A US doctor infected with the deadly Ebola virus in Liberia has arrived in the US for treatment at a specialised unit in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr Kent Brantly arrived in a specially equipped private plane at a military base before being driven to Emory University Hospital.
Fellow infected US aid worker Nancy Writebol is expected to follow shortly.
Tom Esslemont reports.
Gay rights activists in Uganda and around the world are celebrating a decision by the country's constitutional court to strike down a widely condemned anti-gay law on a legal technicality.
A panel of five judges ruled yesterday that the speaker of parliament acted illegally when she allowed a vote on the measure despite at least three objections that not enough MPs were in attendance.
"The speaker was obliged to ensure that there was quorum," the court said in its ruling. "We come to the conclusion that she acted illegally."
While celebrating the ruling, activists warned that homosexuality remains a criminal offence in the east African country. The fiercely controversial statute represented a dramatic toughening of the penalties. It banned the "promotion of homosexuality" and enabled life sentences to be imposed for various same-sex acts, including touching in public or living in a same-sex marriage.
Barack Obama described the legislation as "a step backward for all Ugandans" and several donors suspended aid, but defiant president Yoweri Museveni signed it into law last February, watched by cheering crowds. Asked about homosexuality on CNN, he said: "They're disgusting. What sort of people are they? I never knew what they were doing. I've been told recently that what they do is terrible. Disgusting."
The challenge to the law was brought by 10 petitioners, including academics, journalists, ruling and opposition MPs, human rights activists and rights groups. They claimed it violated the constitutional right to privacy and dignity, as well as the right to be free from discrimination and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
Yesterday's ruling was made before a courtroom packed with Ugandans opposing or supporting the measure. Activists erupted in loud cheers after the court ruled the law "null and void".
Among those present was Frank Mugisha, director of Sexual Minorities Uganda. "We welcome this ruling and Uganda's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community can celebrate a small victory against oppression," he said.
"However, we are disappointed that the case was not heard on its true merits. The truth is that, not only is the anti-homosexuality act persecutory, it is also unconstitutional and illegitimate. This law has no place in our society, which values dignity, privacy and equality for all our citizens. Until the Act has been dismissed on the substance of our arguments, we cannot rest easy."
Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, lawyer for the activists, said the ruling "upholds the rule of law and constitutionalism in Uganda".
Homophobia is widespread in the socially conservative country, where American evangelical Christian groups have been accused of fuelling prejudice.
– (Guardian service)
It takes about five weeks to elect our federal government, four weeks to elect the Ontario version.
So why does it take 299 days — 10 months — to elect Toronto's mayor?
We agree with Olivia Chow and, oddly enough, Doug Ford, Mayor Rob Ford's campaign manager, that Toronto's marathon mayoral race needs to be cut down to size.
Running for office non-stop for almost a year, once every four years, takes a huge bite out of the time the mayor (and councillors) should be attending to city business.
We can pretend the public is riveted by a 10-month race and that the mayoral contenders look forward to every single all-candidates' debate.
But the fact is overly long campaigns result in long periods where people simply aren't paying attention to the candidates, who have little left to say.
In the mayor's race, you can bet the major candidates' war rooms are trying to figure out how to relaunch their campaigns after Labour Day, when they hope voters will shake off the summer doldrums and start listening to them leading up to the Oct. 27 vote.
Indeed, an effective campaign period of Labour Day to voting day sometime in late October or early November, used to be the norm in municipal politics.
But after Toronto was amalgamated in 1998, the thinking was mayoral candidates needed more time to mount city-wide campaigns.
That's why the race officially kicked off this year on Jan. 2, when candidates could file their nomination papers.
(Only after a candidate has filed nomination papers can he or she start to raise and spend money on campaigning.)
Chow says if she wins she'll ask the province to amend its legislation governing municipal election campaigns so they officially start the first business day after July 1.
That would still leave four months for campaigning.
Mayoral candidates John Tory, Karen Stintz and David Soknacki all oppose a shorter election period.
They argue Chow only supports it because shorter campaigns benefit candidates who run under a party banner, as Chow is given that the NDP is the only party that formally organizes at the municipal level.
