in the United States. More people will die this winter from the flu than Ebola.

Antibiotic resistance is a major threat too. There are an estimated 75,309 cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, infection in the United States, according to CDC tracking data.

Since the Ebola outbreak began in February, around 300,000 people have died from malaria, while tuberculosis has likely claimed over 600,000 lives.

Ebola is not even close to being the biggest problem in Africa right now. Even Lassa fever, which shares many of the terrifying symptoms of Ebola (including bleeding from the eyelids), kills many more than Ebola – and frequently finds its way to the US.

In all, 11 Sierra Leonean doctors have been infected; only one has survived. That’s much higher than an overall fatality rate of 60% for hospitalised patients in the three most affected countries, according to the World Health Organisation.

Trying to explain why so many doctors have died, Kargbo said doctors may initially try to manage their symptoms at home and seek treatment later than other patients. He described as “shocking the continuing death rate among Sierra Leonean front-line medical doctors”.

But the branch of the country’s medical association that represents junior doctors has been pushing for better care for infected medical workers.

The group met on Saturday with President Ernest Bai Koroma and asked him to make sure the necessary life-saving equipment was available to treat doctors, according to Dr Jeredine George, the group’s president.

Koroma, according Kargbo, promised that a new unit to treat doctors would open soon. British army medics are already staffing a clinic dedicated to treating health workers.

In recent days, including Sunday, the World Food Program and the British military dropped food by helicopter to residents of Sherbro Island and surrounding islands who typically live by selling their fishing catch, but are struggling with so many markets shut because of Ebola.

The most real effect for millions of people reading about Ebola will be fear and stigma attached to Africa as well as blacks.

During the Sars outbreak of 2003, Asian-Americans became the targets of just that, with public health hotlines inundated with calls from Americans worried about “buying Asian merchandise”, “living near Asians”, “going to school with Asians”, and more.