HEALTHCARE NEWS: Liberia to see huge Ebola surge – WHO

World Health Organization says thousands of new cases are imminent as efforts to fight outbreak fall woefully short.

The World Health Organization has warned that Liberia is set to see a huge spike in infections from the Ebola epidemic ravaging west Africa, with thousands of new cases imminent.

The UN agency on Monday said the country, worst-hit in the outbreak with almost 1,100 deaths, faced "many thousands" of new infections in the next three weeks.

"WHO and its director-general will continue to advocate for more Ebola treatment beds in Liberia and elsewhere, and will hold the world accountable for responding to this dire emergency with its unprecedented dimensions of human suffering," it said in a statement.

The deadliest Ebola epidemic the world has ever seen is spreading across west Africa, with Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone the countries worst affected.

The death toll has topped 2,000, out of nearly 4,000 people infected.

Liberia already accounts for about half of all cases and deaths, and "the number of new cases is increasing exponentially", the WHO warned.

Key development partners trying to help Liberia respond to the outbreak "need to prepare to scale up their current efforts by three- to four-fold," it added.

The countries bearing the brunt of the epidemic are among the world's poorest, with dilapidated medical infrastructures that have all but buckled under the strain of trying to contain the virus.

Before the outbreak, Liberia had only one doctor to treat every 100,000 patients in a total population of 4.4 million people.

Now that 152 healthcare workers in the country have been infected and 79 have died, the WHO said the ratio had worsened significantly.

"Every infection or death of a doctor or nurse depletes response capacity significantly," it said.

No treatment bed

The UN body described how taxis filled with entire families, including members suspected of having Ebola, criss-crossed Monrovia "searching for a treatment bed".

"There are none. As WHO staff in Liberia confirm, no free beds for Ebola treatment exist anywhere in the country."

When Ebola patients are turned away from treatment centres, "they have no choice but to return to their communities and homes, where they inevitably infect others, perpetuating constantly higher flare-ups in the number of cases," it said.

In Montserrado county alone, which includes Monrovia, the agency said 1,000 beds were urgently needed to treat Ebola patients.

In the scramble to halt the contagion, some affected countries have quarantined whole regions, while others so far free of the virus have halted flights.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chief of the African Union Commission, called on Monday for travel bans imposed to stem the epidemic to be lifted, "to open up economic activities".

She told a crisis meeting in Addis Ababa there was an urgent need to "craft a united, comprehensive and collective African response" to the outbreak.

But she also warned that in the battle to stop the spread, "we must be careful not to introduce measures that may have more… social and economic impact than the disease itself".

Experts have warned that economic losses caused by the restrictions were adding to the continent's woes, with some arguing that travel bans even slowed medical help getting to affected areas.

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TOP NEWS: Motorist crushes LAWMA official to death, injures one

A hit-and-run driver of a jeep knocked down two highway managers of the Lagos State Waste Management Agency on Monday along Iyana Oworo Expressway in the state.

According to PUNCH Metro learnt that although the driver managed to escape, the vehicle's number plate fell in the process and had been handed over to security officials.

It was gathered that the driver, who was on top speed, wanted to beat the traffic snarl when he rammed into the victims, identified as Lateefat Sulyman and Fatimoh Ajetunmobi.

Sulyman (popularly called Iya Tawa) was crushed to death while Ajetunmobi was said to have been rushed to a hospital.

Our correspondent, who arrived at the scene of the incident at about 8.50am – 20 minutes after the crash – saw security officials and other sympathisers around the corpse of Sulyman who was in a pool of blood. The road was also littered with debris said to have been packed by the victims.

While men of the Federal Road Safety Corps and Lagos State Transport Management Agency moved the corpse to a morgue, her co-workers lamented her untimely death.

One of the workers, who declined to give her name, said Iya Tawa, an indigene of Abeokuta in Ogun State, had promised to resign from the job in December and set up a business, adding that she was the one taking care of her parents.