Longer campaigns, in theory, also give lesser known candidates more time to raise their profiles.
In fact, seven months into this race, the mayoral candidates who started at the back of the pack are still there.
We agree that incumbents have an unfair advantage over outsiders trying to win office because they don't have to quit their jobs to do so and receive their salaries right through the election period.
But the best way to address that is to reduce the public money they get in between elections, ostensibly to serve their constituents, much of which goes to self-promotion.
That would do more to level the playing field than a 10-month mayoral marathon once every four years.
TOLEDO, Ohio — Long lines formed at water distribution centers and store shelves were quickly emptied of bottled water after Ohio's fourth-largest city told residents not to drink from its water supply that was fouled by toxins possibly from algae on Lake Erie.
The warning effectively cut off the water supply to 400,000 people in Toledo, most of its suburbs and a few areas in southeastern Michigan.
Worried residents told not to drink, brush their teeth or wash dishes with the water emptied store shelves and waited hours for deliveries of bottled water from across Ohio as the governor declared a state of emergency.
Gov. John Kasich pledged that state agencies were working to bring water and other supplies to areas around Toledo while also assisting hospitals and other businesses impacted. The state also was making plans to make more deliveries if the water problem lingered, he said.
"What's more important than water? Water's about life," Kasich said. "We know it's difficult. We know it's frustrating."
The governor said it was too early to say how long the water advisory will last or what caused toxins to spike suddenly in the drinking water.
"We don't really want to speculate on this," Kasich told The Associated Press. "When it comes to this water, we've got be very careful."
Samples of water were flown to the federal and state Environmental Protection Agency offices in Cincinnati and Columbus and a university in Michigan for additional testing, officials said.
Residents waking up to the warning on Saturday morning lined up outside just about any store selling water. Some were mothers concerned about how they would make formula for their infants and other were worried about their elderly parents.
"It looked like Black Friday," said Aundrea Simmons, who stood in a line of about 50 people at a pharmacy before buying four cases of water.
Families toting empty coolers, milk jugs and even cookie jars topped them off with well water funneled out of the back of a pickup truck.
John Myers, a farmer from nearby Swanton, loaded 450 gallons of well water into a container in the back of his pickup truck and gave it out for free in a high school parking lot.
"The more you got, the more we'll fill," he told residents carrying empty containers. "I never thought I'd see the day that I'd be giving water away."
Myers said his concern was that the advisory could go one for days. "This is a lot more serious than anybody's thinking about," he said.
Tyshanta DeLoney, of Toledo, filled up a big plastic container after spending much of the day searching for water. "That was a blessing," she said.
Late Saturday, Kasich ordered the state's National Guard to deliver water purification systems, pallets of bottled water and meals ready to eat, or MREs, to residents in Lucas, Wood and Fulton counties.
Toledo issued the warning just after midnight Saturday after tests at one treatment plant showed two sample readings for microsystin above the standard for consumption. The city also said not to boil the water because that would only increase the toxin's concentration. The mayor also warned that children should not shower or bathe in the water and that it shouldn't be given to pets.
The first tests indicating trouble came Friday night and additional testing confirmed the elevated readings, said Craig Butler, director of the state's Environmental Protection Agency.
Water coming from the lake into Toledo's water plant had relatively low toxicity levels this summer compared with a year ago until this sudden spike.
Algae blooms during the summer have become more frequent and troublesome around the western end of Lake Erie, the shallowest of the five Great Lakes.
The algae growth is fed by phosphorus mainly from farm fertilizer runoff and sewage treatment plants, leaving behind toxins that have contributed to oxygen-deprived dead zones where fish can't survive. The toxins can kill animals and sicken humans.
Scientists had predicted a significant bloom of the blue-green algae this year, but they didn't expect it to peak until early September.
The state began delivering water to the Toledo area Saturday afternoon. Containers were being filled with water at a prison near Columbus and trucked about 130 miles north, said Nancy Dragani, director of the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.
The state also asked major grocery chains to divert as much water as they can to northwest Ohio, she said. The Ohio National Guard planned to send units that can turn pond water into drinkable water to three hospitals and a state prison in Toledo.
