Lawyers from around Africa gathered in Cameroon this week to call for tougher legislation against counterfeit medicine.

Sixty tons of counterfeit medicine was burned after being seized by customs officials in Cameroon, who say the stockpile had an estimated value of $80,000.

Customs official Marcel Kamgaing said the imitation medicine was being used to treat everything from diabetes and hypertension to cancer and erectile dysfunction. He said the forged drugs were destined for sale at shops and roadside pharmacies.

He says illicit drugs are very dangerous to the health of consumers and may even kill due to poor packaging and preservation. He says importers should be informed that Cameroon’s customs laws give them the authority to destroy all fake drugs.

Counterfeit drugs conference

The burning was scheduled to coincide with an international conference this week in Yaounde on the problem of phony drugs in Africa.

Jackson Ngnie Kamga, president of the Cameroon Bar Association, says the current penalties are not enough of a deterrent. He said traffickers should face jail time.

He says because of its deadly consequences, it is high time for Cameroon to join African states to start considering the transportation and commercialization of bogus drugs as a major crime, not a simple offense punishable by fines and seizure of the illicit goods. He says the number of people who die because of such drugs makes them consider it another form of homicide, which the international community should help Africa tackle.

The World Health Organization says falsified medical products may contain no active ingredient, the wrong active ingredient or the wrong amount of the correct active ingredient. The WHO says about 100,000 deaths-a-year in Africa are linked to counterfeit drugs.

Asian source

Issouf Baadhio, an attorney from Burkina Faso, represented the International Association of Lawyers as its vice president. He said the counterfeit drugs are primarily manufactured in Asia, especially in China, and so African countries need to focus on stopping importation.

He says besides the fact that this trade is illegal, importing fake drugs has disastrous economic consequences and as such civil society organizations and professional groups like the International Association of Lawyers should join states and make sure that markets are protected and custom controls are set up at entrances to all states to detect and stop the sale of all dangerous drugs.

Identifying counterfeit medicines can be difficult. The WHO urges officials and consumers to look for signs like misspelled words on the packaging and to check that the manufacture and expiration dates inside and outside packaging match.
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From: MeNeedIt

The U.N. children’s fund warns tens of thousands of malnourished children are at great risk in Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan, which are on the brink of famine.

UNICEF reports an estimated 4.7 million children in the three cholera-stricken countries are malnourished. Of these, UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac tells VOA, more than one million are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

“Let me remind you that a child who is suffering from severe acute malnutrition are nine times more likely to die of disease than a well-nourished child,” he said. “So, having cholera and diarrhea in countries where so many children are so fragile because of malnutrition among other things because of such a bad access to safe water is extremely worrying.”

Sudan outbreak

UNICEF says it also is extremely worried about an outbreak of acute watery diarrhea in Sudan, where the Federal Ministry of Health reports more than 20,000 cases of the disease, including over 400 deaths.

Boulierac says the disease has spread to 14 of 18 states and children account for more than 20 percent of the affected population.

“The situation in White Nile State, which is in central Sudan, is deeply worrying, since it is the most affected with 7,200 reported cases and since it has almost 100,000 refugees living in camps,” he said.

UNICEF says it needs access, security and more money to contain cholera and acute watery diarrhea in all four countries. It says aid operations must be scaled up. Malnourished children must receive special life-saving medication, therapeutic feeding and have access to safe drinking water.
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From: MeNeedIt

A U.S. federal appeals court ruled Monday that Environmental  Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt lacks the authority to suspend rules that oil and gas companies monitor and fix methane gas leaks.

Two of the three judges on the panel wrote that an order delaying such a rule is the same thing as revoking it.

Pruitt said in April he wanted to put its enforcement on hold for 90 days, later saying he wanted to extend it for two years.

He argued that oil and gas companies are already monitoring methane leaks and that the federal regulations would make some wells unprofitable.

No comment from EPA

Several environmental groups sued to stop Pruitt.

