Something the world will be shocked to learn soon is the fact that the Norwegian bomber Breivik may have to be allowed visits by a sexual partner if he has any, and demands that his rights must be respected while in custody.

A Norwegian Oslo University Law Professor API has talked to says, the law allows prisoners sexual rights and because Breivik is in custody and has not been sentenced he “even” has more rights than those who have been handed sentences. This is so because, even if he has admitted committing the crime, he is still “presumed innocent until proven guilty by the court of law”.

The Professor says allowing him sexual contact with his partner, if any, may be of help to him psychologically and ease his frustrations so that he opens up and tells the world the real truth behind his actions and why he decided to harm his own Prime Minister and many innocent young people.

The world media thought the bomber who targeted the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and the labour party youth in a summer camp was not a Norwegian but an outsider. This thought was because Norway is involved in the war in Afghanistan and in Libya. They were all wrong.

Later, it turned out that one of their own, a blue-eyed blondy, Anders Breivik hated his own people, the Norwegians. Many thought the bombings in Oslo on 22nd of July was the work of a terrorist organization. He says he hates the labour party for allowing people to immigrate to Norway.

Now the bombing of Norway has also helped Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. Nato bombers has lost Norway. The Norwegians are out of Nato bombing group that has terrorised civilians in Libya in the pretext that Nato alliance are helping them against Gaddafi. This weekend saw Libyan TV station bombed by Nato. That was on Saturday, the last bombing day for the Norwegians also. On Monday, they are supposed to be back home with all their bomber jets.

End

Have your say on this subject of law and sex in jail:

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By API

Some African countries have stopped genital mutilation of women and yet some still allow the practice that is savagery to women.

In rural Gambia, women have no say when those who perform the act come knocking on the doors with relatives who believe genital mutilation of their daughters will reduce their desire to run around looking for sex.

A specialist on women sex who spoke to API say circumcision of women reduce their sexual drive, but there is great danger when done in dirty environment, because most of them bleed to death. If done hygienically by qualified health personnel, circumcision may help reduce the spread of HIV because women will not be sexually driven. However, it is wrong when most elders demand that the circumcision be done on their daughters as a way of controlling them, because they believe that their girls may be driven to sexual acts with wrong people.

The specialist however, says circumcision of men should be encouraged because it gives positive results. Most circumcised men have little chance to contract HIV. Circumcised women, on the other hand, does not produce the same results on whether it helps them reduce being HIV infected.

It has also worked in many African countries where men work far away from home for months without meeting their wives who are kept in the rural areas. Women who were circumcised when they were young can wait longer without the urge of having sex and that helped the men who wanted to have control over them even when they were not around to give their women sex if they so wanted.

Many, however, do not see the consequence of circumcision. Those circumcised sometimes do get infected by HIV because in most cases dirty razor blades that has been used on others are repeatedly used to save costs.

Many villagers when told of the dangers brought by HIV in circumstances of circumcision, instead of listening to be educated, they blame NGOs teaching them of bringing in ideas and theories from colonialists. They believe such ideas come to interfere with their beliefs that a circumcised women is better off when it comes to being hungry for sex forcing them to get into roadside sexual intercourse with other men, other than their husbands.

In fact villagers in the Gambia get very angered when they get people suggesting to them that circumcision is genital mutilation. For them, that is the right way they know that helps girls to become real women in the society.

WHAT IS YOUR SAY ON THIS?

End

 I  have previously applauded you for the work well done  or criticized you  for failure in service delivery to Kenya wananchi wazalendo.This time am here to urge you to wake up and save the dying Kenyans out of hunger that have stricken most parts of the Country. The looming natural catastrophe that is said to be one of the worst in the last 68 years seems to have dissipated and if you don’t stop  mere politicking and unleash more energy on how to save the lifes of dying Kenyans you will owe Kenyans a big explanation that too in details.
 
 Like most Kenyans,North Eastern lies in Kenyan  territory  and people living there are also wananchi like any other and deserves equal human rights .That ,they deserve a spirited move to save them from the looming hunger that has continued to claim the lifes and their domestics animals.
 
 This  being a coalition government,we expected it to be able to deliver to Kenyans through accountability  and transparency but as for me and most of Kenyans will bear to this truth ,The coalition government has failed completely from the earlier expectation of the many as envisioned the time of its  formation.
 
  Your Excellency, Prime minister and the Mps,you will agree the coalition government has not worked or delivered as expected in its formation, but rather the current  crop of Mps have evolved in pure politics of protecting their seat come 2012,succession politics, evading tax payment ,pointing finger at each others failure at the cost of dying Kenyan citizens. 
 
