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President Barack Obama announced Sunday that he will be sending members of the U.S. military to West Africa to help in the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which has claimed over 2,100 lives. "We're going to have to get U.S. military assets just to set up, for example, isolation units and equipment there to provide security for public health workers surging from around the world," Obama said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." The president insisted that the situation in West Africa remains a serious national security concern. International medical organizations such as Doctors Without Borders have reportedly petitioned to...

President Obama has said that the United States military will begin aiding the response to an outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa that has claimed the lives of at least 2,100 people in five countries. In an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press," Obama said the epidemic was a "national security priority" and added that the military would be involved in setting up isolation units and other equipment, as well as providing security for public health workers from around the world. "If we do that, then it's still going to be months before this problem is...

Ebola Toll Tops 2,000, Cases Near 4,000 2014-09-05 22:28 Geneva - More than 2 000 people have died in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the World Health Organisation said on Friday, out of about 4 000 patients thought to have been infected in the three countries worst hit by the disease. The death toll in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone totalled 2 097 as at 5 Sept, out of 3 944 cases, a WHO document said. The data did not include patients in Nigeria or Senegal, which have also been affected, nor Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been...

Dramatic Surge in Ebola Deaths Dakar - More than 1 900 people have died in the Ebola epidemic sweeping through West Africa, the head of the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday. "As of this week, we are reporting 3 500 cases confirmed in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and more than 1 900 deaths - and the outbreak is rising," Margaret Chan told reporters in Washington. The latest toll represents a significant increase from the 1 552 deaths and 3 069 cases reported by the Geneva-based organisation just days ago. Speaking at a news conference, Chan said she hoped...

Centers for Disease Control Director Tom Friedman did not return from his visit to West Africa, where the worst outbreak of Ebola in history has spread to five countries and killed at least 1,500 people, with any good news. Friedman told CNN hosts on Tuesday that the Ebola outbreak in Africa is currently “completely out of control” and is now an “epidemic.” The CDC director added that “it will get worse in the future and our window of opportunity to turn it around is closing.”

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — College students from West Africa may be subject to extra health checks when they arrive to study in the United States as administrators try to insulate campuses from the worst Ebola outbreak in history. With the virus continuing to kill in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, the expected arrival of thousands of students from those countries has U.S. authorities on alert but cautioning against alarm. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued no specific recommendations for colleges, some state health departments, including in South Carolina and North Dakota, have spelled out for...

Britons are to be the first in the world to test a new vaccine against the deadly ebola virus. Altogether 60 healthy volunteers will be given the vaccine next month in a trial led by Oxford University scientists. If the vaccine performs as well in humans as in monkeys, the trial will be extended to 80 people in The Gambia and in Mali. The entire trial programme is being fast-tracked – subject to ethical approval – with the intention of using the vaccine in people at high risk in West Africa early next year. Latest figures show that more than...

Ebola outbreak will not be contained this year – WHO More than 1,300 people have died this year from the virus in the worst ever outbreak and WHO has faced criticism, including from medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), that it has done too little too late to fight the disease. "WHO is working on an Ebola road map document, it's really an operational document how to fight Ebola," WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib said at a news briefing. "It details the strategy for WHO and health partners for six to nine months to come." Chaib, asked whether the timeline meant...

Cases in West Africa's Ebola outbreak this year have risen to 2,240, including 1,229 deaths, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday, reporting the toll in four countries, including Nigeria. While Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and No. 1 oil producer, appears to be containing its smaller outbreak, Liberia and Sierra Leone are struggling to halt the spread of the deadly Ebola virus among their populations. On Friday, these small two West African nations and a medical charity chided the WHO for its slow response, saying more action was needed to save victims threatened by the disease and hunger.

Armed Men Raid Liberia Ebola Quarantine Center Last updated on: August 17, 2014 3:34 PM A group of young men armed with clubs, claiming that "there's no Ebola" in Liberia, raided a quarantine center for the deadly disease in Monrovia overnight, prompting about 20 patients infected with the deadly virus to flee, a witness said Sunday. Liberian officials fear Ebola could soon spread through the capital's largest slum after the looters chased off Ebola patients and took items including blood-stained sheets and mattresses. "They broke down the door and looted the place. The patients have all gone," said Rebecca Wesseh,...

Ebola virus disease, West Africa – update 11 August 2014 Epidemiology and surveillance Between 7 and 9 August 2014, a total of 69 new cases of Ebola virus disease (laboratory-confirmed, probable, and suspect cases) as well as 52 deaths were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Health sector response The recent treatment of two health workers, who were infected with EVD, with an experimental medicine has raised important questions about whether medicines or treatments that have never been tested or shown to be safe in humans should be used in this outbreak. Currently, quantities of the medicine are...

