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One killed, dozens injured in Rwanda vote rally stampede

One killed, dozens injured in Rwanda vote rally stampede
One person died and dozens were injured during a stampede, ahead of a vote widely expected to extend President Paul Kagame’s 24-year iron-fisted rule. (AFP)
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Updated 24 June 2024
AFP
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One killed, dozens injured in Rwanda vote rally stampede

One killed, dozens injured in Rwanda vote rally stampede
  • Paul Kagame has been Rwanda’s de facto ruler since the end of the 1994 genocide which claimed some 800,000 lives, mostly Tutsis but also moderate Hutus
Updated 24 June 2024
AFP
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KIGALI: One person died and dozens were injured during a stampede at President Paul Kagame’s campaign rally, Rwanda’s national broadcaster reported, ahead of a vote widely expected to extend the incumbent’s 24-year iron-fisted rule.
Kagame has been Rwanda’s de facto ruler since the end of the 1994 genocide which claimed some 800,000 lives, mostly Tutsis but also moderate Hutus.
President since 2000, the 66-year-old will face the same rivals as he did in 2017: the leader of the opposition Democratic Green Party, Frank Habineza, and former journalist, Philippe Mpayimana, who is running as an independent.
Campaigning kicked off on Saturday, with Kagame addressing rallies in Musanze and Rubavu in northern Rwanda on the weekend.
“One person died and 37 others were injured in a stampede that occurred during the RPF-Inkotanyi campaigns in Rubavu on Sunday,” the state-run Rwanda Broadcasting Agency reported, using the official name for Kagame’s party.
“The Ministry of Local Government asked those participating in the campaign to follow the instructions and regulations aimed at ensuring safety and security,” the broadcaster added.
Rwandan courts rejected appeals from prominent opposition figures Bernard Ntaganda and Victoire Ingabire to remove previous convictions that effectively barred them from contesting.
The election commission also barred Kagame critic Diane Rwigara, saying she had failed to provide a criminal record statement as required, and had not met the threshold of acquiring 600 supporting signatures from citizens.
Elected by parliament in 2000 after the resignation of former president Pasteur Bizimungu, Kagame has won three elections with more than 90 percent of the ballot in 2003, 2010 and 2017, taking nearly 99 percent of votes in the most recent poll.
He has been praised for Rwanda’s economic recovery after the genocide but faces criticism over rights abuses and political repression.

Topics: Rwanda

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Russia evacuates border villages in Kursk region

Updated 17 sec ago
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Russia evacuates border villages in Kursk region

Russia evacuates border villages in Kursk region
Updated 17 sec ago
Moscow appears to be mounting a counter-offensive in the region
More than 150,000 people in the region have had to flee their homes since Kyiv’s offensive began on August 6

MOSCOW: Russia is evacuating a number of villages in the Kursk region close to the Ukrainian border, the local governor said on Monday, almost six weeks after Ukraine launched its surprise incursion.
Moscow appears to be mounting a counter-offensive in the region, claiming to have retaken at least a dozen villages from Ukraine’s control since last week.
Authorities have decided to order the “obligatory evacuation of settlements in the Rylsky and Khomutovsky districts that are within a 15-kilometer (nine-mile) zone adjacent to the border with Ukraine,” Governor Alexei Smirnov said on Telegram.
He did not say which villages would be evacuated or the number of evacuees. There are dozens of villages and towns within this 15-kilometer radius.
More than 150,000 people in the region have had to flee their homes since Kyiv’s offensive began on August 6, state media reported Smirnov as saying last week.
Ukraine says its forces have advanced across tens of kilometers of Russian territory and seized dozens of settlements, including the border town of Sudzha.
Ukraine’s incursion — which began more than two years after Russia launched a full-scale military assault on its neighbor — caught Moscow off-guard.
It is the biggest incursion by a foreign army on Russian territory since World War II.

Biden says Secret Service ‘needs more help’ after apparent Trump assassination bid

Biden says Secret Service ‘needs more help’ after apparent Trump assassination bid
Updated 30 min 15 sec ago
AFP
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Biden says Secret Service ‘needs more help’ after apparent Trump assassination bid

Biden says Secret Service ‘needs more help’ after apparent Trump assassination bid
  • “The Secret Service needs more help,” Biden told reporters at the White House
Updated 30 min 15 sec ago
AFP

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden said Monday that the US Secret Service needed more help to perform its duties after a second apparent assassination attempt against Republican election candidate Donald Trump.
“The Secret Service needs more help,” Biden told reporters at the White House, following Sunday’s incident in which the Secret Service opened fire on a gunman, who was later arrested, at Trump’s golf course in Florida.

Topics: US elections 2024 Donald Trump US President Joe Biden

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The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says

The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says
Updated 34 min 43 sec ago
AP
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The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says

The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says
  • It comes as a setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious 
  • Any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress
Updated 34 min 43 sec ago
AP

DUBAI: The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN said Monday. It’s a devastating setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious and any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress.

Afghanistan is one of two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. The other is Pakistan. It’s likely that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions for other countries in the region and beyond.

News of the suspension was relayed to UN agencies right before the September immunization campaign was due to start. No reason was given for the suspension, and no one from the Taliban-controlled government was immediately available for comment.

A top official from the World Health Organization said it was aware of discussions to move away from house-to-house vaccinations and instead have immunizations in places like mosques.

The WHO has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023.

“The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is aware of the recent policy discussions on shifting from house-to-house polio vaccination campaigns to site-to-site vaccination in parts of Afghanistan,” said Dr. Hamid Jafari from the WHO. “Partners are in the process of discussing and understanding the scope and impact of any change in current policy.”