The passage of new constitution speaks /stands for us all as  all people under one nation.That,every Mwananchi has the right for food ,water and shelter or lets say the  basic necessities but the current government has failed to fulfill the passing law to make sure the  constitution that was overwhelmingly passed by Kenyans is implemented promptly and on the schedule. 
 
SOVEREIGNITY 
  
Mr.President,While  I applaud you for your diplomatic measures
towards resolving disputes with our neighboring countries,Please ,We need our Migingo and Ugingo Islands back and  and our Kenya military keep watch on Kenya borders, not forgetting the turkana border.Kenyans are so worried due to Uprising insecurity,thugs have gone Hi-tech and even to extent of acquiring police communication gadgets, Where is our Internal security Minister?

 
But ,On other hand while the Leaders  European  countries and USA have mostly lectured Kenya on matters of governance,I should commend you for you stood for the ground for your people .let them know , that it is the time they  handle their own internal issues.Also, Well-done for looking on the East for we can now experience the fruits in terms of infrastractue.
   In context to this may be it’s the time to remind Mr.Obama “ukiona cha mwenzako cha nyolewa tia zako maji”I think Ranneberger spent most of the tour  lecturing Kenya but now The same America is faced with hardliners to seal the debt ceiling before August 2nd,2011.This one of the best Democratic country  the whole world is watching what to country that have always interfered with other states running affairs.

 
So,should you use your office in Washington to address the media or call Obama and  remind him that …”it wouln’t be business as issue in Nairobi, if they don’t compromise to seal the Debt deal before August 2nd deadline.
The moral lesson is ,It is the time the world leaders from developed,developing or under developed start dealing with their  real domestic issues affecting  their Countries. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30jqXTHYfJ8 I dedicate the song Real Issues by Jah Mali to our Kenyan leaders.
 
May God bless our current leaders and come 2012 may He give Kenya good leaders with wisdom and tenacity to serve wananchi wazalendo.
 
Sincerely
 
Murithi Benjamin Ikirima
B. Env.Sc, UNO-2005 Awardee

By API

Many innocent Libyans have died in the hands of Nato. Nato and Norway has been bombing the Libyans for over 4 months without success to remove Muammar Gaddafi.

Norwegians experienced terror on their own soil Friday the 22nd July unleashed on them by one of their own, Anders Breivik, who bombed the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s office killing some workers and injuring many.  The Premier escaped the bombing. The same bomber went ahead and massacred about 70 young politicians who were assembled in a summer cap at Utøya in the outskirts of Oslo. The young politicians belonged to the Prime Minister’s political party.

Norway has now decided to break away from Nato participation in continued of bombing the innocent population in Libya in the pretext that the purpose is to remove Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

In the 4 months that Norway has participated in bombing the Libyan people under Nato command, Norwegian bomber jets is said to have dropped near-to 600 bombs.

The country is now withdrawing their bombing jets. All the four jets is said to arrive on Norwegian soil on Monday the 1st of August. Their last bombing spree was done Saturday 30.July (yesterday). The support staff numbering 120 (women and men) who were based Kreta airbase will return to Norway in less than 14 days.

It is not clear, however, if the urgent withdrawal by the Norwegians from the bombing spree led by Nato that has killed many innocent civilians in Libya is in any way connected to the terror experienced in Norway when Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s office was bombed by Anders Breivik in a target to eliminate him and those who support his Labour Party views.

Terror in Norway woke up the Norwegian people to realising that loosing innocent civilian population to bombs and targeted mass shooting is the worst thing that one can experience in life.

In an article yesterday, API called on the Norwegian government to pull out of Libya. API is pleased to note that the government leadership has woken up to the reality that their continued participation in unjustified bombing of the Libyan people is wrong and will now pull out completely on monday.

End

Related article:

• Terror in Norway, Terror in Palestine, Terror in Afghanistan and Terror by Nato in Libya: Do we value life the same way in all countries?

KENYA: When a cow is part of the family

Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN

Abdille Muhamed with his dead cow

MANDERA/WAJIR, 28 July 2011 (IRIN) – In his village, Kiliwehiri in northeastern Kenya, Abdullah Mohamed is known as “that mentally disturbed man”.

“It is difficult to be normal after you have watched your entire life’s savings get wiped out before your eyes,” said Ibrahim Abdi, assistant chief of the village. “We are Somalis, we look after each other,” explained Abdi, so the village shares their rations with Mohamed’s family.

A month ago, Mohamed was just another pastoralist battling soaring temperatures and drought in the arid Mandera district – identified by the UN, with other parts of the Horn of Africa, as just one step away from famine on a five-point scale. It has not rained in his village for more than a year.

Over 10 days, Mohamed watched 40 of his cattle collapse and die – one by one – as they waited their turn at a water-point along the border between southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya, a few kilometres from his village.

