Sports who have banned Russia following their invasion of Ukraine

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Following the brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia, a lot of sporting bodies have made the move to exclude Russian and Belarus athletes from their competitions as well as cancelling any competitions based in Russia. The International Olympic Committee has called on sports federations to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes, officials and teams from international events wherever possible.

Ukraine Profile: History, culture, geography, and more

FIFA and UEFA have banned Russian national and clubs teams from their competitions “until further notice”.

UEFA also announced that it is ending its partnership with Russian state energy giant Gazprom, which was believed to have been paying about 40 million euros ($45m) a year in a deal due to run until 2024.

Saint Petersburg, meanwhile, was stripped as host of UEFA’s Champions League final set for May 28. The game has been switched to the Stade de France in Paris.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) barred Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Winter Paralympics in Beijing.

The ITF suspended the Russian Tennis Federation and Belarus Tennis Federation membership and withdrew their entries from all ITF international team competitions until further notice.

The Russian Grand Prix, scheduled for September 25, has been cancelled along with any future events.

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) suspended all Russian and Belarusian national teams and clubs from its competitions until further notice. It also stripped Russia of the hosting rights for the 2023 junior world championships.

The International Judo Federation (IJF) suspended Russian President Vladimir Putin as its honourary president. The IJF also said it cancelled the 2022 Gran Slam in the Russian city of Kazan, planned to be held from May 20 to 22.

Ukrainian fencers withdrew from the world championships in Cairo to avoid a match with Russia.

Rugby’s world governing body banned Russia and Belarus from all international rugby “until further notice”. Russia’s membership in World Rugby was also suspended indefinitely, meaning its slim hopes of qualifying for next year’s World Cup in France are over.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) cancelled all sanctioned tournaments in Russia and Belarus, banning them from hosting future tournaments “until further notice” and ordering their flags and anthems banned from all BWF tournaments.

World Taekwondo said they were stripping Putin of an honourary black belt, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine goes against the sport’s motto: “Peace is more precious than triumph”.

The body also said no Russian or Belarusian national flags or anthems would be displayed and played at events, nor will any future events be organised in the two countries.

Swimming’s global governing body FINA called off the World Junior Swimming Championships that were to take place in Kazan (23 to 28 August). FINA also withdrew the order it awarded Putin in 2014.

The International Equestrian Federation (FEI) executive board called for all international events to be removed from Russia and Belarus.

The World Curling Federation began the process of removing the Russian Federation’s entries from the World Championships.

World Athletics had already suspended the Russian Athletics Federation because of doping violations, although some Russian athletes were allowed to compete as ‘authorised neutral athletes’ in track and field at the Tokyo Olympics.

In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, athletics’ governing body has now banned “all athletes, support personnel and officials from Russia and Belarus” from participation in “all World Athletics Series events for the foreseeable future, with immediate effect”.

Cycling’s governing body (UCI) has banned Russian or Belarusian national teams from taking part in any event on the UCI calendar and stripped UCI status from six teams from those countries, including the Pro Tour Gazprom-RusVelo team.

The UCI said it would not consider any team applications or requests to host events from the two countries.

World Rowing has banned Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from its international competitions with immediate effect.

Volleyball’s world governing body (FIVB) has cancelled the men’s World Championships which were due to be held in Russia in August and September.

World Archery has voted to remove the Russian and Belarusian national flags and anthems from international tournaments. It says no future events will be awarded to either country and chose not to invite its Russian board member Vladimir Esheev to the vote.

The International Basketball Federation (Fiba) has confirmed that Russian teams and officials will not be allowed to participate in Fiba basketball and 3×3 basketball competitions.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) has cancelled its remaining events in Russia and, in response to the IOC’s recommendation, ruled that “no Russian or Belarusian athlete shall participate in any FIS competition at any level” for the rest of 2021-22 season.

Norway’s Skiing Association had already moved to ban Russian and Belarusian skiers from competitions in the country “regardless of what conclusion FIS should come to”.

The International Skating Union (ISU) has, with immediate effect, banned skaters from Russia and Belarus from participating in international ice skating competitions.