“This ruling … slams the brakes on the Trump administration’s brazen efforts to put the interests of corporate polluters ahead of protecting the public and the environment,” National Resources Defense Council official David Doniger said. This was one of the groups that sued to stop the EPA.

An EPA spokeswoman said the agency is studying the court decision and had no other comment.

Methane emanating from natural gas production is a major contributor to global warming.

A first for Trump

This is the first court decision to go against Trump administration efforts to overturn or block rules and executive orders it believes are unfair to the fossil fuel industry.

Pruitt has joined the White House in arguing that tough regulations hurt industry and jobs as the U.S. strives to become more energy independent — an effort it says must include oil, gas and coal production, along with renewable resources.

Environmentalists say overturning such rules gives industry a blank check to ignore laws protecting the air and streams from pollution.
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From: MeNeedIt

Strange sea creatures that resemble large pink thimbles are showing up on the coast of southeast Alaska for the first time after making their way north along the West Coast for the last few years.

Scientists say the creatures are pyrosomes, which are tropical, filter-feeding spineless creatures usually found along the equator. They appear to be one long pink tube, but in reality, they’re thousands of multicelled creatures mushed together, generally about 6 inches (15 centimeters) long.

Pyrosomes have been working their way north, Ric Brodeur, a researcher with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the Associated Press on Monday.

Brodeur, who is based at the agency’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Newport, Oregon, said pyrosomes were first seen on the Oregon coast in 2014 and every year since. More recently, the animals have made their way up farther north on the Washington state coast, Canada’s British Columbia and Alaska.

Jim Murphy, a biologist with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said pyrosomes spotted near Alaska this year marked the first documented presence of the animals that far north, and their appearance is cause for concern.

“It means that we are clearly seeing really big changes in the marine ecosystem,” he told The Juneau Empire.

Researchers have speculated that the bloom is tied to warmer ocean temperatures in the Pacific Ocean in recent years. But temperatures have nearly cooled back to normal this year, Murphy said, and these pyrosomes started showed up in the middle of winter.

Leon Shaul, a biologist with Fish and Game, has been tracking the appearance of pyrosomes in southeast Alaska. He said he’s “emailed the whole world” about the issue, but hasn’t heard much back.

Brodeur told the AP that it’s also unusual how close to shore the pyrosomes have come, although they are now being found farther offshore again.

He said the creatures have a low nutritional value, and that raises concerns on how they will affect the fish that eat them.

“They’re not the greatest food for the animals out there, compared to the things they normally have,” he said.

Pyrosomes aren’t harmful to humans, but they have puzzled those who’ve encountered them.

Angler Don Jeske was fishing for king salmon in February when he said he found himself surrounded by “millions” of the tube-shaped creatures and he’d never seen anything like it in his 50 years of trolling around Sitka, a fishing town about 90 miles southwest of Juneau.

“They were all over out there, they were everywhere. … I would say millions, not hundreds of thousands,” he said. “This is a weird organism, man.”
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From: MeNeedIt

The dream of performing on Broadway came true last month for 74 high school actors, singers and dancers, selected from 50,000 young performers from across the United States. They came to New York to compete for the Jimmy Awards.

While the Tony Awards celebrate the best of Broadway’s professional theater, the Jimmy Awards, named for the late Broadway theater owner and producer James Nederlander, are given to the country’s best high school musical theater performers.

Seventeen year-old Felix Torrez came from Green Bay, Wisconsin. His performance as the Beast in Beauty and the Beast at his high school won him a spot in the competition.

“Being here already is an award itself,” Felix said. “Being able to perform on Broadway as a high-schooler … I just want to soak it all in.”

That’s how 18-year-old Jasmine Rogers from Houston, Texas, felt, too. She played the Witch in Into the Woods. Unlike Felix, she’s seen many Broadway shows.

“I didn’t get into musical theater until I was seven. I used to play the violin and I was bad at it,” she admitted with a laugh. “And one day a flier came home to do a production of Peter Pan. And so I auditioned and I fell in love with it from there on and I’ve been doing it since.”

