Somali-born athlete gets Great Britain’s first gold medal: Mo Farah clinched Great Britain's first gold medal of the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona by storming to victory in the men's 10,000m.Farah, 27, came home in a time of 28 minutes, 24.99 seconds, finishing ahead of fellow Brit Chris Thompson, who made it a GB one-two in the event. It was GB's first-ever European 10,000m gold and Farah's first major title. Farah won his first major title at the European Junior Championships in 2001. Born in Mogadishu, Farah arrived in Britain in 1993 as a refugee.
Rwanda uses phones to tackle maternal mortality: The Rwandan government is giving out hundreds of cell phones in an attempt to save pregnant women and babies. About 500 volunteer community health care workers in the rural district of Musanze have been given free phones so they can keep track of all the pregnant women in their villages. The cell phones are used to register and monitor expecting mothers. If there are any questions, complications or updates, health workers simply send a text to their local clinic and receive a response within minutes. Rwanda’s health indicators have improved over years and it’s one of the only six African nations to avail over 15 percent of the national budget to the health sector.
Piracy increases on African waters: More incidents of piracy have been recorded on the East African coast and many worry that many more pirates are moving southwards. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) reported 38 incidents of attempted hijacking in May alone, most of them in the waters around Somalia. Since 1984, the year in which the IMO started keeping records of pirate activity, 500 acts of piracy have been recorded along the Somali coast and the Gulf of Aden. The Brenthurst Foundation, in a document titled Maritime Development in Africa, highlights piracy as one of the threats to economic development and security in Africa. The document calls on African Union to lead the drafting of an African strategy to tackle the issue.
Swazi prince threatens journalists: According to The Committee to Protect Journalists, a member of Swaziland's royal family last week made death threats against local journalists over their critical coverage of the country's leadership. During a July 21 public forum called the Smart Partnership National Dialogue in the central commercial city of Manzini, Prince Mahlaba, brother of Swaziland leader King Mswati III, was quoted by local media as saying: "I want to warn the media to bury things that have the potential of undermining the country rather than publish all and everything even when such reports are harmful to the country's international image.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
