Six In The Morning

Ukraine crisis: Ceasefire shaken by fresh shelling

 7 September 2014 Last updated at 07:58

 

There has been fresh shelling near Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine, raising fears that a 36-hour-old ceasefire is near to collapse.

The truce held for much of Saturday but overnight shelling in Mariupol was followed by the explosions near Donetsk airport early on Sunday.

The truce and 12-point peace roadmap was signed at talks involving Ukraine, Russia, the rebels and the OSCE.

Fighting in the east has left some 2,600 people dead since April.

Before the ceasefire was agreed on Friday, the separatists had been advancing on both Donetsk airport and Mariupol, a key city on the route to Crimea and an economic prize for any possibility of independence for the eastern Ukraine region.

Ebola outbreak: Why has ‘Big Pharma’ failed deadly virus’ victims?

Because, says a leading scientist, there was ‘no business case’ for a vaccine

CHARLIE COOPER  Sunday 07 September 2014

The scientist leading Britain’s response to the Ebola pandemic has launched a devastating attack on “Big Pharma”, accusing drugs giants including GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Sanofi, Merck and Pfizer of failing to manufacture a vaccine, not because it was impossible, but because there was “no business case”.

West Africa’s Ebola outbreak, which has now claimed well over 2,000 lives, could have been “nipped in the bud”, if a vaccine had been developed and stockpiled sooner – a feat that would likely have been “do-able”, said Professor Adrian Hill of Oxford University.

How will robotic surgery help Indians failed by basic healthcare in the country?

Be it life expectancy or infant mortality, Indian healthcare ranks way below that in other BRICs nations like China and Brazil, but even Bangladesh. And yet India is a pioneer in robotic surgery

 DW

Many of India’s billion-plus people struggle with a public healthcare system that is overburdened in cities and virtually nonexistent in villages.

Be it life expectancy, or infant mortality, Indian healthcare ranks way below many other countries, such as China, Brazil, Sri Lanka and even Bangladesh.

Many people are unable to access – or cannot afford – modern healthcare services.

So it’s perhaps ironic that at the other end of the spectrum robotic surgery is gaining popularity in India, and has even broken new ground.

Charity criticises Sierra Leone’s proposed Ebola lockdown from September 19



 September 7, 2014 – 2:43PM

Dakar: Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres criticised Sierra Leone’s proposed countrywide “lockdown” to control an Ebola outbreak, saying the measure could lead to the disease spreading further as cases are concealed.

The government of Sierra Leone plans to order citizens not to leave the areas around their homes for three days from September 19 in a bid to halt new infections and help health workers track down people suffering from the disease, the information ministry said.

“It has been our experience that lockdowns and quarantines do not help control Ebola as they end up driving people underground and jeopardising the trust between people and health providers,” said MSF.

Qatar confirms arrest of UK rights workers

Qatar says it arrested Krishna Upadhyaya and Ghimire Gundev last week for “violating the law of the land”.

Last updated: 07 Sep 2014 04:25

Qatar has confirmed it is holding two British human rights workers in Doha who had gone missing a week ago while investigating the conditions of Nepalese migrant labourers.

Krishna Upadhyaya and Ghimire Gundev, who worked for the Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD), disappeared after complaining of harassment by the police.

A statement on Saturday by Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs said the men were being investigated for “violating the law of the land” and that security forces had treated the men in accordance with international human rights law.

What’s a ‘hairy monkey’? Chinese artists share their secret

  A small number of Chinese artists practice this traditional art that combines magnolia buds – and sloughed cicada shells. The result is a hairy monkey.

By Peter Ford, Staff Writer

BEIJING – Of all the curiosities one can find in China, few are more bizarre than “hairy monkeys.”

These are not real monkeys. They are tiny humanoid figures made from furry magnolia buds and sloughed off cicada shells, and if that sounds unlikely, you should see what their creators have them do.

Not that many such creators still exist. There are probably fewer than a dozen folk artists in Beijing practicing this abstruse traditional skill, constructing exquisitely modeled tableau that illustrate scenes from old Beijing life.