Polio campaigns in neighboring Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.

As recently as August, the WHO reported that Afghanistan and Pakistan were continuing to implement an “intensive and synchronized campaign” focusing on improved vaccination coverage in endemic zones and an effective and timely response to detections elsewhere.

During a June 2024 nationwide campaign, Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, the WHO said.

But southern Kandahar province, the base of Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, used site-to-site or mosque-to-mosque vaccination campaigns, which are less effective than going to people’s homes.

Kandahar continues to have a large pool of susceptible children because it is not carrying out house-to-house vaccinations, the WHO said. “The overall women’s inclusion in vaccination campaigns remains around 20 percent in Afghanistan, leading to inadequate access to all children in some areas,” it said.

Any setback in Afghanistan poses a risk to the program in Pakistan due to high population movement, the WHO warned last month.

Pakistani health official Anwarul Haq said the polio virus would eventually spread and continue affecting children in both countries if vaccination campaigns aren’t run regularly and in a synchronized manner.

“Afghanistan is the only neighbor from where Afghan people in large numbers come to Pakistan and then go back,” said Haq, the coordinator at the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication. “People from other neighboring countries, like India and Iran, don’t come to Pakistan in large numbers.”

There needs to be a united effort to eliminate the disease, he told The Associated Press.

The campaign suspension is the latest obstacle in what has become a problematic global effort to stop polio. The initiative, which costs about $1 billion every year, has missed multiple deadlines to wipe out the disease and technical mistakes in the vaccination strategy set by WHO and partners have been costly.

The oral vaccine has also inadvertently seeded outbreaks in dozens of countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East and now accounts for the majority of polio cases worldwide.

This was seen most recently in Gaza, where a baby was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of polio first seen in the oral vaccine, marking the territory’s first case in more than 25 years.

Topics: Taliban UN Afghanistan

The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says

The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says
Updated 16 September 2024
AP
Follow

The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says

The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says
  • News of the suspension was relayed to UN agencies right before the September immunization campaign was due to start
  • No reason was given for the suspension, and no one from the Taliban-controlled government was immediately available for comment.
Updated 16 September 2024
AP

DUBAI: The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN said Monday. It’s a devastating setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious and any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress.
Afghanistan is one of two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. The other is Pakistan. It’s likely that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions for other countries in the region and beyond.
News of the suspension was relayed to UN agencies right before the September immunization campaign was due to start. No reason was given for the suspension, and no one from the Taliban-controlled government was immediately available for comment.
A top official from the World Health Organization said it was aware of discussions to move away from house-to-house vaccinations and instead have immunizations in places like mosques.
The WHO has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023.
“The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is aware of the recent policy discussions on shifting from house-to-house polio vaccination campaigns to site-to-site vaccination in parts of Afghanistan,” said Dr. Hamid Jafari from the WHO. “Partners are in the process of discussing and understanding the scope and impact of any change in current policy.”
Polio campaigns in neighboring Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
As recently as August, the WHO reported that Afghanistan and Pakistan were continuing to implement an “intensive and synchronized campaign” focusing on improved vaccination coverage in endemic zones and an effective and timely response to detections elsewhere.
During a June 2024 nationwide campaign, Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, the WHO said.
But southern Kandahar province, the base of Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, used site-to-site or mosque-to-mosque vaccination campaigns, which are less effective than going to people’s homes.
Kandahar continues to have a large pool of susceptible children because it is not carrying out house-to-house vaccinations, the WHO said. “The overall women’s inclusion in vaccination campaigns remains around 20 percent in Afghanistan, leading to inadequate access to all children in some areas,” it said.
Any setback in Afghanistan poses a risk to the program in Pakistan due to high population movement, the WHO warned last month.
Pakistani health official Anwarul Haq said the polio virus would eventually spread and continue affecting children in both countries if vaccination campaigns aren’t run regularly and in a synchronized manner.
“Afghanistan is the only neighbor from where Afghan people in large numbers come to Pakistan and then go back,” said Haq, the coordinator at the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication. “People from other neighboring countries, like India and Iran, don’t come to Pakistan in large numbers.”
There needs to be a united effort to eliminate the disease, he told The Associated Press.
The campaign suspension is the latest obstacle in what has become a problematic global effort to stop polio. The initiative, which costs about $1 billion every year, has missed multiple deadlines to wipe out the disease and technical mistakes in the vaccination strategy set by WHO and partners have been costly.
The oral vaccine has also inadvertently seeded outbreaks in dozens of countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East and now accounts for the majority of polio cases worldwide.
This was seen most recently in Gaza, where a baby was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of polio first seen in the oral vaccine, marking the territory’s first case in more than 25 years.

Topics: Taliban Afghanistan polio vaccinations UN

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French researcher Vinatier pleads guilty to foreign agent law violations in Russian court

French researcher Vinatier pleads guilty to foreign agent law violations in Russian court
Updated 16 September 2024
Reuters
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French researcher Vinatier pleads guilty to foreign agent law violations in Russian court

French researcher Vinatier pleads guilty to foreign agent law violations in Russian court
  • The Moscow district court where Vinatier is being tried has agreed to consider his case under a special regime
Updated 16 September 2024
Reuters

MOSCOW: Laurent Vinatier, a French researcher on trial in Russia for non-compliance with Russia’s foreign agent laws, pleaded guilty on Monday, Russian news agencies said.
State news agency RIA said the Moscow district court where Vinatier is being tried has agreed to consider his case under a special regime, which guarantees a lighter sentence.

Topics: Russia Laurent Vinatier court French

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