As truckloads of water came in from across the state, Toledo leaders set up distribution centers at schools around the city, limiting families to one case of bottled water. Some stores were receiving new shipments of water and putting limits on how much people can buy.
"We're going to be prepared to make sure people are not without water," said Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins.
There were no reports yet of people becoming sick from drinking the water, Collins said.
Stores in cities up to 50 miles away were reporting shortages of bottled water. Some neighboring communities that aren't connected to Toledo's water system were offering their water to people who brought their own bottles and containers.
Operators of water plants all along Lake Erie, which supplies drinking water for 11 million people, have been concerned over the last few years about toxins fouling their supplies.
Almost a year ago, one township just east of Toledo told its 2,000 residents not to drink or use the water coming from their taps. That was believed to be the first time a city has banned residents from using the water because of toxins from algae in the lake.
Most water treatment plants along the western Lake Erie shoreline treat their water to combat the algae. Toledo spent about $4 million last year on chemicals to treat its water and combat the toxins.
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at 04:00 on August 02, 2014, EDT.
GANANOQUE, Ont. - Via Rail train service is scheduled to resume today on the Toronto to Montreal and Toronto to Ottawa routes.
The service was shut down Friday after a collision between a Via train and a CN freight train east of Kingston, Ont.
Via says the freight train struck the passenger train's locomotive and a few cars about seven kilometres from Gananoque.
It says the train was travelling from Ottawa to Toronto with about 300 people on board.
One passenger reported a minor injury.
Buses replaced train service on the two routes for the rest of Friday.
Content Provided By Canadian Press.
Mayor Rob Ford says "it's not news" that he'll be subpoenaed in the extortion case connected with his crack video.
Alexander "Sandro" Lisi — Ford's friend — was charged with extortion last October in connection with alleged attempts to retrieve the first Rob Ford crack video.
"I haven't been subpoenaed," Ford told reporters Friday afternoon. "You know what? This is not even news. It might be news to you guys. It is not news to the average taxpayer. The taxpayers want their money saved."
Ford refused to answer questions about the case.
"What you guys are talking about is not news, taxpayers' money is news," Ford said.
"You can scream in my ear all you want. You know what I get told by people day in and day out? ... 'Ignore the media.'"
A Toronto Police spokesman refused Friday to discuss the possible subpoena and the ongoing Project Brazen 2 investigation which focused on the mayor.
Ford has repeatedly declined to speak with police investigators and his lawyer Dennis Morris said that won't change.
"Ford's not going to be interviewed by the police," Morris said. "I told the police that from Day 1."
If he ends up taking the stand at Lisi's trial next year, it would be the first time Ford will have had to answer questions under oath about Lisi, his alleged interactions with the Dixon City Bloods and his involvement, if any, in trying to recover the crack video.
Morris wasn't surprised by the upcoming subpoena and suggested this is just another attempt by the police to humiliate Ford.
"There's not news that they expect they will subpoena the mayor to testify at a friend's trial," Morris said. "You could subpoena me but that's doesn't mean I have any particular knowledge.
"I'm thinking the subpoena is obviously going to happen some time, they could give it to him or he could come and see them."
Morris claimed the subpoena is "just another attempt to embarrass the mayor."
"It's part and parcel of their case. They are trying to link the mayor in some way, because they don't have them linked by intercepted phone conversations," he said. "They have the phone records, but they don't have A speaking to B in content. That's my understanding.
"Everything is just a shot in the dark and a hope and a prayer."
Councillor Sarah Doucette said she wasn't surprised that Ford could end up having to testify in court in the Lisi case.
"Just because he's the mayor doesn't mean he shouldn't be subpoenaed," Doucette said. "If he's involved with someone who is in a court case they should be allowed to subpoena him, they should be allowed to subpoena anyone."
don.peat@sunmedia.ca
An Israeli officer missing in Gaza was likely killed in an IDF strike, Hamas said early on Saturday as Israel's Operation Protective Edge entered its 26th day.
The Israeli military on Friday cited indications that the officer, Second Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, was taken captive in Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip's south. Two other soldiers were killed in the attack, raising the number of Israeli military fatalities to 63. The announcement came not long after a 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire agreed upon by Israel and Hamas collapsed within two hours of being launched.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. President Barack Obama condemned Hamas for the abduction.