The International Biathlon Union (IBU) has ruled that while Russia and Belarus must not be represented at its remaining World Cup and IBU Cup events – including in the form of flags, symbols and national anthems – individual athletes from those nations will be invited to compete as neutral athletes.

World Triathlon, the international governing body for triathlon, has announced a ban stopping Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from participating in the sport for the foreseeable future.

AirAsia Indonesia flight 8501 to Singapore missing

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AirAsia Indonesia flight 8501 to Singapore missing

Flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320-200 lost contact with air traffic control at 06:24 local time (23:24 GMT Saturday) over the Java Sea.

After flying for more than an hour, the Airbus disappeared midway into it’s two hour flight from Surabaya without a distress call. The pilot had requested a flight path change after bad weather was reported in the area. It appears that an air search operation has now been suspended for the night.

Since the disappearance, aircraft from Indonesia and Singapore had been scouring an area of sea between Kalimantan (Borneo) and Java. Despite the air search being called off, some boats are said to be continuing to search despite nightfall.

A few hours ago many of the relatives at the crisis centre in the airport still seemed calm – staring hopefully at their phones, trying to find the latest news of the missing flight as well as keeping friends and relatives up to date with any developments and trying to find comfort in the face of yet another impending disaster.

However, after more than 12 hours since the plane took off on it’s two hour flight, they are looking increasingly worried. Officials still have no idea what happened to the aircraft. The governor of East Java, Soekarwo, the mayor of Surabaya, Tri Rismaharini, and the chief executive of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes, have come to talk to the relatives at their airport to confirm they are frantically searching for the missing Flight QZ8501 however apart from this, there is no other information been given.

Airport officials are keeping everyone well away from the media and trying to make them comfortable.

The scenes at Changi are reminiscent of those in Kuala Lumpur immediately after MH370 went missing back in March 2014: anxious friends and relatives waiting for a glimmer of hope or simply just an answer.

AirAsia Indonesia flight 8501 to Singapore missing

The experienced captain of Flight QZ8501 had more than 20,500 flight hours, almost 7,000 of them with AirAsia.

The flight left Surabaya in eastern Java at 05:35 local time (22:35 GMT) and was due to arrive in Singapore at 08:30 (00:30 GMT).

AirAsia confirmed that the missing AirBus had requested a “deviation” from the flight path to avoid thick storm clouds.

Indonesia’s transport ministry said the pilot had asked permission to climb to 11,000m to avoid the storm however, Ministry official Djoko Murjatmodjo said the request “could not be approved at that time due to traffic, there was a flight above, and five minutes later [flight QZ8501] disappeared from radar”.

It is looking decidedly like the plan has gone down due to bad weather but we await for further news and can only hope cling to a small hope that the plane has landed.

surabaya

Latest:

The missing AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 is likely to be at the bottom of the sea, Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia’s search-and-rescue agency has said based on the location of the flight when they lost contact with it.

The search for the Airbus A320-200, which disappeared with 162 people on board on Sunday on a flight to Singapore from Surabaya City, has ended for a second day.

The search area will be widened on Tuesday.

………………………………

This has been an extremely tough year for aviation in Asia: Malaysia’s national carrier Malaysia Airlines brutally suffered two losses with flights MH370 and MH17.

Flight MH370 disappeared without a trace while on a flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March with 239 passengers and crew. There is speculation that the wreckage is thought to be in southern Indian Ocean but it has has still not been located.

Meanwhile, we all remember the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines MH17 that was tragically shot down over Ukraine in July, killing all 298 on board.

Phishing or email account hack leads to Nude Celebrity pictures

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Nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence (seen here at the Oscars) have been leaked online. But how did the hacker get access? Photograph: Angela Weiss/FilmMagic

Nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence (seen here at the Oscars) have been leaked online. But how did the hacker get access? Photograph: Angela Weiss/FilmMagic

The leak of Nude Celebrity pictures and, allegedly, videos of Jennifer Lawrence by an unknown hacker has security experts – including Apple – interested and puzzled. Although the hacker has posted a list of scores of female celebrities to a chatroom claiming to have more pictures of them, a number of the Celebrity’s have claimed that the photos of them are faked, while others claim they were deleted.