Rehearsals and opportunities

For eight days, these teenagers were pushed hard. Only a few days after that first rehearsal, they had staged the opening number.

Kiesha Lalama, the show’s choreographer, said she expects a lot from these teenagers. “You know, if you treat them like professionals and really just challenge them to rise up, they do. And that’s what I think is so amazing about it, is that these kids are willing and able. And if you provide them with the opportunity they can thrive.”

Each participant is coached by a Broadway actor, including Howard McGillin, who has performed The Phantom of the Opera more than anyone else.

Monday morning was dress rehearsal, and just a few hours later, the curtain went up before a sold-out house on Broadway.

When the finalists were announced, Rogers was one of them. And so, in front of friends, family and a lot of important Broadway producers and casting directors, she sang, all alone, in a spotlight, center stage.

She didn’t win the best actress award, but the experience was a bigger prize.

Both Rogers and Felix made new friends, polished their performing skills, and came away with the confidence that they would definitely be back on Broadway.

LISTEN: Jimmy Awards

 
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From: MeNeedIt

A solar-powered drone backed by Facebook that could one day provide worldwide internet access has quietly completed a test flight in Arizona after an earlier attempt ended with a crash landing.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s long-term plan for the drone, called Aquila, is to have it and others provide internet access to 4 billion people around the world who are currently in the dark.

“When Aquila is ready, it will be a fleet of solar-powered planes that will beam internet connectivity across the world,” he wrote on Facebook.

The drone’s second flight was completed in May at Yuma Proving Ground, The Yuma Sun reported.

The drone flew with more sensors, new spoilers and a horizontal propeller stopping system to help it better land after the crash in December. It was in the air for an hour and 46 minutes and elevated 3,000 feet (910 meters).

The drone flew with the engineering team watching a live stream from a helicopter chasing the drone, said Martin Luis Gomez, Facebook’s director of aeronautical platforms.

The team was thrilled with the outcome, Gomez said.

“The improvements we implemented based on Aquila’s performance during its first test flight made a significant difference in this flight,” he said.

The drone weighs about 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms) and has a longer wingspan than a Boeing 747.

The drone runs mostly on autopilot, but there are manned ground crews to manage certain maneuvers.

“We successfully gathered a lot of data to help us optimize Aquila’s efficiency,” Zuckerberg said. “No one has ever built an unmanned airplane that will fly for months at a time, so we need to tune every detail to get this right.”
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From: MeNeedIt

The roster of American musicians was impressive: Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, Booker T. and the MGs. They arrived in Europe in 1967, bringing with them the powerful, soulful Memphis Sound. Ahead was a tour with stops in London, Paris and elsewhere.

These artists from the Stax Records music studio captivated audiences with their music born from blues and gospel — a mesmerizing sound created from the black experience in the U.S. last century.

Fifty years later, a group of young musicians educated at Stax Music Academy are newly bringing the music of Memphis back to Europe. They are set to perform at festivals and music halls in England, France and Ireland from July 9 until July 22, joining Stax legends Mavis Staples and William Bell for a couple of shows.

The teenage musicians are eager to follow in the footsteps of their influential predecessors. Created in 2000, their academy is an after-school program for youngsters from some of Memphis’ poorest neighborhoods who learn how to dance, sing and play instruments. They pay nothing to attend.

“Just to be able to say that I was part of this upcoming overseas tour, being able to sing songs by Otis Redding and William Bell, it’s monumental not only for Memphis, but for Stax,” said Johnathon Lee, a 17-year-old academy vocalist. “To know that Stax music is still relevant today, and to know that was done in 1967, that’s monumental as well.”

Before it went bankrupt, Stax Records in Memphis generated some of America’s most memorable soul music of the 1960s and 1970s, including songs like Redding’s “Dock of the Bay,” Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man,” Floyd’s “Knock on Wood,” and Booker T. and the MGs’ “Green Onions.” Driven by tight horn and rhythm sections and strong-voiced singers, the Memphis Sound had a raw, emotional quality to it. Some Stax songs were energetic and raucous, others smooth and sexy.

