U.S. warns citizens in Uganda to stay home following alleged attack plot

(CNN) -- Ugandan forces arrested several terror suspects and recovered explosives in an operation to foil an "imminent" terrorist attack on the city of Kampala, the country's police said Saturday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy warned Americans there to stay indoors. The country's security forces have ratcheted up security in all public places, vowing to "effectively defeat whoever tried to endanger the lives and property of the people of Uganda," according to a police press statement.

The foiled terror plot was by the Somalia-based militant group Al-Shabaab, the U.S. Embassy in Kampala said; it did not specify the targets. However, local police said that based on the type of explosives seized, they saw this attack plot as a possible repeat of last September's attack on Nairobi's Westgate Mall and were particularly concerned about crowded areas.

Security forces were still searching for more suspects and and have declined to release the identities or number of suspects arrested, but said they were of various nationalities.

Earlier this month, a U.S. airstrike killed Ahmed Godane, the terror group's leader in Somalia. The group has since installed a new leader and vowed to avenge Godane's death.

"We are continuing our engagement with Ugandan authorities as we seek to assess the scope of the disrupted Al-Shabaab terrorist plot and whether there are members of the cell still at large," the embassy said.

Ugandan troops are part of African Union forces battling the Somalia-based militants whose attacks have crossed into Uganda before.

Last year, unidentified gunmen attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, resulting in the deaths of 67 people, including four of the attackers. In 2010, the militants conducted suicide bombings in bars filled with patrons watching soccer in Kampala, killing more than 70 people.

U.S. officials have issued warnings to its citizens in Uganda before. In July, it asked travelers to avoid Entebbe International Airport near Kampala. The embassy cited a "specific threat" involving an unknown terrorist group. Information on the threat came from Ugandan police, it said.

Ugandan authorities have increased security at key sites, including the Entebbe airport, the embassy said Saturday. Entebbe is the only international airport in the nation.

Is U.N. ignoring janjaweed danger?

Editor's note: Akshaya Kumar is Sudan and South Sudan Policy analyst at the Enough Project. The views expressed are the writer's own.

(CNN) -- Ten years ago this week, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell declared that genocide had been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and the janjaweed bore responsibility for those acts. Even though it did not actually trigger a legal obligation to act, many hoped that using the "g word" meant that the United States was crossing the Rubicon and committing itself to stopping the violence in Darfur, Sudan's most troubled region.

The janjaweed, however, are still at large in Darfur -- and with the Sudanese government's help, they are now arguably more powerful than ever.

It is this reality that makes it so disturbing that the United Nations recently declared that getting weapons out of this militant group's hands is no longer "relevant" to their work. After all, janjaweed fighters formed the backbone of the genocidal attack forces that the Sudanese government unleashed on Darfur 11 years ago.

When the spotlight finally fell on the ethnically motivated killing in the region, it was clear that these men committed some of the very worst crimes against humanity. The looming specter of their attacks kept displaced Darfuri refugees trapped in camps and, as long as the janjaweed were at large, their victims would not be able to go home.

In recognition of this reality, the U.N. Security Council ordered the Sudanese government to take steps to disarm the janjaweed, but it did little toward this goal.

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Fast forward to last month, and the Security Council votedto keep peacekeepers in Darfur for another 10 months. At a time when budgets are already stretched, the vote was hailed as a final lease of life for the mission, which has been accused of covering up its failure to protect Darfuri civilians.

But buried among small technical tweaks to the mandate's language, the Security Council made a huge concession to the government of Sudan by deeming aspects of the peacekeepers' work -- including monitoring, verifying, and promoting efforts to disarm the militias -- "no longer relevant."

Why has this happened?

Some have argued that any attempt to disarm the janjaweed was doomed to fail because, in practice, taking away their weapons would also mean taking weapons away from Darfur's powerful Arab tribes. Others said that it was hard to know who exactly the "janjaweed" were. But with its latest resolution, the United Nations seems to be saying, in effect, the janjaweed are no longer of concern.

The facts on the ground show just the opposite.

Today, the same brutal forces that carried out those crimes remain the primary threat to civilian security in Darfur.

Indeed, the janjaweed have been openly embraced by the government of Sudan. And despite for years denying it had any connection to the fighters marauding across Darfur, the government has, under the banner of the Rapid Support Forces, allegedly welcomed many of these brutal fighters back to the scene of their old crimes, in uniform and newly armed and equipped.

Already this year, the Rapid Support Forces have reportedly been in Darfur, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile, where they have beenaccused of burning civilian areas to the ground, raping women, and displacing non-Arab civilians from their homes. In exchange, the Sudanese government has showered these janjaweed reincarnate with praise and rewards.

By giving these forces a new name and official status, the Sudanese government seems to have convinced the Security Council that Darfuris are no longer living under the threat of janjaweed attacks.

Just as bad, the United Nations seems reluctant to even use the word janjaweed, at least according to Aicha el Basri, a former spokeswoman for the operation, who wrote in Foreign Policy that "since the deployment of UNAMID in 2008, only one mention of the word janjaweed has appeared in the more than 30 reports that [the UN] has issued on Darfur."