The list of those allegedly affected is long, and includes Jennifer Lawrence, Jenny McCarthy, Rihanna, Kate Upton and the American actress Mary E Winstead. With any hack, the principal questions are: what was the avenue of attack? And where were the photos and videos – if they were real – downloaded from?

It is unlikely according to Apple that their email system has been hacked. Large companies like Apple and Microsoft have dedicated in-house security teams who attempt to break into their own systems regularly.

Rik Ferguson, vice-president of security research at Trend Micro, said; “A wide scale ‘hack’ of Apple’s iCloud is unlikely. Even the original poster is not claiming that,”

As with the many celebrity hacks (and daily hacks that affect less famous people), the simpler and more likely explanation is the leak of an email and password combination, either through guesswork or “phishing”, when users are fooled by authentic-looking sites into entering their login details, which are then used against them.

Apple have said they are still investigating what is claimed to be an attack on its iCloud service but it is unlikely that their whole system has been compromised. The iCloud service is used by millions of iPhone users to store settings and back up all photos (and other data) taken with the phone to Apple’s “cloud” based servers.

Once you have an iCloud user’s email address and password, you can log in to their account and download those photos (including old / deleted ones) and other info.

An extra layer of security that will send a code to the owner’s phone before it allows login would be an example of two factor authentication (2FA) which will greatly increase the security of their iCloud account. Paypal as an example have this exact security measure in place. However’ comparatively few people use 2FA either because they don’t know it is available or it is too much trouble.

Apple has no comment currently on the incident but is still investigating whether the data was all taken from its iCloud service and, if so, to what extent users’ accounts were compromised.

Ferguson suggests that the hacker may have used the “forgot password” link on Apple’s iCloud system after managing to get hold of the various celebrities’ email addresses either directly or by hacking someone else’s device or email system. If anyone used the same password on multiple services, then once the hacking discovered the password on a different site then they could try the same password on the iCloud website.

Lawrence’s publicist did admit the photos are real but did not say how old they are. In a tweet, Winstead suggested a long standing effort by the hacker. “Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this,” she wrote.

However security experts have pointed out that while a smartphone user thinks they have deleted the photos from their phone – they are still possible to recover from the phone’s memory. Someone may have got hold of her old phone and managed to retrieve the photos. That said, it is unlikely they happened upon a bunch of old Celebrity’s phones.

Modern smartphones routinely save photos to the cloud because they often lack enough capacity for the huge number of photos that people take. Apple’s iPhone by default saves photos to iCloud; Google’s Android to its Google+ service and Microsoft’s Windows Phone to its OneDrive service.

Third-party services such as Dropbox also offer automated photo and data backups. “People take photos and zap them, but don’t realise that they are being uploaded and saved forever,” Cluley told the Guardian. Ferguson agrees: “Deleted doesn’t always mean deleted,” he notes.

The hacker posted a screenshot claiming to be of so-far unreleased videos and images taken on a Windows PC after he had no doubt downloaded them from one of the cloud based services above.

“Two-factor authentication” protects against such hacks because it requires anyone setting up a copy of an existing account on a new device to enter a code that is sent to the primary device – usually a phone. Without that, access is blocked. Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo all offer two-factor authentication on accounts but as mentioned above, this service is not always taken advantage of for different reasons.

Other Celebrity’s have claimed that their naked pictures are infact fake. A representative for Ariana Grande said the photos said to be of her are “completely fake”. Victoria Justice also tweeted that the “so called nudes of me are FAKE people. Let me nip this in the bud right now *pun intended*”

With so many people dealing with Celebrity’s it is possible that someone got hold of their user details, perhaps to manage their social media campaign and then tried these details on other sites. However, it does appear that this has been done by a professional hacking covering their tracks rather than a simple opportunist.

Another possibility is an IT expert who helped the Celebrity setup a new computer system and then given themselves remote access to this system to grab and steal their data.