Stax had a sister record label called Volt, so when they put together the 1967 trip, it was called the Stax/Volt European Tour.

The tour came at a time when Stax was having trouble getting its music aired on larger U.S. radio stations because of racial issues during the civil rights era, said Al Bell, who at the time was the music label’s national promotions director. So, when the Stax musicians hopped off a plane in London, they were surprised by the welcome they received.

“It stunned us. We didn’t know how to act,” Bell said. “All these white people in the airport and everywhere, hollering about Stax, calling the artists’ names.”

In Paris, fans “were going crazy” over the Stax musicians, especially Redding, Bell said.

“If there was ever a question in my mind about our music being acceptable to the masses and to whites, Paris, France, removed that completely from my mind,” he said.

Bell said Europeans told him that they viewed the music as an art form that comes from the African-American culture.

“And I’m saying, what?” Bell said, laughing. “We hadn’t even thought about having a `culture,’ let alone our music being considered an art form because it came out of slavery.”

When they returned to Memphis, the Stax artists used the momentum from the successful tour to churn out hits.

“When we came out of Europe, you couldn’t tell us nothing,” Bell said. “Writers got to writing, producers got to producing. You couldn’t get the musicians out of the studio.”

Some of the momentum stalled when Redding was killed in a plane crash in December 1967.

Bell later ran Stax before the company was forced into involuntary bankruptcy in 1975. Bell was indicted on bank fraud charges related to the company’s demise, but was acquitted.

The glory days of Stax Records are gone, but the Stax Music Academy is going strong. About a dozen teenagers ranging in age from 15 to 18 will be on the Europe tour, and they’ve spent hours rehearsing in the academy’s studios.

It will be the first time Lee will travel out of the country, and he’s looking forward to staying in new places and eating foreign foods. He called the trip “a big deal.”

“I’m a little nervous, but I’m excited,” Lee said. “I’m ready to venture out.”
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From: MeNeedIt

3-D printing has given artists and engineers a way to create some of their most daring visions. But it is giving Argentine inventor Gino Tubaro a chance to change lives by building customized prosthetic limbs. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

Sudanese doctors and aid workers are urging the government to declare a state of emergency over a cholera outbreak and delay the start of the school year, which began Sunday.

The disease, which is passed through contaminated water, has surfaced in five states, including the capital, Khartoum. The U.S. Embassy said last month that fatalities had been confirmed, and Egypt has begun screening passengers from Sudan at Cairo’s international airport.

Some 22,000 cases of acute watery diarrhea have led to at least 700 fatalities since May 20, said Hossam al-Amin al-Badawi, of the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, adding that it is most likely cholera, but the government refuses to test for it.

Doctors say cholera, a bacterial infection linked to contaminated food or water, has surfaced in the states of Khartoum, Al-Jazeera, Sennar, White Nile and North Kordofan, and are urging the government to seek international aid.

The fast-developing, highly contagious infection can spread in areas without clean drinking water or with poor sanitation. If left untreated, it can cause death from dehydration.

Sudan’s official news agency SUNA meanwhile announced the opening of the school year, saying that authorities had the outbreak of “acute watery diarrhea” under control.

Activists and the opposition say President Omar al-Bashir’s government refuses to acknowledge the cholera outbreak because it would reveal failures in the country’s crumbling health system, where corruption is rife.

Neighboring South Sudan is grappling with the “the longest, most widespread and most deadly cholera outbreak” since the it won independence in 2011, according to the U.N. Since the outbreak began a year ago, over 11,000 cases have been reported, including at least 190 deaths, according to the World Health Organization and South Sudan’s government.

 
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From: MeNeedIt

Samsung Electronics said Sunday it will start selling refurbished versions of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone this week in South Korea.

The Note 7 was recalled last year because its batteries would overheat and catch fire. The refurbished versions will use different batteries.

