Karl Marx said that history repeats itself, once as tragedy, twice as farce. How about three times, as an even more farcical share on Facebook?
How else to describe the spectacle of Gotabaya Rajapaksa using the social network to share a link to the Colombo Telegraph, the very website that he and his brother worked so hard to censor when in power? ‘Liking’ the share hardly seems right – though 769 people so far have, and 183 more have shared it on.
The Rajapaksa brothers’ time in power saw Sri Lankan free speech traduced by a proxy war on the independent media. It included the murder of Sunday Leader editor and International Press Institute (IPI) World Press Freedom Hero, Lasantha Wickrematunge, and the ‘disappearance’ of news cartoonist Pregeeth Ekneligoda.
As the IPI itself put it in a statement this week: “Press freedom was widely seen to have suffered catastrophically under (President) Rajapaksa, whose tenure became increasingly mired in allegations of war crimes and corruption. Journalists frequently faced violence and exile, and impunity for crimes against the press became, by all accounts, a tragic norm.”
Assistant Superintendent of Police in charge of Embilipitiya area D.W.C. Dharmarathna has been arrested by the CID today for the murder of Sumith Prasanna, a father of a child who died due to a clash between the Embilipitiya police and a group of people attended a party at Embilipitiya.
Death threat Deceased wife Sashika Munasinghe said that she is inflicted with death threats in search for the cause of her husband’s death.
Shshika Munasinghe said that a wealthy business woman and a Buddhist clergy is persuading her to stop search the murderers of her husband therefore she is scared of her life and her daughter’s.
The order issued on the 27th during the day the release of the autopsy report by the additional magistrate to take the suspects told by the witness (Shashika Munasinghe) in to custody was carried out only today.
Intimidations She said this business woman has said, that she would pay money from a Buddhist clergy’s foundation and urged her not to continue the case.
Sashika Munasinghe said she got a call from her to meet her on January 28th and she and her daughter went and met her without telling her.
She further said this business woman has told that she is holding many positions in the society and she is a journalist. However she said this business woman has told her, since she is getting the required protection of the clergy to keep this matter as a secret.
An order to the Attorney General A petition was filed yesterday 2nd urging the Supreme Court to order the attorney general to file a case against the police officers responsible for the murder of deceased Sumith Prasanna under the international convention for the prevention of torture.
The complaint has been filed by the deceased wife and three people who were assaulted by these police officers.
The petitioners said that Sumith Prasanna died due to police torture. The complainers said the police are directly liable for this crime and urged the Supreme Court to order the attorney general to file a case against the accused under prevention of torture bill.
Petitioners lawyer Priyalal Sirisena said the attorney general is reluctant to file a case against the relevant police officers under the prevention of torture bill.
Ten million compensation Petitioners lawyer, Priyalal Sirisena said the attorney general’s argument that if a case is filed under the relevant bill, the police officers who conducts the investigation would be discouraged cannot be accepted.
The Inspector General of Police, Embilipitiya Assistant Superintendent of Police and another nine police officers connected to this are named as respondents.
The petitioner’s urged the Supreme Court to order the respondents to pay 10 million compensation to the deceased whose fundamental rights have been violated.
The Jaffna Magistrate's Court yesterday withdrew an arrest warrant issued on former Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella after he appeared in Court to give evidence in the case related to the disappearance of Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Murugananthan in 2011.
Rambukwella reportedly said at that time that Lalith and Kugan were in State custody and that their place of detention could not be revealed. The arrest warrant was issued against Rambukwella following his statement.
Magistrate S. Sathiskaran ordered Police to record statements from Rambukwella to elaborate on that statement of his, relating to the disappearance of Lalith and Kugan. When Court issued summons on the former Minister on 9 November 2015, he failed to answer summons forcing Court to issue an arrest warrant on him.
The case will be taken up for hearing on 13 May, and the Magistrate ordered the former Minister to be sure to appear in Court on that day to explain his 2011 statement on Lalith and Kugan.