This has happened in the case of the “Hollywood hacker” Christopher Chaney, who spread photos from Scarlettt Johansson and Mila Kunis’s email accounts back in 2011, and was sentenced to 10 years in jail in December 2012 and ordered to pay more than $66,000 in restitution.

Chaney was accused of illegally accessing the email accounts of more than 50 people in the entertainment industry between November 2010 and October 2011; in one instance he sent an email from the account of Aguilera’s stylist to the star, asking for scantily clad photos, and then posted them online.

Chaney did eventually apologise, saying that his actions were “probably one of the worst invasions of privacy someone could experience”. It was also claimed he had stalked two people online for more than ten years. A tad creepy.

In the Chaney case, the celebrity’s had their email accounts hacked, and all their emails were being forward despite the password being changed.

So the moral or the story is, if you are a celebrity or not, use two factor authentication where possible. If you need any help or advise, feel free to get in touch.

Colins IT

Inside the CDC’s Emergency Operations Center Tackling Ebola

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CDC's emergency unit

CDC leaders integral to the Ebola response, including epidemiologists, laboratorians, logistics, and more, assemble in agency’s command center to discuss next steps in directing the response at CDC Emergency operations center in Atlanta, August 8. Spencer Lowell for TIME

With Ebola ravaging West Africa, the CDC’s emergency unit has been called into full-force

Last Friday morning, only a few hours after the World Health Organization officially declared the Ebola outbreak a global public health emergency, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Emergency Operations Center (EOC) kicked into a hive of activity.

Their recently created battle room of computer screens and realtime maps of Ebola spread is fielding calls from U.S. hospitals, offering logistical support for workers in West Africa, and is continuously updating realtime data on the rising number of Ebola infections.

At 10 o’clock there is a daily meeting to discuss what’s happening, the latest news and the latest plan of action. The meeting spills out of the EOC’s primary conference room and contains the CDC’s heads of infectious disease control as well representatives for the State Department and USAID.

Only a couple of days ago, the CDC activated the EOC to a Level 1 response unit, which is the highest alert level and essentially means everyone with related expertise is called in for their expertise.

CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden, said; “We have been very concerned at CDC for weeks and months about Ebola, and we’ve increased our activation to the highest level to surge on a response in Africa,”. He has recently returned from testifying in front of the House Committee of Foreign Affairs about the agency’s ongoing efforts to stop the drastic spread of the disease. “This Ebola outbreak is unprecedented. The single most important thing to understand about protecting Americans from Ebola is that [it has to be stopped] at the source in Africa.”

Now that, is one very interesting statement. So the whole operation is about protecting Americans? Are you kidding me? If there was no risk of Ebola spreading outside of West Africa then basically it sounds like the CDC and EOC would not even be involved. Clearly American lives are significantly more important than African lives or any other non American for that matter. But hey, what do I know.

Since the first week of April, the CDC has had experts on the ground and encouragingly it recently announced that it’s sending a large team of 50 more highly qualified disease specialists, including diseases detectives, laboratory experts and transmission-data analysts over to West Africa in the next month. However the team of experts will need support from the stateside EOC for resources, data collection and communication.

A large part of the EOC team is made up of Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officers—health professionals who are part of the CDC’s two-year training program for investigating infectious disease.

Kelsey Mirkovic, 29, has just returned from Gueckedou, Guinea is a second-year EIS with a PhD in pharmacology. Her goal was tracking down people who have been in contact with infected patients. “One day there were two deaths of people with Ebola in one village, and 218 people were added to our list of contacts that day,” said Mirkovic. “We are talking about tracking down hundreds of people.”

Since Monday the 4th of August, 6 CDC specialists have been deployed to Guinea, twelve to Liberia, 9 to Sierra Leone, and only 4 to Nigeria, which is the latest country to experience a spread of the virus after the first person died from the virus about 2 weeks ago. It is very worrying as Lagos, Capital of Nigeria is the largest city in Africa. This does not bode well.