At least 70 people were killed and 100 were wounded in subsequent Israeli bombardments of Rafah, Palestinian medical officials said. The Palestinian death toll in the current round of fighting has exceeded 1,600, according Gaza health ministry figures.
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For Friday's live updates, click here
Live updates [Saturday]:
11:06 A.M. A senior Israel Defense Forces officer said Saturday morning that the army is "very close to completing" the mission of destroying tunnels in the Gaza Strip. According to the IDF, four tunnels have been destroyed in Gaza in the past 24 hours.
"We are very close to completing the mission of dealing with the tunnels," the officer said.
The army cautiously estimates that in the next two days it will be able to announce that it has exploded all the tunnels it has found. "In the next 48 hours, we will continue in our efforts to do everything necessary to block the tunnels, and more decisions will be made as we progress," the officer added.
Israeli forces are continuing to operate in the Rafah area in an effort to gain more information on 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin, who appears to have been captured. Troops are sweeping houses and suspicious sites in the area, accompanied by massive shelling.
The IDF says it cannot say anything about Goldin's state, but according to information at the army's disposal, he was together with Major Benaya Sarel and Staff Sergeant Liel Gidoni during the attack, both of whom died. The IDF says Sarel and Gidoni are believed to have been killed in an attack by a suicide bomber and that fire was exchanged during the incident.
The senior officer also said there are no more soldiers left to question about the incident, except for those who were dozens of meters away from the site at the time.
Among 55 sites struck by the IDF overnight Friday were five mosques, which the army says stored rockets and were used as terrorist command centers, and a site at the Islamic University that was used, according to the army, for military activity. (Gili Cohen)
10:00 A.M. The IDF has struck 55 targets in Gaza since midnight. (Gili Cohen)
9:50 A.M. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed frustration with U.S. efforts to forge a truce in Gaza in the aftermath of the humanitarian cease-fire's collapse, the Associated Press reports.
Netanyahu said in a phone conversation with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro that the Obama administration was "not to ever second-guess me again" and that Washington should trust his judgment on how to deal with Hamas, according to people familiar with the conversation.
Netanyahu added that he now "expected" the U.S. and other countries to fully support Israel's offensive in Gaza, according to those familiar with the call. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter by name. (AP and Barak Ravid)
9:38 A.M. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says that a Palestinian delegation will travel to Cairo this evening despite the collapse of the humanitarian cease-fire.
He expresses hope that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will convince Israel to send negotiators to Egypt as well to relay its demands, "including the matter of the missing soldier."
According to Erekat, this is the only way to advance a truce. (Jack Khoury)
9:12 A.M. At least 30 people killed in an intensive Israeli aerial, naval and ground offensive were brought to a Gaza hospital this morning, according to Palestinian reports. Most of the fatalities came from Rafah. Seven were members of the Abu Suleiman family, whose home was struck around 3 A.M.
Some of the bodies recovered overnight were casualties of Friday's strikes.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, the death toll in the Israeli operation currently stands at 1,624, including 315 children. Some 8,750 have been wounded, including 2,307 children. (Jack Khoury)
6:21 A.M. Iron dome intercepts rocket over Be'er Sheva. (Gili Cohen)
6:14 A.M. Rocket sirens sound in Be'er Sheva and other towns in southern Israel.
6:08 A.M. Iron Dome intercepts two rockets over central Israel. (Gili Cohen)
6:02 A.M. Rocket sirens sound throughout central Israel including Tel-Aviv, Ra'anana, and Petah Tikva.
5:30 A.M. The U.S. Congress approved $225 million in emergency funding for Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defense system on Friday, sending the measure to President Barack Obama to be signed into law. The House of Representatives approved the funding by a 395-8 vote late on Friday, several hours after the Senate passed it unanimously. (Reuters)
4:49 A.M. Israel Air Force bombing in Jabalia, north Gaza.
2:30 A.M. Hamas Military Wing issues a statement saying that they believe that the missing Israeli officer was killed in an Israeli bombardment. "We lost contact with the group of combatants that took part in the ambush, and we believe they were all killed in the bombardment. Assuming that they managed to abduct the soldier during combat, we assess that he was also killed in the incident."