For the people of Mandera and neighbouring Wajir district, their animals are not just an investment but part of the family.

“These carcasses meant the world to someone,” said Kennedy Agoi Lumadede, an official with Vétérinaires Sans Frontières-Suisse (VSF-Suisse) as he pointed out heaps of bones along the dirt tracks linking the two districts..

“They [the animals] are like our family members,” said an emotional Abdille Muhamed of Garse Koftu village in Wajir district as he knelt beside the carcass of the last of his cows. “I spent 20 years building this herd [of 40 cattle and 270 goats] – you nurture them like your children.”

“We were sharing with this cow whatever relief food we were receiving,” he said. They did not have enough aid to begin with. Muhamed, his two wives and 12 children, had moved back to his village when he was down to his last cow.

Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN

Abdullah Mohamed from Kiliwehiri village

The village has been living off relief food for almost a year. “But we have at least five or six families moving back to the village every day now as their animals die,” says a resident. “Each family’s portion of aid is getting smaller by the day – the food only lasts a week [from the day it is distributed].”

Muhamed, like many others, had walked about four to five hours every day to raid bird nests in the few remaining trees to feed his cow. “It is the only bit of grass left in this desert. My animals worked with me and walked with me for long distances – it was my duty.”

Famine looming

Wajir is also a step away from famine. Two remaining calves in the Garse Koftu village tug at a bit of cloth and an empty food sack. “We have heard of instances where the cows are even trying to eat sand,” said Muna Ahmed of Arid Lands Development Focus Kenya, an NGO based in Wajir.

Muhamed said: “Today [when he lost his last cow] is a very sad day but I knew it was coming – the worst day was when I lost 17 goats in one day.”

“With these members of my family gone, now I worry about my other children.” His 12 children are, unsurprisingly, not healthy either. They have not had any milk for almost a year and have been living on a single meal for most of 2011.

All the money he had saved from selling milk and his goats was re-invested in buying more animals. This year, the value of a cow has plummeted from almost KSh8,000 (about US$88.50) to about Ksh5,800 ($64). His emaciated cow would not have even made that much.

But if Muhamed had had access to a destocking programme such as the one run by VSF, he could have ended the life of his animals in a more humane way, and been paid some money.

VSF-Suisse uses the Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS) for interventions such as destocking. “But unfortunately we only cover a small part of Mandera district – everyone is working with limited resources,” said Lumadede.

Even so, convincing the pastoralists to part with their animals is extremely difficult “because of their relationship with the animals and the pastoralists are eternal optimists – they always think it might just rain the next day or the day after and the situation will change”, Lumadede added.

With pasture land completely depleted in Mandera and Wajir, pastoralists have taken their herds to Ethiopia hoping to find some grazing land and water.

“But their animals are too weak – they will all probably die before they can even get there,” said Muhamed.

As Mohamed told his story in Mandera, a newsreader over somebody’s radio was talking about budgetary constraints on public pensions in Italy.

“Everyone is suffering in the world,” remarked a Kenyan in our entourage. But Muhamed’s and Mohamed’s animals meant a lot more than mere savings.

jk/js/mw source  www.irinnews.org

NEPAL: Migration main factor for HIV prevalence in west

Photo: Amy Lieberman/IRIN

Nearly 70percent of households in Achham migrate at some stage

MANGALSEN, 27 July 2011 (PlusNews) – HIV prevalence in Achham is estimated at 1.7 percent, but many residents, who have never left the remote western district, know HIV only as “Bombay [Mumbai] disease”.

Naming HIV after India’s bustling commercial city is considered the most logical explanation for what happened to men who were healthy when they migrated for work and returned home years later sick. The district has supplied cheap migrant labour to cities such as Mumbai for years.

“There’s only one main cause for HIV prevalence here and that is men going to India,” said Surja Kunwar, a nurse at Achham District Hospital, near the district capital of Mangalsen. “Men have to migrate and don’t know about safe sex and women cannot demand safe sex with their husbands.”

Although HIV prevalence in Nepal’s general population is a low 0.5 percent, the country has been experiencing a concentrated epidemic among high-risk groups such as seasonal migrant workers. The government found that in 2008, 41 percent of all HIV cases in the country were among labour migrants.

Testing and public awareness for HIV are said to be increasing in Achham, where nearly 70 percent of households migrate at some stage, according to the International Labour Organization. An inclusive maternal care programme at district hospitals, which provide women with US$20 if they give birth on-site, has helped control mother-to-child transmission of HIV; the Achham District Hospital reports only 42 cases of transmission since 2005.

But the silence between husbands and wives at home about protected sex – and men’s frequent unprotected encounters with sex workers in Mumbai – continues.