Dr Stephen Monroe who is the deputy director of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases mentioned that “If current trends continue, it won’t be long before there’s more cases associated with this one outbreak than all previously outbreaks of Ebola virus combined,”

“In most of these other countries, the initial event starts in a relatively rural area. So if we can get in quickly and contain it before it spreads, it’s much more effective. If it starts to spread in a large metropolitan area, especially in the very urban slum areas, it will be much more difficult to control.”

It is likely that if there is a major outbreak in Lagos then things will get a lot worse before they finally get control and start controlling the spread of Ebola.

Monroe said that the CDC has experts in placed in Nigeria who are examining ebola cases as well as the people they have been in contact with including people helping local authorities with their exit screenings in order to keep all these people at risk of being infected from travelling and leaving the country and possibly infecting other countries anywhere in the world.

Monroe said that “In order to fully resolve the outbreak, we’re clearly looking at months, not weeks of effort,”

The EOC is also serving as the hub for Ebola containment in the U.S., should the disease present itself there. Very conveniently, the CDC is only a few minutes from Emory University Hospital, where two evacuated Americans with Ebola virus disease are being treated.

The CDC has already distributed care guidelines for U.S. hospitals. There is even a team of experts who handle several calls daily from U.S. hospitals concerning sick patients who have recently returned from visiting Africa.

EOC disease specialists are already on route to West Africa, taking the latest outbreak maps with them as they head into a very scary and dangerous zone. The glow from the wall of computerized data sets and updates fills the room—with large graphs that highlight the early summer spikes in Ebola cases.

The whole Ebola outbreak is really scaling upwards with over 1000 people infected already. If the disease spreads to more countries then things are only go from worse to horrendous. We can only home that containment happens very soon and stops the rapid spread of the disease.

How Hamas assembles and fires rockets from residential areas in Gaza

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon remains of a rocket fired by Hamas terrorists at Israel. (Photo: Haim Zach/ GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon remains of a rocket fired by Hamas terrorists at Israel. (Photo: Haim Zach/ GPO)

 

You can clearly see from this video and narration Hamas terrorists assembling a rocket in a heavily built up area surrounded by hotels and apartments in Gaza.

They firstly put up a tent to build their rocket underneath and then cover it up with trees. The following morning a rocket is fired from the exact location, everything recorded on camera.

This is obviously a clear tactic by Hamas to get Israel to retaliate by firing their own rockets back into the residential area with innocent families, children and pets. At which point they scream blue murder that Israel is attacking and firing rockets into residential areas. I am not taking side but purely pointing out facts.

It is interesting that it only takes 2 or 3 men to setup a rocket which they then fire towards Israel. I am guessing they then disappear once again amongst innocent civilians. At which point any retaliation from Israel unless pin point accurate and immediate is a bit of a waste of time.

This Palestinian mother in the video below was shown such kindness by Jews when her young son was treated, free of charge, for his heart problem in an Israeli hospital. She freely acknowledges this and is grateful however she still hopes that her child will grow up to be a martyr.

This video is a rare look into the mind of someone who worships death and destruction. It is in their make up, their belief system and their way of life. She describes the difference between her culture and all of Western society perfectly when she explains that for her people life is meaningless.

Please share, it is so important that people see this.

Further reading

Rabies Alert

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Rabies Alert
RABIES, RABIES and more RABIES!

Rabies Alert

 

Veterinarians for Animal Welfare Zimbabwe (VAWZ) is deeply concerned with the increasing number of confirmed Rabies cases throughout Zimbabwe. Recently a dog from Arcturus was tested positive, as well as a feral cat from Sussex Road (Avondale West).

Tragically a young boy in Chegutu has died from the disease, two months after being bitten by his neighbour’s dog. We cannot stress enough the importance of having ALL your pets vaccinated annually against this deadly disease.

Should you come into contact with an unknown animal, particularly one displaying unusual behaviour, please seek medical advice immediately. Children must be warned not to interact with strange animals.

RABIES IS 100% FATAL, DON’T TAKE A CHANCE! Please report sightings of suspect animals to VAWZ (0778431528 / 0775722449) or your nearest veterinary surgery.

