Liberia: Closes borders as Ebola hits major West African cities
Liberia has closed most of her land borders after Ebola spread to Sierra Leone's capital Freetown and Lagos in Nigeria. This marks an alarming new front in the fight against a disease which up to now was confined to remote villages and rural outposts where 129 people have died. It spreads via bodily fluids and 56% of those affected die. The first confirmed case of Ebola in Freetown died Saturday after her parents forcibly took her from hospital. The World Health Organisation urges people showing signs of Ebola to go immediately to health centres. WHO said,‘We must stop the message that there is no treatment. The faster patients seek treatment in secure health centres the more likely they are to recover and avoid contaminating family members.’ Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse is leading an awareness campaign to encourage people to seek treatment. More than 430,000 people have been reached by their effort. See also:
Middle East: Why can’t they discuss ceasefire?
BBC analysts believe Hamas’s isolation after losing the support of former allies Syria and Iran and the Egyptian authorities crack down on smuggling tunnels has brought about attacking Israel as a way to obtain concessions in any eventual ceasefire. Meanwhile Qatar and Turkey, both supporters of Hamas, are participating in ceasefire negotiations. Israel does not trust them. Israel says even if it adopts a ceasefire it will continue searching out and destroying recent tunnels Hamas has built to bypass Israel's border defences (Security wall and Iron Dome) which up to now have mostly succeeded in preventing attacks within Israel proper. The current modern tunnel system is the first time that Israeli forces have faced a weapon against which they have no previous experience. Hamas has learned from Hezbollah how to improve its use of tunnels. Tunnels are now sophisticated, with water, sewage, and lighting allowing for month-long stays. See
Gaza: UN premises attacked and also found to be used by Hamas
The UN accused Israel of attacking a UN-run school housing refugees in Gaza despite warnings that civilians were there. The Israeli military said in a statement that its ‘initial inquiry suggests that militants fired mortars earlier that morning from the vicinity of UNRWA school in Jebalia’ and soldiers responded by firing towards the origin of fire’. Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using schools and civilian areas as bases to launch attacks. Last week, another UN-run school was hit. But the Israeli military denied any killings, saying a single ‘errant’ shell had landed in an empty courtyard. The UN on Tuesday revealed that a cache of rockets had been found at one of its schools in Gaza - the third case of its kind and the UN condemned it as a ‘yet another flagrant violation of the neutrality of our premises.’ Israel stepped up the intensity of its strikes saying it had hit a number of tunnelsl. See also
Scottish police drop charges against Christian street preacher
A former LA deputy sheriff arrested while street preaching in Scotland has been told by police he will no longer face charges. Tony Miano was arrested in Dundee after a member of the public complained he had been using ‘homophobic language’. He was on a weeklong street-preaching mission in the city in January with evangelist Josh Williamson when he was arrested under hate-crime legislation. (See Prayer Alert 2.2014). The Christian Legal Centre, which represented him, said he was held by police for 24 hours and that they refused to watch video footage of his street preaching. Mr Miano, 50, said it ‘took months’ for the prosecutors to watch the footage. ‘When the prosecutors finally managed to get the video footage off my camera they could plainly see that the accuser had made allegations about my speech that were simply untrue,’ he said.