JVP dissidents Lalith and Kugan went missing on 9 December, 2011 while preparing to launch the Front Line Socialist Party in Jaffna. The protest march was organized by We Are Sri Lankans (WASL) and was to include a leaflet distribution campaign along the A9 road from Kilinochchi to Jaffna.
The officer-in-charge (OIC) of the Kankesanthurai in-training unit, Chief Inspector Kandayya Jeewan Kumara, has been arrested for allegedly stealing an individual’s wallet inside a bank in Batticaloa.
A resident of Eragama in Ampara had lodged a complaint with the police regarding the theft of his wallet at a private bank in Batticaloa.
Acting on this complaint, an investigation was carried out by police under the instruction of the Batticaloa SSP and the arrest was made.
Investigations were carried out with the help of the footage obtained from the CCTV cameras installed within the bank.
The arrested police officer was remanded till February 05 after being produced before the Batticaloa District Judge.
The People’s Movement for the Rights of Patients has today said the organisation is greatly concerned to learn from media reports that the Chairman and CEO of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) have been requested to resign.
Rajah Senaratne – Minister of Health
“Our attempts to contact the Health secretary to clarify the reason for this sudden move was futile and we have yes to receive any update. When contacted the Director General of Health Services (DGHS), who is an ex-officio of the NMRA council, too was unaware of this development as he had been away and only returned on 1st February morning from abroad.” the People’s Movement for the Rights of Patients (PMRP) said in a statement.
The PMRP said; “The council of NMRA is an independent body comprising of professionals and there should be no political interference into their operation. It is clear that politicians act on reports provided by ministry officials, individuals and the industry with vested interest that have always been sabotaging the National Medicines Drug Policy from its inception.
“As it is only few months since the authority was established, it is only fair that the council be given adequate time to clear the accumulated backlog from the previous administration. If there were shortcoming in the working of the authority an explanation could have been called for rather than taking hasty decisions like this detrimental to the patients.
“We, the civil society, feel the present Chairman and CEO are possibly the best suited professionals, who as far as we know are incorruptible to serve in this role in current circumstances.
“If, as the media reports new appointments have already been made, this is in contravention of the guidelines laid down in the National Medicines Regulatory Authority, Act 5 of 2015.Read More
The Sampur Police yesterday arrested a 15-year-old schoolboy over the killing of a six-year-old boy by throwing the latter into a well.
The victim with a weight tied to him had been found in a well on Jan. 26, police spokesman ASP Ruwan Gunasekara told The Island last night.
Sampur police are interrogating the teenager arrested around 1.30 p.m.
The Sampur police said the suspect had been playing with the victim for a few hours before the incident.
The suspect had claimed that he had dumped the boy, Thuhadas Darshan of Sampur 07, Sampur, into the well for the fun of it and not to kill him, police said.
The investigations were being carried out to ascertain that fact, police said.
The Police Media Unit (PMU) said on the day of the tragic incident, Darshan’s father had lodged a complaint with the police that his son had gone missing from 5.00 p.m after returning home from school.
The CID has been able to uncover a massive financial fraud that had taken place at the Sri Lankan embassy in Italy during the Rajapaksa regime. The fraud amounts to Rs. 18 million. The CID is investigating a complaint it has received in this regard.
Accordingly, the officer who had been in charge of the accounts division at the embassy has been arrested. CID officials are presently questioning him.
Under interrogation, the suspect has said that he had credited the money to various accounts on the instructions of the ambassador. Accordingly, it has been revealed that not only the ambassador, but also higher and powerful persons are behind this fraud. Identities of those under investigation are being revealed.
CID sources said the other suspects too, would be arrested. The previous regime has been accused of sending state money to the accounts of various individuals and organizations, and most of those caught were the officials who had carried out the instructions by politicians and other powerful persons at the time to do so.
Those politicians and powerful persons are still at large, and if real justice is to be done, they too, should be produced before courts.
The backdrop includes Pentagon warplanes bombing Syrian targets, Israel conducting terror-bombings at its discretion, hundreds of American combat troops on the ground with thousands more coming, covert CIA operatives infesting the country, US support for ISIS and other terrorists, as well as Turkey launching limited aggression, perhaps prelude for much more to come.
by Stephen Lendman
( February 3, 2016, Virginia, Sri Lanka Guardian) Turkey is a fascist police state, Erdogan a hoodlum, an international outlaw, a tyrannical regional scourge.