"She was the one who took care of her parents. She told me about her plan to leave this job by December and start her own business with the money her husband gave her. I told her to quit immediately but she said she wanted to wait till they moved to her husband's house. We don't pray for this, God. This is a great loss," she said in tears.

An eyewitness, who identified himself simply as Kunle, described Ajetunmobi's condition as critical.

"My brother, it was a terrible Monday. I work around here. There was blood everywhere. The other woman was discharging substance from her private parts while they were taking her to a hospital."

The LAWMA General Manager, Mr. Ola Oresanya, said the workers were just resuming for work when the accident happened.

He said they were making efforts to track down the driver, adding that Ajetunmobi was responding to treatment.

He said, "It happened just as they resumed for work. It was unfortunate that we lost a worker to the accident. The other woman is responding to treatment in the hospital.

"The number plate has been handed over to the police and we are making efforts to ensure that the driver is arrested."

SOURCE: PUNCH

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POLITICAL NEWS: Former President Obasanjo’s Soldier Son Shot By Boko Haram In Adamawa (PICTURED)

Boko Haram insurgents on Monday, September 8, 2014 shot the son of former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, Adeboye Obasanjo after they attacked a platoon led by the son of the former head of state.



Lt. Col. Adeboye Obasanjo [Photo Credit: Sahara Reporters]



According to Sahara Reporters, he was seriously injured in his legs and was being transported to the hospital as at press time.



Adeboye Obasanjo, is an army engineer who was a Lieutenant Colonel at the 3rd Division in Jos, Plateau State. He together with his platoon engaged in a duel with the militants at Baza, the village of the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the division when the incident occurred.



Unconfirmed reports say 24 soldiers in the platoon were killed by the sect members.



His father, the former military and civilian head of state according to family sources is on a trip in Singapore.

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RELIGIOUS NEWS: Pray for my wife, Oyakhilome tells church members

Founder of the Believers' Love World Incorporated, popularly known as Christ Embassy, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, has urged members of his congregation to pray for his estranged wife, Anita.

Breaking his silence on the allegations of adultery reportedly levelled against him by her, he described them as "frivolous charges."

Oyakhilome also lamented that the media had been writing all sorts of "stupid things" about him and his marriage.

Noting that Jesus Christ was also accused of different allegations during his lifetime, Oyakhilome asked Nigerians to refrain from unfairly criticising him.

He was quoted by an online news portal, TheCable, as saying this while giving a sermon in his church on Sunday.

He said, "You don't know who a man of God is. I don't go in that direction. I wasn't accused of the things you said, nor did I commit those stupid things that you said and I don't need to go into that level in such discussions. Jesus Christ was accused by many – a lot of frivolous charges. There will always be those who would like for it to be true. But you know, in spite of the accusations against Jesus, it didn't change who he was. It didn't change him.

"There are preachers and there are men of God. I am not a preacher; I am a man of God and I go in the way I'm asked to go. It may cause some troubles with individuals but that's not because I have done something wrong and when it comes to Reverend Anita, what I will say to you is 'pray for her'.

TheCable added that Oyakhilome, who appeared visibly disturbed during his first few minutes on stage, acknowledged that divorce was unbiblical but suggested he could consider the option should his wife insist on it.

He recalled that Jesus passed through similar travails and eventually overcame. He said that although so many people were making mockery of him, he would remain steadfast and not lose focus.

"Don't act like those people. If you are married to a man of God, it doesn't make you automatically mature. You can make mistakes; you can do something that is wrong. But some people expect the wife of a minister to definitely be at the level of that minister and so they may be looked upon and the expectation may be like that, but it's a positional thing.

"If a man of God is married, it doesn't automatically mean that the wife of a man of God is therefore a woman of God. That's not the way it is in the Bible. That's why you don't really find the wives of men of God mentioned in the Bible. How many of them? Who was Peter's wife, did you ever know her name? You never find that out. Who was John's wife? Did you ever read the name? What about all the other Apostles? How many of their names are written in the Bible. You never find their names."

"You have to understand something about a man of God. A man of God is not just someone who worships God or preaches God. A man of God is handpicked by God, set on course by God. If you study the scriptures, you will not find one man of God go against God, sinning against God.