Rabies (“madness”) is a viral disease that causes acute inflammation of the brain in humans and other warm-blooded animals. The time period between contracting the disease and the start of symptoms is usually one to three months; however it can vary from less than one week to more than one year.

The time is dependent on the distance the virus must travel to reach the central nervous system. Early symptoms may include fever and tingling at the site of exposure. This is then followed by either violent movements, uncontrolled excitement, and fear of water or an inability to move parts of the body and confusion followed by loss of consciousness. In both cases once symptoms appear it nearly always results in death.

Ebola Kills Liberian Doctor and infects 2 Americans

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(MONROVIA, Liberia) — A high profile doctor in Liberia, Dr. Samuel Brisbane has died of the deadly Ebola disease while an American physician was being treated for virus. This brings to the forefront the risks facing health workers trying to fight a deadly outbreak that has killed more than 680 people in West Africa — the largest ever recorded.

Ebola by the Numbers:

ebola by the numbers

ebola by the numbers

Dr. Kent Brantly, left, cares for Ebola patients at the ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia Samaritan's Purse—Reuters

Dr. Kent Brantly, left, cares for Ebola patients at the ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia
Samaritan’s Purse—Reuters

Another American, a missionary working in the Liberian capital, has also contracted the virus and is currently being treated, said the sponsor of her work, a pastor of a North Carolina church.

While treating Ebola patients at the country’s largest hospital, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia, Dr. Samuel Brisbane contracted the virus and died on Saturday reported Tolbert Nyenswah, an assistant health minister. A Ugandan doctor had already died earlier this month.

33-year-old Dr. Kent Brantly, an American physician, was helping to treat patients when he also fell ill with the deadly virus. Currently in a stable condition, he is receiving intensive medical care in a Monrovia hospital.

Early treatment improves a patient’s chances of survival, and Dr Brantly recognized his own symptoms and began receiving care immediately so while he is stable it is not clear if he will fully recover yet.

The American missionary, Nancy Writebol, is dangerously ill and in isolation in a Monrovia hospital, her husband, David Writebol, told a church elder via Skype, according to the Rev. John Munro, pastor of Calvary Church in Charlotte, N.C.

Despite the deadly Ebola threat, Munro said the couple, who had been in Liberia for about a year, insisted on staying. “These are real heroes — people who do things quietly behind the scenes, people with a very strong vocation and very strong faith,”

Ebola is one of the deadliest viruses in the world and is also highly contagious with no known cure. At least 1,200 people have been infected in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to the World Health Organization, and 675 have died. Besides the Liberian fatalities, 321 people have died in Guinea and 226 in Sierra Leone.

Ebola virus disease (EVD) or Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) is the human disease caused by ebola viruses. Symptoms start two days to three weeks after contracting the virus with a fever, throat and muscle pains, and headaches. There is then nausea, vomiting and diarrhea along with decreased functioning of the liver and kidneys. At this point some people begin to have problems with bleeding.

Ebola is first acquired when a person comes into contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected animal such as a monkey or fruit bat. Fruit bats are believed to carry and spread the disease without being affected by it. Once infection occurs, the disease rapidly spreads from one person to another. Men who survive may be able to transmit the disease sexually for nearly two months

Nigerian authorities have reported that a Liberian man died of Ebola after flying from Monrovia to Lagos via Lome, Togo. The incident showed how difficult it is containing the disease and preventing Ebola victims from travelling considering the symptoms resemble of a fever and sore throat resemble many of illnesses.

Health workers working with patients are among those at greatest risk of contracting the disease, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids.

Photos of Dr Brantly show him swathed head-to-toe in white protective coveralls, gloves and a head-and-face mask that he wore for hours a day while treating Ebola patients.

Ironically, earlier this year, Dr Brantly was quoted in a posting about the dangers facing health workers trying to contain the disease. “In past Ebola outbreaks, many of the casualties have been health care workers who contracted the disease through their work caring for infected individuals,” he said.

The WHO says the disease is not contagious until a person begins to show symptoms. Brantly’s wife and children who had been living with him in Liberia had luckily flown home only the week before he showed any signs of the illness.