His aggression against Turkish and Syrian Kurds, downing a Russian SU-24 bomber in Syrian airspace, committing other provocative acts against the Russian Federation, and now cross-border shelling of targets in Syria following permission from or complicity with Washington.
Erdogan would never launch attacks outside his territory otherwise.
Russia presented indisputable video evidence, showing Turkish military cross-border shelling, according to Defense Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov, saying:
“This is what we call a fact. This is irrefutable proof that Turkish armed forces shell borderline Syrian settlements with large-caliber artillery systems.”
“We expect an immediate reaction and explanations of the actions of the Turkish military by NATO and the Pentagon.”
Syria’s General Staff confirmed heavy self-propelled artillery deployments along its border. Pointedly addressing Washington, Konashenkov stressed “(t)hose who warn us about consequences with understanding what happened should first of all think about the trap their Turkish partners are dragging them into.”
Will ground invasion follow? Days earlier, Turkish troops entered Syrian territory near Jarablus. Large numbers of its forces are massed along its border.
Russia Insider said “(e)yewitnesses to the incursion reported that the Turkish forces have not encountered any resistance from ISIS fighters in the area.”
“These reports once again raise the question of (apparent) collaboration between Turkey and ISIS aimed at halting the advance of the Kurdish (YPG) militias in north Syria.”
Provoking Syrian forces to respond may be another objective. Russia controls the country’s airspace. Challenging its military superiority assures failure.
Russian aircraft and S-400 anti-missile systems can easily destroy Turkish aerial incursions, using warplanes or missiles.
Farcical Syrian peace talks are beginning, a US-orchestrated charade with no chance of succeeding.
The backdrop includes Pentagon warplanes bombing Syrian targets, Israel conducting terror-bombings at its discretion, hundreds of American combat troops on the ground with thousands more coming, covert CIA operatives infesting the country, US support for ISIS and other terrorists, as well as Turkey launching limited aggression, perhaps prelude for much more to come.
Washington rejects peace and stability. Sham peace talks are cover for its imperial objective – orchestrating failure, wrongfully blaming Assad, escalating aggression, continuing endless war, destroying Syrian sovereignty, and replacing it with pro-Western puppet governance.
Nothing in prospect suggests positive developments ahead. Syria’s only chance against US-orchestrated aggression is continued war allied with Russia against terrorist groups.
Resolving things militarily is the only hope for restoring peace and stability. Diplomatic efforts without peace partners are a waste of time.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html – Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.
Fadi Shaludi, 14, has not left his house since November. Every day, he sees the children from his neighborhood go off to school. He especially misses playing football with his friends and walking around Jerusalem’s Old City.
Fadi is under house arrest. He fears going downstairs, let alone to the corner shop next to his home. His punishment came after he was charged with throwing stones at Israeli troops during confrontations in Silwan, the area of occupied East Jerusalem where he lives, in October.
That incident also resulted in his mother, Shifa Obeido, being put under house arrest on charges of “incitement.” She awaits a trial that will likely see her forcibly transferred from Jerusalem.
Originally from Hebron, Shifa was granted temporary residency and began a family unification process after marrying a Jerusalemite. Her residency was revoked, however, after her husband married a second time.
Without papers from the Israeli authorities, Shifa is already prepared to be transferred.
Samer Shaludi, Shifa’s 17-year-old son, was meanwhile sentenced to five months in prison, also on charges of throwing stones with his brother.
But it is the younger of the two children that Shifa worries about the most.
“He is utterly devastated,” she said. “This house arrest has completely changed him. He is nervous and angry all the time. He bangs his head against the wall in frustration. He used to have a strong and daring character, but his voice is barely audible now and he can hardly string sentences together.”
Invoking the Prophet Mohammed and hailing the tolerance shown by American political icons, Obama hit out at anti-Muslim sentiment that is 'not who we are' (AFP)
Wednesday 3 February 2016
Barack Obama on Wednesday offered an impassioned rebuttal of "inexcusable" Republican election-year rhetoric against Muslims as he made his first trip to an American mosque, seven years into his presidency.