In declaring that efforts to disarm these fighters are no longer relevant, the United Nations effectively endorsed the Sudanese government's flimsy claim that things in Darfur are getting better. Meanwhile, the killing continues.

Obama to announce troops, funds to fight Ebola, my quiz;is ebola armed?? dont we need medics instead of troops?

(CNN) -- President Obama will turn his attention to Ebola on Tuesday, announcing new U.S. steps to combat the growing epidemic in West Africa.

With a U.S. general leading the effort from Liberia's capital of Monrovia, American military personnel in the region could increase by 3,000, administration officials say. Working through the Defense Department, the United States will plan and construct treatment centers that could house up to 1,700 beds.

Washington has committed more than $100 million to combat Ebola, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. Obama plans to call on Congress to approve an additional $88 million as part of a bill to fund the federal government.

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Last week, USAID said it would spend $75 million to build treatment facilities and supply them with medical equipment. The Pentagon says it's working to shift $500 million of currently not yet obligated funds toward the Ebola effort.

The plan, which he'll announce at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also includes an increase in trained medical professionals to be sent to help. Medics and other uniformed professionals will train up to 500 health care workers per week to identify and care for people with Ebola.

The U.S. government also hopes to send 400,000 treatment kits with sanitizer and other items to at-risk homes in an attempt to contain the disease. Public health campaigns will be broadcast through existing networks in the countries most affected: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

The President's visit to the CDC comes amid escalating criticism from health experts of the global response to the outbreak in West Africa, where almost 2,500 people have died.

U.S. officials hope a more coordinated logistical situation on the ground, put in place by the United States, will encourage other nations to step up their efforts.

"We've seen dozens of cases turn into hundreds, then hundreds turn into thousands," a U.S. administration official said. "If we do not ... arrest that growth now, we could be looking at hundreds of thousands of cases."

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The efforts of the United States -- deemed more extensive than any previous U.S. response to an epidemic -- have so far been unable to stop the spread of the deadly virus, which Obama and White House officials are calling a national security problem.

Particularly concerning, U.S. officials say, is the potential for instability in the countries where Ebola is rampant and the possibility that the virus could mutate into an even more dangerous form.

Ebola currently transmits only though contact with bodily fluids; a mutation that allows the virus to spread through the air would pose a catastrophic threat to people worldwide, health experts say.

Speaking Monday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said there was still a "very low" likelihood the Ebola virus could mutate in a way that threatens the United States.

"Right now, the risk of an Ebola outbreak in the United States is very low," he said, "but that risk would only increase if there were not a robust response on the part of the United States."

North Korea: We have the 'most advantageous human rights system'

(CNN) -- North Korea has "the world's most advantageous human rights system," the country declared in a lengthy report released on Saturday.

Its political system "bestows upon (its citizens) priceless political integrity." Its economic system "ensures people an independent and creative working life, as well as affluent and civilized living standard," according to a report by the DPRK Association for Human Rights Studies.

The 53,000-word report -- which repeats the phrase "human rights" over 700 times -- paints a rosy picture of the country.

North Korea issued a vehement defense of its human rights record, in response to a damning U.N. Commission of Inquiry report, released in February. That report criticized North Korea's authoritarian rule and said the state "terrorizes" its own citizens.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/15/world/asia/north-korea-human-rights-report/index.html

Mwanamke ajirusha kwenye bwawa lenye Mamba

https://www.facebook.com/BBCSwahili/photos/pcb.850147108337289/850147028337297/?type=1

Share and get a free meal: How businesses got social media smart

(CNN) -- Social media is revamping the way businesses reach their audiences, transforming boring billboards and cold commercials into a land of interactive wonders.

Here we collect some of the best new examples of companies using advertising to get social with customers, including coffee company Douwe Egbert, which created a yawn-activated drink dispenser in a Johannesburg airport using facial recognition technology, and the frozen food firm Birds Eye, which created a pop-up called The Picture House in three British cities to allow diners to eat for free in exchange for sharing a snap on Instagram.

And on London's busy Oxford Street, people who walk past the bus stops don't realize they're a step away from a free snack at one of the special vending machines there. The dispensers are run by Walkers, which is known as Lays in the US and Chipsy in Egypt.

Anyone who passes the machines can send a message to Walkers on Twitter and out pops a free bag of a new line of potato chips chosen by the public. (Sample flavors: Ranch Racoon and Chip Shop Chicken Curry).

Now this is a rare sight, a C-5 Galaxy at Aberdeen doing an overshoot. Another photo from Aberdeen International Airport's photos to mark 80 years.

https://www.facebook.com/105329916226642/photos/ms.c.eJw9zcsJAEEMAtCOFvMRM~;03NpBs5vgQVSYHEyZQzE9jtvOsc3Ksz~_Rcg4iD0m~;OXr49VMjTX59te~;3qvvaP3jlqHWNdH2ojSg~-~-.bps.a.711886505570977/717205538372407/?type=1&permPage=1