In addition to Dr Kent Brantly, a doctor in Liberia’s central Bong County has also fallen ill.

The situation “is getting more and more scary,” said Nyenswah, the country’s assistant health minister.

The fact that a sick Liberian could board a flight to Nigeria raised new fears that other passengers could take the disease beyond Africa.

Nigeria’s international airports, ports and land borders are now on high alert and screening passengers arriving from foreign countries. Togo’s government also said it was on high alert to stop the spread of the disease.

Security analysts were skeptical about the effectiveness of these measures.

“In Nigeria’s case, the security set-up is currently poor, so I doubt it will help or have the minimum effectiveness they are hoping for,” said Yan St. Pierre, CEO of the Berlin-based security consulting firm MOSECON.

An outbreak in Lagos, a megacity where many lived in cramped conditions, could be a potential major public health disaster.

The West Africa outbreak is believed to have begun as far back as January 2014 in southeast Guinea, however the first cases weren’t confirmed until March.

Since then, officials have tried to contain the disease by isolating victims and educating populations on how to avoid transmission, however, weak border control and widespread distrust of health workers has made the Ebola outbreak difficult to bring under control.

News of the Liberian Doctor’s (Brisbane) death first began circulating on Saturday, which was also a national holiday marking Liberia’s independence in 1847.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf used her Independence Day address to discuss a new taskforce to combat Ebola. Information Minister Lewis Brown said the taskforce would go “from community to community, from village to village, from town to town” to try to increase awareness.

Saudata Koroma, a hair dresser in Sierra Leone fell ill in the Capital, Freetown is said to be the first case in the area. She was forcibly removed from a government hospital by her family, sparking a frantic search that ended on Friday. The chief medical officer, Kargbo, said that Koroma had died while being transported to a treatment centre in the east of the country.

ebola virus breakdown

ebola virus breakdown

More reading:

Could deadly Ebola virus reach Britain?

Ebola virus disease

Flight 772 returns to Toronto after passenger threatens bomb

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Flight 772 returns to Toronto after passenger threatens bomb

Two American fighter jets escorted Sunwing Flight 772 which was on route to West Virginia back to Toronto after a 25 year old man became extremely agitated and started ranting about his home country. The video below shows a SWAT team board the plane on the tarmac and order the 183 passengers to put their heads down and hands up as the plane is cleared.

The Canadian man on board the passenger flight Sunwing 772 which was cruising above West Virginia threatened to bomb Canada itself and forced the pilot to make the decision to turn around

Flight 772 was only 45 minutes into its Friday morning flight to Panama City when Ali Shahi began ranting and “made a direct threat against the aircraft,” an airline spokesperson said in a statement.

Two F-16 fighter jets on a training run outside Toledo, Ohio, were scrambled to escort the plane carrying 183 passengers and 6 crew members back to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, CBC News reported.

“We heard him speaking, we heard him yelling. He was being pretty belligerent, using a lot of cuss words,” Phil Thompson told Global News. “He said he didn’t care what happened to the plane or the people on it and he didn’t like Canada and didn’t care about Canada. He didn’t care about the consequences of his actions, he literally didn’t care if the plane went down.”

Flight was over West Virginia en route to Panama City when the pilot turned around

Local SWAT team boarded the jet after it landed just before 9am local time and cleared the plane while arresting the suspect.

The man’s father who remained unnamed, told CBC News that his son has dealt with mental health issues.

“I am sorry for what happened on the flight, but Ali is not at fault,” he told the news outlet. “I blame the police and health system. We called the police for help more than 23 times in the last two to three years, but unfortunately they did nothing to help us or help my son.”

The shaken passengers were rebooked on a later flight to Panama City.

TransAsia Flight GE222: Taiwan Airways plane crash kills at least 40

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TransAsia Flight GE222: Taiwan Airways plane crash kills at least 40

TransAsia Flight GE222: Taiwan Airways plane crash kills at least 40

A Taiwanese passenger plane has crashed after a failed emergency landing in Taiwan, killing more than 40 people.