Obama, whose grandfather converted to Islam, made the short trip to the Islamic Society of Baltimore (ISB) mosque, where he met community leaders and called on Americans not to be "bystanders to bigotry".
Invoking the Prophet Mohammed and hailing the tolerance shown by American political icons from Thomas Jefferson to Dwight Eisenhower, Obama hit out at anti-Islamic sentiment that is "not who we are".
"We've heard inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim-Americans that has no place in our country," he said, lauding Muslim-Americans who were sports heroes, entrepreneurs and the architect behind the skyscrapers of Chicago.
“Islam has always been a part of America. You fit in here, right here. You’re right where you belong. You’re part of America, too. You aren’t Muslim or American. You are Muslim and American,” he added.
"You know back then Muslims were often called Mohammedans, and Thomas Jefferson explained that the Virginia statute for religious freedom he wrote was designed to protect all faiths ... 'the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan'," Obama said to applause.
His comments comes as a shrill election debate has sullied America's image abroad, and attacks in San Bernardino and Philadelphia threatened to shatter post-9/11 religious solidarity at home.
In the current presidential election, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has wooed conservative voters by demanding a ban on Muslim immigrants, while frontrunner Ted Cruz has advocated Christian-only admissions and championed "Judeo-Christian values".
On Wednesday, Obama said: "An attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths."
He also criticised the media and Hollywood, which he said portray Muslims in a narrow way.
"Our television shows should have Muslim characters that are unrelated to national security," he said.
Obama had visited mosques in Malaysia, Indonesia and Egypt as president, but this was his first visit to one of America's 2,000-plus places of Islamic worship.
In 2009, a freshly elected Obama traveled to Cairo to call for a "new beginning" with the Muslim world.
Much of Obama's foreign policy agenda has focused on improving ties with Muslim nations, from making a nuclear deal with Iran to ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the effort has been stymied by continued confrontation with groups and military strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
Obama restated his case that organisations like the Islamic State (IS) group pervert Islam and do not represent the vast majority of Muslims.
The president said, "two words that Muslim Americans don't hear often enough, and that is thank you," saying they help unite the country in "one American family."
In a New York Times report, presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin thought Obama’s speech could be compared to two past presidents nearing the end of their term.
“George Washington warned his countrymen against the increasing power of factions which kindle animosity of one against the other while Eisenhower warned against the unwarranted influence of the military industrial complex,” she wrote in an email.
Abstract :On the basis of latest indicators, particularly taking into account the chances of Xi Jinping emerging as the “Core” fifth generation leader, the ongoing consolidation of political power in China by the leader can be termed as one which is almost nearing completion. At the same time, it cannot be denied that there are problems for Xi; in the main, there is a growing requirement for him to address the apparent disunity among the cadres; the repeated calls to all party, government and military personnel to display loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), albeit in real terms to Xi, give rise to suspicions that there could be divisions in the party over the Xi leadership. Also, the leader may have to reckon with potential challengers in future; his latest public denouncement of Bo Xilai’s political ambition can be considered as a subtle warning to such challengers. In consolidating power, Xi seems to have come under compulsions arising from another challenge, i.e. in the economic realm; China’s economic growth has slowed to a 25-year low of 6.9 per cent in 2015. Coming to the military side, the position of the leader may also not be comfortable; his launch of massive military reforms could be met with some resistance from vested interests in the army, which are to lose out of the reforms. Xi may also have to deal with opinions in the country in favor of bringing the military under the State control, instead of being under the party command. Overall, as the present domestic climate centering round over-concentration of power in the hands of Xi Jinping further develops, there could be repercussions for the intra-party power equations ahead of the next CCP Congress in 2017; one thing is however clear : Xi seems to be well on his way to get reelected as the party chief in that congress.
( February 3, 2016, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Three developments of high political significance have been noticed in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the month of January 2016.