"The only things you might find will be a man of God, maybe in two different kinds of ways. Moses, for example; when he struck the rock twice, [he] was provoked by the anger of the people. [It was] not because he wanted to do something against the Lord.

"No man of God does something against the Lord. "Are you hearing me? A man of God is set on a course; there is a type of life that he is given. Then you have a young man, a young prophet; he wasn't named; he was deceived by another man of God and so he went in a direction that God said 'don't go'.

SOURCE: PUNCH

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WORLD NEWS: MH17 Dutch experts to publish preliminary report

Dutch experts are due to publish the first report into what caused the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 to crash in eastern Ukraine in July.



The Dutch Safety Board is leading an international probe to try to piece together evidence on what happened.



All 298 people on board, most of them from the Netherlands, died when the plane came down, amid reports it was shot down by pro-Russian rebels.



But the search for evidence has been hampered by heavy fighting in the area.



The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed between Krasni Luch in Luhansk region and Shakhtarsk in the region of Donetsk.



Dutch aviation investigators are relying on information from the black box flight data recorders, air traffic control, satellite images and photos from the scene to compile the preliminary report.



While it is not the final report into the crash, Tuesday's findings are significant because they will be the first official account of what happened, says the BBC's Anna Holligan in The Hague.



However, it will not attribute blame or liability for the crash, she adds.



Experts from the UK, Germany, Australia, Malaysia, the US, Ukraine and Russia are collaborating on the case.



The board says it expects the final report to be published within a year.



Ukraine's government and several Western leaders say there is strong evidence that pro-Russian separatists shot down the plane with an anti-aircraft system known as Buk.



Russia has consistently denied allegations that it had supplied any missiles or weapons to the rebels.

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TECHNOLOGY NEWS: LG ENTERS THE ROUND WITH THE G WATCH R, ITS LATEST ANDROID WEAR

It's been a busy few hours in the world of smartwatches, folks.



Keen to throw the spotlight on itself ahead of the big IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin next week, LG on Wednesday evening officially announced its round-faced G Watch R, which it teased earlier in the week.



Then, without warning, Samsung struts up, snatches the spotlight from LG and turns it determinedly upon itself with the announcement of the Gear S.



Hang around a bit and Sony might throw one into the mix.



G Watch R



LG's newest Android Wear smartwatch, which incorporates a stainless steel frame and comes with an interchangeable calf skin leather strap, goes up against Motorola's similarly shaped Moto 360 device, which is all set for a September 4 launch.



Diving straight in, the elegantly styled G Watch R sports a 1.3-inch Plastic OLED (aka P-OLED) 320 x 320 display, 4GB of storage, 512MB of RAM, and a 410mAh battery, with a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 400 processor running the show.



Its maker promises clear viewing in bright sunlight from all angles, while its water-resistant properties mean it can handle depths of up to a meter for as long as 30 minutes.

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TECH NEWS: HOW IFA 2014 RESHAPED THE LANDSCAPE FOR WEARABLE TECH

Samsung Galaxy Gear S

Last week, Europe's biggest electronics show kicked off in Berlin, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, wearables took centerstage. Nearly all of the major manufacturers present, including Sony, Samsung, LG, Asus and Motorola debuted wearable gadgets. If you're a big company that makes smartphone and tablets whose name doesn't rhyme with Snapple, you've likely got a dog in this race, and there's a pretty good chance you were at the Messe convention center in Berlin last week to show it off.

With an Apple event looming in San Francisco tomorrow, it's important at this late stage to note the obvious: The state of wearable technology could be very different in a matter of a few days. It's never been a smart bet to underestimate Apple's aptitude for completely transforming an existing space. Of course, that assumes the company finally unveils the long rumored iWatch this week, and that the hypothetical gadget brings something to the table (beyond simple brand recognition) that has been thus far lacking in the numerous attempts at the space.