The new Galaxy Note FE phone, built with unused components of the Note 7, will cost $611, a significant drop in price from the Note 7’s price tag of nearly $1,000.

Samsung recalled the Note 7 less than a month after its launch when reports of the phone’s batteries catching fire emerged.

The company released another Note 7 with replaced batteries, but those batteries also overheated and Samsung discontinued the Note 7.

Earlier this year, the tech giant released the results of an investigation that determined the phone fires were the result of flaws in the design and production of batteries supplied by two battery makers.

Close to 3 million Note 7s were returned to Samsung, prompting environmental groups to urge the South Korean company to reuse the electronics parts of the Note 7 to reduce waste.

“The latest launch of the Galaxy Note FE … has a significant meaning as an environment-friendly project that minimized the waste of resources,” Samsung said in a statement.

Samsung said it has not decided if it will sell the Note FE internationally.
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From: MeNeedIt

Qatar’s stock market fell sharply Sunday as a deadline for Doha to accept a series of political demands by four Arab states was expected to expire later in the day with no sign of a resolution.

The Qatari stock index sank as much as 3.1 percent in thin trading, bringing its losses to 11.9 percent since June 5, when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties, accusing Doha of backing militants.

Stocks tumbled across the board Sunday, with 41 lower and only one higher. Qatar National Bank, the largest listed lender in the Gulf, lost 3.1 percent.
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From: MeNeedIt

Ukraine has blamed Russian security services for a massive cyberattack that started in the last week in Ukraine and eventually spread to computers across the world.

Ukraine’s security agency, the SBU, said in a statement Saturday the attack bore resemblances to past hacks of Ukrainian infrastructure by the Russian security services.

“The available data, including those obtained in cooperation with international antivirus companies, give us reason to believe that the same hacking groups are involved in the attacks, which in December 2016 attacked the financial system, transport and energy facilities of Ukraine, using TeleBots and BlackEnergy,” the statement said.

Russia has denied involvement in the recent attack that halted operations at large companies and government agencies in more than 60 countries around the world. The hackers encrypted data on infected machines and demanded a ransom to give it back to its owner.

Europol Director Rob Wainwright called Tuesday’s hack “another serious ransomware attack.” He said it bore resemblances to the previous “WannaCry” hack, but it also showed indications of a “more sophisticated attack capability intended to exploit a range of vulnerabilities.”

The WannaCry hack sent a wave of crippling ransomware to hospitals across Britain in May, causing the hospitals to divert ambulances and cancel surgeries. The program demanded a ransom to unlock access to files stored on infected machines.

Researchers eventually found a way to thwart the hack, but only after about 300 people had already paid the ransom.

The most recent hack has been largely contained, but now some researchers are questioning the motivation behind the attack. They say it may not have been designed to collect a ransom, but instead to simply destroy data.

“There may be a more nefarious motive behind the attack,” Gavin O’Gorman, an investigator with U.S. antivirus firm Symantec, said in a blog post. “Perhaps this attack was never intended to make money [but] rather to simply disrupt a large number of Ukrainian organizations.”

Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab similarly noted that the code used in the hacking software wouldn’t have allowed its authors to decrypt the stolen data after a ransom had been paid.

“It appears it was designed as a wiper pretending to be ransomware,” Kapersky researchers Anton Ivanov and Orkhan Mamedov wrote in a blog post. “This is the worst case news for the victims – even if they pay the ransom they will not get their data back.”

The computer virus used in the attack includes code known as Eternal Blue, a tool developed by the NSA that exploited Microsoft’s Windows operating system, and which was published on the internet in April by a group called Shadowbrokers. Microsoft released a patch in March to protect systems from that vulnerability.

Tim Rawlins, director of the Britain-based cybersecurity consultancy NCC Group, says the attacks continue to happen because people have not been keeping up with effectively patching their computers.

“This is a repeat WannaCry type of outbreak and it really comes down to the fact that people are not focusing on what they should be focusing on, the very simple premise of patching your systems,” Rawlins told VOA.
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From: MeNeedIt