A young man lies dead in the streets of Liberia, left to rot in view of passers-by and local children. He is just one of many Ebola victims to have been dragged out of their homes and dumped on the country's roads by terrified relatives in a desperate bid to avoid being quarantined. The deadly virus, which can cause victims to suffer from severe bruising and bleeding from the eyes and mouth, has claimed the lives of nearly 900 people across West Africa so far.

Outbreak Update The World Health Organization, in partnership with the Ministries of Health in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria announced a cumulative total of 1323 suspect and confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) and 729 deaths, as of July 27, 2014. Of the 1323 clinical cases, 909 cases have been laboratory confirmed for Ebola virus infection. In Guinea, 460 cases, including 339 fatal cases and 336 laboratory confirmations of EVD, were reported by the Ministry of Health of Guinea and WHO as of July 27, 2014. Active surveillance continues in Conakry, Guéckédou, Boffa, Fria, Siguiri, and Kourourssa Districts....

GENEVA — The head of the World Health Organization has told the presidents of West African nations stricken by Ebola that the outbreak is moving faster than efforts to control it. Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO's director general, says if the outbreak continues to worsen, the consequences could be "catastrophic" in terms of lost lives and socio-economic disruption. Dr. Chan is in Conakry, where she met Friday with the presidents of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast. WHO and the West African leaders are finalizing a $100 million plan to fight the spread of Ebola, which has claimed nearly 730 lives. ...

SNIPPET - quote: www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl1955.aspx Treasury Announces New Sanctions Against Iran Actions Target Iran’s Nuclear and Missile Proliferation Activities 5/23/2013     WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury is taking action today against 20 individuals and entities for their involvement in Iran’s nuclear and missile proliferation networks and Iran’s continued attempts to circumvent sanctions. These networks are responsible for moving supplies and providing essential services to Iran’s clandestine nuclear and weapons programs. These actions are designed to increase pressure on the Iranian regime by tightening sanctions against Iran’s energy sector and exposing key proliferation related networks that span the...

A rising star in Britain’s Labour Party, described by some as the “British Barack Obama,” Chuka Umunna urged the United Kingdom to more aggressively forge ties with West Africa's fast-growing economies. During a trade mission to West Africa last week that included a stop in his father’s home country Nigeria, Umunna, a member of the British Parliament, dismissed the comparison to the United States president. … Umunna, 34, grew up in Streatham and worked as a lawyer before being elected to parliament in 2010. The son of an Irish mother and Nigerian father, he said he made seven or eight...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl1908.aspx Treasury Identifies Kassem Rmeiti & Co. for Exchange and Halawi Exchange Co. as Financial Institutions of “Primary Money Laundering Concern” 4/23/2013 In First Use of Section 311 Against a Non-Bank Financial Institution, Treasury Acts to Protect the U.S. Financial System from Foreign Exchange Houses Tied to Global Narcotics and Money Laundering Networks and Hizballah WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today named two Lebanese exchange houses, Kassem Rmeiti & Co. For Exchange (Rmeiti Exchange) and Halawi Exchange Co. (Halawi Exchange), as foreign financial institutions of primary money laundering concern under...

A French-owned oil tanker missing off Ivory Coast with 17 sailors on board likely has been hijacked, an official with an international piracy watchdog said Monday, in what may be the latest attack by criminal gangs targeting the ships to steal their valuable cargo. Details remained scarce Monday about the fate of the ship, flagged in Luxembourg. The ship had been reported missing Sunday and officials believe it fell victim to the same pirates operating throughout the Gulf of Guinea, said Noel Choong, a spokesman for the International Maritime Bureau in Malaysia. ... Over the last year and a half,...

Last Updated: Fri Oct 05, 2012 07:26 am (KSA) 04:26 am (GMT) Film ‘Stolen’ exposes modern-day slavery in Polisario camps Friday, 05 October 2012 The film, Stolen, the story of a Sahrawi girl called Fatim Sellami, herself a slave, who was reunited with her mother after 35 years of separation with the help of the United Nations. (Image grab from film Stolen By KHADIJA FATHI AGADIR / MOROCCO A controversial documentary film that exposes slavery in the Western Sahara camps controlled by the Polisario front has been screened in Morocco’s coastal resort city of Agadir. The film, directed by Violeta...

A week after French aircraft rushed to the aid of a defeated and demoralised Malian army, French ground forces have begun fighting alongside the Malian army in Diabaly, a town 350 km north of capital Bamako. Since last year, northern Mali has been overrun by Islamist rebels organised under the banners of the Ansar Dine, the Movement for Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Last Friday, France sent in jets, helicopter gunships, and special forces to Central Mali as Islamist rebels advanced till 50 km from a major military base in Sevare, and captured...