So, what do these latest attempts to keep no wrist bared and no eyes un-augmented with a brighter, textier reality tell us about the state of the burgeoning wearable industry at the beginning of fall 2014? Let's take at some of the proverbial digital trends from IFA to find out.

Watches

I know, right? That's some stellar reporting right there, Brian. No wonder you managed to score that cush Digital Trends column job with keen observations such as this. And while it's true that it doesn't take the cleverest of industry insights to have unlocked this one, it seems safe to say that the world of wearable manufacturers have mostly settled on the wrist as the next major battleground. Basic fitness wearables like the FitBit and Jawbone Up helped reopen the conversation about that bit of realty between our hands and forearms, while Pebble's wildly successful Kickstarter pushed proved that, at least so far as early adopters are concerned, the long-neglected world of wristwatches was primed for a comeback.

Sony SmartWatch 3
Like the smartphone before it, the smartwatch is less pioneering a wholly new space than it is an attempt to fold new technologies into an existing product. This path of less resistance makes a lot of sense, really. Convincing people to upgrade their existing watches — or, perhaps, return to a simpler era when people relied on such things for the time of day — is a much simpler task than getting them to don, say a pair of VR Googles. And let's face it, the wrist just feels inherently less ridiculous than smart rings and necklaces. It's like God gave us the perfect little platform with which to succumb to our screen obsessions.

Android Wear

Obviously a direct continuation of the last point, but it's fascinating to see just how quickly companies jumped on board with Google's wearable version of its mobile OS. It's easy to forget given the company's massive mobile success as of late, but Google had a fair bit of trouble out of the gate in the smartphone space. In fact, many pundits prematurely announced Android dead in the water in those early days. Chalk it up to existing partnerships, the eagerness for companies to dive into wearables before Apple, or maybe the success and relative robustness of the Android ecosystem, but Wear completely dominated IFA's wearable announcements this year.

Asus ZenWatch
Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony and Asus were all on board. In fact, Meta's M1 primarily made headlines this year on the strength of the fact that it wasn't rocking Wear. What Wear really brings to the table is a great software partner in Google and, most likely, the best chance any of the aforementioned companies have of truly competing with the iWatch, should there, you know, actually be an iWatch.

Style

I hate to say it, but this one is important. Aside from the Pebble Steel, how many smartwatches are there out there that the average person would actually wear on a daily basis? Not early adopters, but regular folk. You know, those people who've spent the last few weeks terrified that this 4Chan person was going to break into their iCloud and steal their vacation photos. Those folks have never owned a calculator watch and could never honestly see themselves caught in public with a pair of Google Glass. For them, you're going to need a smartwatch that doesn't just look like a smartphone attached to someone's wrist.

LG G Watch R
LG's G Watch R is possible the best example of this. The thing looks like a watch that can also receive tweets. In fact, most of the manufacturers are doing a better job these days producing smartwatches that look like things people would want to wear on their person. Unlike your smartphone, you can't just stash it away in your pocket — well, you can, but that would sort of defeat the purpose of buying a smartwatch in the first place, right? And really, a little bit of the effort that goes into making smartphones pretty should be applied to what is, essentially, a smart fashion accessory.

Size

Or maybe this one is, in fact, an anti-trend. Either way, one quick look at the Moto 360 on the wrist of a normal sized human demonstrates how much we need this one to go in the other direction. And it's not just a Motorola problem. Have you ever seen a Samsung Galaxy Gear in the wild? For these things to really catch on, we're going to need manufacturers to focus on smartwatches that don't include the creeping threat of carpal tunnel in their list of features.

Honorable mentions

A few minor, but intriguing developments to mention at the end here.

Sony Smartband Talk
There's the Samsung Gear S cellular connected smartwatch. The product fills a small, small, niche, but it's an interesting one: Do you really want to rely on your smartphone to drive your smartwatch? And more kudos to Samsung for the Gear VR. Maybe the Virtual Boy was ahead of its time after all. As for the Sony Smartband Talk — the marriage of fitness band and E Ink is one that makes a lot of sense, actually. It's not as imposing as one of those giant smartwatches, but there's still a built-in display for relevant information.


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