10 survivors, 48 dead in Taiwan’s worst air disaster in 12 years

The domestic flight crashed near Magong airport on the outlying Penghu island with a total of 54 passengers and four crew on board.

Flight Route of GE222TransAsia Flight GE222: Taiwan Airways plane crash kills at least 40

Flight Route of GE222

The flight GE222 aborted its initial landing but then still crashed. It was a very stressful scene with around 190 military personnel joining rescuers in the search for survivors.

‘Plane in flames’

11 people were sent to hospital with injuries while a few empty apartment buildings adjacent to the runway caught fire. Luckily no-one was inside at the time and the fire was extinguished.

Flight GE222 was an ATR 72 turboprop aircraft which departed from the southern municipality of Kaohsiung at 17:43 however lost contact with controllers at 19:06.

GE222

Local media reported that the plane was found at Penghu island’s Xixi village in flames.

TransAsia Airways’ The General Manager of TransAsia Airways; Hsu Yi-Tsung has tearfully apologised for the accident and promised to spare no effort in the rescue operation and to transport relatives of passengers on the flight to Magong on Thursday morning.

The day before a tropical storm call Typhoon Matmo had battered Taiwan relentlessly.In spite of this, an official at the Civil Aeronautics Administration told Reuters that bad weather at the time of the crash did not exceed international regulations for landing.

The Typhoon caused a lot of flights to be cancelled however this embargo was lifted only 15 minutes before Flight GE222 took off.

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In May 2002 a China Airlines jet broke apart shortly after take-off from Taipei killing all 225 people onboard. Investigators put this down to the aircraft having had fatigue cracks and corrosion near where it was repaired after an earlier accident.

Rough weather

Officials have assured it was safe for the flight to take off despite over 200 flights being cancelled during the day due to the weather.

The mother of one of the victims, her 27 year old son, screamed at TransAsia Chairman Vincent Lin when he arrived to pay respects at the funeral hall Friday.

The plane’s black box has been recovered and sent to the main island of Taiwan for analysis. One of the flight recorders was damaged in the fire after the plane crashed and for this reason it wasn’t immediately clear when results of the investigation would be made public.

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Algerian Flight #AH5017 has crashed with no survivors

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Algerian Flight #AH5017 has crashed with no survivors

This is truly beyond the joke. Another week and another plane goes missing with strong suggestions that it has crashed with no survivors. Two French fighter jets where dispatched to look for the missing flight AH5017.

The flight was bound for Algeria and carrying 116 passengers. 6 of which were crew and the rest passengers. The news has shocked the world as yet another aviation disaster hits the headlines after such a short space of time since the MH17 flight was blown out the sky as it flew over Eastern Ukraine.

The aircraft took off from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso at 0117 hrs, local time, and was supposed to land in Algiers at 0510 hrs, local time, but never reached its destination.

The flight had been asked to change route because of a storm, half an hour after its departure. Satellite imagery from Eumetsat clearly shows a large storm in the flight’s path at the time of the apparent diversion.

Algerian Flight #AH5017 has crashed with no survivors

Weather Map of Flight AH5017

It is thought that the aircraft re-routed over a remote and uninhabited mountainous region of Mali.

Location where communication of Flight AH5017 was lost

Location where communication of Flight AH5017 was lost

The BBC’s Alex Duval-Smith in Mali says there was “very bad weather” in the area, as well as “armed groups”

Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal reportedly told Algerian radio: “The plane disappeared at Gao (in Mali), 500km (300 miles) from the Algerian border.”

The area leading up to the Algerian border is vast and sparsely populated.

Flight path of AH5017

Flight path of AH5017

The plane is operated by Air Algerie and chartered from Swiftair who said the aircraft was an MD83. 

According to reports, the aircraft was not far from the Algerian border when the captain was requested to make a detour because of poor visibility and to prevent the risk of collision with another aircraft on the Algiers-Bamako route.

It was after this change in the flight path that contact was lost.

Flight AH 5017 flies the Ouagadougou-Algiers route four times a week. It has also been reported that the plane was quite old according to aviation experts.

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