Damdar Saud worked in Mumbai as a physical labourer for 16 years before returning to Achham two years ago. He learned he was HIV-positive after his health began to decline last month, and then walked two days to the hospital.

He is now receiving free antiretroviral treatment and feels better, but has not shared any details of his diagnosis or healthcare with his wife.

“Soon I will go home and I will bring my wife back here to get tested,” said Saud. “But I think I know what will be the result. I’m thinking she is positive.”

Kalashi Vishwakarmas, now pregnant with her fourth child, was the last to know that her husband of 10 years was HIV-positive. He, like Saud, worked in Mumbai, but she says she did not know what kind of job he had. She says she never felt comfortable asking about his sexual activity abroad.

She learned of her own HIV-positive status about two years ago, while she was pregnant with her third child and underwent routine testing at the hospital. All her children have since tested negative.

“I never heard of HIV before,” Vishwakarmas said. “My husband kept this secret from me… I wish I would have known.”

There’s only one main cause for HIV prevalence here and that is men going to India … Men have to migrate and dont know about safe sex and women cannot demand safe sex with their husbands

Housewives in Achham constitute the highest number of reported persons living with HIV – 60 percent of the 1,141 recorded cases as of 14 May 2011, according to the Ministry of Health and Population’s district health office.

Although more people have been getting tested for the virus, the number of people who know their status is still low. About 13 percent of Achham’s approximate 300,000 population have been tested, said Krishna Singh, programme supervisor of the national NGO, Working for Access and Creation, in Achham.

Singh estimates that 5,000 Achham residents are HIV positive. About 64,000 people are estimated to be living with HIV in Nepal, meaning the estimated HIV-positive residents of Achham – only one of 75 districts – account for 7 percent of this national prevalence.

An estimated 1,500 children are affected by HIV/AIDS, many orphaned and serving as heads of households in Achham.

Dhunki Nepali says it may be difficult for her three children living with her if she becomes sick. “My family is here but they don’t give us anything, they have their own families to take care of,” said Nepali, whose second husband left after he learned she was HIV-positive.

Her first husband, who used to work as a labourer in India and did not tell her when he tested positive, is no longer alive. “I didn’t know anything at the time about his status. I was very young,” she explained.

Nepali’s oldest son, aged eight, is also HIV-positive, but she is not sure about her toddler’s status. She did not reach the hospital – about an hour’s walk – for her delivery and gave birth on the side of the road.

Nepali and her son’s status has led to further isolation in their community. “Even though people don’t say things [about my positive status] I know they talk and they want the children to stay away,” Nepali said.

al/kn/mw source www.irinnews.org

HORN OF AFRICA: Famine to spread across southern Somalia – UN

Photo: UNICEF/Riccardo Gangale

Some 12.4 million people across the Horn of Africa need urgent life-saving assistance

GENEVA, 29 July 2011 (IRIN) – The food crisis in the Horn of Africa is likely to continue for most of 2011 and famine is expected to spread to the whole of southern Somalia, the UN said on 29 July.

“The current food security emergency across the region is expected to persist at least for the coming three to four months,” the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a new regional overview.

In Somalia, the crisis is expected to worsen, “with all areas in the south slipping into famine”, OCHA said.

The agency cited high levels of severe acute malnutrition and under-five mortality, below-average harvest forecasts, a deterioration of pastoral conditions and continued increases in cereal prices.

UN agencies reviewed the humanitarian requirements upwards and now say US$2.48 billion is needed, of which $1.5 billion has been contributed to date.

At present, 12.39 million people are severely affected across the region and need urgent life-saving assistance. This figure could go up by 25 percent in the coming months, OCHA said.

The security situation in Somalia has seriously hampered relief efforts. On 28 July, fighting broke out in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, as African Union troops battled militants in an offensive aimed at protecting aid delivery efforts.

A total of 2.2 million people needing food aid are not being reached in southern Somalia.

“If access for humanitarian aid and workers to the worst-affected areas of Somalia does not improve, continued flows of refugees to the Kenyan and Ethiopian borders can be expected,” OCHA said.

There are now more than 350,000 Somalis in Dadaab, northeastern Kenya, and about 130,000 in Dolo Ado, Ethiopia, according to OCHA. Every day, another 1,300 arrive in Dadaab, and 240 at the Ethiopian camps.

“Malnutrition remains a major concern in Dolo Ado. There is a 30 percent severe acute malnutrition rate in new arrivals,” Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba, the UNHCR spokesperson told reporters in Geneva.

“Increasingly, recent arrivals are reporting that they finally made the decision to flee when the last of their animals died and they had no further source of income or food,” she said.

pfm/js/mw source www,irinnews.org