According to the statement the group told mediators that they were ready for a humanitarian cease-fire and that they would not shoot rockets into Israel. (Jack Khoury)
2:20 A.M. The Anti-Defamation League calls on the international community to "unequivocally condemn Hamas' flagrant and ruthless violation of a humanitarian ceasefire and to fully support all efforts to ensure the unconditional safe and immediate return of kidnapped Israel Defense Force officer Hadar Goldin."
2:10 A.M. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza attack on Rafah over the last few hours has gone up to 70. The number of people injured has surpassed 100. Witnesses told the New York Times that IDF tanks are shelling east Rafah while civilians that evacuated their homes returned to see if they survived the attack.
1:10 A.M. Israeli security cabinet meeting ends after five hours of discussions.(Barak Ravid)
An explosion killed at least 65 people and injured more than 120 at a factory in China that makes wheels for US carmakers, including General Motors, state media said, as the country suffered its worst industrial accident in a year.
Chinese media cited the government as saying that the blast in the wealthy eastern province of Jiangsu occurred around 7.30am today in Kunshan city, after an explosion ripped through a workshop that polishes wheel hubs.
A preliminary investigation suggested that the explosion at Kunshan Zhongrong Metal Products Co Ltd was caused by negligence after a flame was lit in a dust-filled room, state news agency Xinhua said.
Two officials from Kunshan Zhongrong have been held by authorities, Xinhua said, citing an unnamed government source.
"We heard a really loud blast at about 7 a.m. this morning so we rushed out of our dormitories," said Zhou Xu, a 26-year-old working at a plant across the site.
"First the ambulance came, then as the news surfaced in the media, many families - especially the wives - rushed to the site to see if their husbands were okay."
A security guard from an adjacent factory and who declined to be named said the impact from the explosion was so great that it shattered the windows of his guard house, located about 500 metres away from the site of the blast.
Images online and on state television showed large plumes of black smoke billowing from a white low-rise building. Many of the injured, who appeared badly burnt in scorched clothing, were shown laying on wooden pallets and being stretchered on to trucks, public buses and ambulances.
At the workshop where the blast occurred, state television showed wrecked walls and heavy machinery that was hurled through the window.
State TV said authorities had set up four emergency blood-donation centres in Kunshan to assist casualties, some of whom will be taken to Shanghai and other nearby cities for treatment later today.
By early afternoon, the police had cordoned off access to the ageing factory. Authorities had also cleaned up the factory's exterior, and a crowd of bystanders and row of fire-trucks parked in the compound were the only outward signs of the calamity that had occurred hours earlier.
Poor Safety Record
China, the world's second-largest economy, has a poor record on workplace safety. Workers are often poorly trained or ill-equipped to protect themselves from industrial accidents.
The Chinese government said on its website that Wang Yong, China's state councilor, was heading to the site on the requests of President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang as a representative of Beijing.
Kunshan Zhongrong could not be reached for a comment. Its website said the firm is wholly owned by an unidentified foreign investor, employs 450 workers and counts General Motors and other US companies as clients.
State television said that there more than 200 workers at the site when the explosion struck, and 45 died immediately.
"Of course, the foreign owner of the company will shoulder the responsibility," said Duan Shenyi, a user of China's microblog Weibo said today. "But because we lack a workers' union, we do not have enough supervision of companies."
A fire at a poultry slaughterhouse in the northeast province of Jilin in June 2013 killed 120 people. The blaze was blamed on poor management, lack of government oversight and locked or blocked exits.
Reuters
NEW DELHI – Two senior U.S. officials are wrapping up a dayslong visit to India to pitch a fresh start in a strained partnership with the new government in New Delhi.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker have been trying to smooth over brittle relations between the U.S. and India for the shared sake of economic growth.
Both nations have said they want to move forward on issues such as foreign investment, defense cooperation and developing science and technology.
But they have squared off over a major trade deal, environmental issues, U.S. surveillance and a limited number of visas that allow Indians to visit America each year.
India's foreign minister on Thursday described a turning point in the two nations' relations.