Firstly, the heads of several provincial/city party units ( for e.g the party chiefs in Sichuan, Hubei, Anhui, Guangxi and in the cities of Tianjin and Xian ) have begun to describe[1] Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in China, as the “Core” of the CCP leadership. The exact remarks made by these units in their party gatherings held to sensitize the cadres under them on a Politburo speech[2] delivered by Xi in December 2015, have been that party members should “resolutely support General Secretary Xi Jinping, this core” (坚决维护习近平总书记这个核心).
Secondly, a new book[3] captioned “Edited Excerpts From Discussions by Xi Jinping on Tightening Party Discipline and Rules,” compiled by the CCP’s Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) and the Party Literature Research Center, containing extracts of the leader’s 200 pieces of hitherto undisclosed remarks, selected out of his 40 speeches and articles, pertaining to the period November 16, 2012 to October 29, 2015, has been published. In the remarks, the party organizations at all levels have been asked to organize CCP members to study Xi’s sayings during the period.
Thirdly, Li Zhanshu, a CCP Politburo member, has stressed[4] at a meeting on the work of authorities affiliated to the CCP Central Committee that “all party organizations and members should take absolute loyalty to the Party as their fundamental political requirement and foremost political discipline, achieve a high degree of conformity with the central committee and strengthen awareness of the party theories and policies”.
A closer look at the three developments mentioned above may be necessary in order to find out what they really convey. Most important politically is the first which signals that very soon the status of Xi Jinping could be formally elevated to that of “Core” of the fifth generation leadership. As the CCP sees, Mao had occupied the “Core” position with respect to first generation leadership, Deng Xiaoping to the second, and Jiang Zemin to the third; the party though placed Hu Jintao in the category of fourth generation leaders, did not accord him the position of the leadership “Core”. The same type of visualization has so far continued in the case of Xi Jinping who heads the CCP since 2012; in the party hierarchy, he is still being addressed only as the party General Secretary not as the ‘Core’ of the leadership, implying thereby that he as a leader is only primus inter pares and that a collective leadership is working in the country.
BY SIOBHÁN O'GRADY-FEBRUARY 3, 2016
It was hard to ignore that South African President Jacob Zuma’s once-humble personal home just kept growing. And growing. And growing some more.
What started in 2009 as small upgrades to his compound soon expanded to include the construction of a swimming pool, an amphitheater, a cattle run, and a visitors’ center. Just like that, Zuma had run up a $24 million bill — on the taxpayers’ dime.
But then a damning 2014 report released by South Africa’s national ombudsman accused him of “unduly benefiting” from state funds when he renovated the lavish home for personal enjoyment.
On Wednesday, after years of controversy surrounding his expensive updates, Zuma finally agreed to pay back at least some of the $24 million bill. (The actual payment could be lower now due to changes in exchange rates.)
The president’s extravagant expenditures — and his refusal to admit they shouldn’t have been paid for by the state — infuriated members of the South African Parliament, who on more than one occasion protested Zuma with the chant “pay back the money!”
That phrase trended as a hashtag on social media Wednesday after he announced his intention to repay the bills.
The wrangling over whether or not he needed to repay the costs came to a head with the 2014 report, and Zuma promised Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko would investigate the matter.
Last May, Nhleko presented his findings, which amounted to nothing more than a list of elaborate excuses for how each addition to the home qualified as a security upgrade. During Nhleko’s two-hour press conference to publicize his findings, the swimming pool turned into a fire pool. The cattle run became a way to ensure chickens and cows would not set off motion detectors at the residence.
South Africans didn’t buy it. The opposition Democratic Alliance insisted it would move forward with charges against Zuma, who leads the African National Congress party. Fearing legal action, Zuma caved and agreed to pay back the money. On Wednesday, the presidency released a statement that said Zuma “remains critical of a number of factual aspects and legal conclusions in the [ombudsman’s] report.”
But he conceded he would “implement what the public protector recommended as remedial action contained in the report.”
The scandal is one of the worst in South Africa’s history, but for Zuma, it’s practically the norm to be under scrutiny for misappropriating his finances. Years ago, he faced more than 700 charges of fraud and corruption — all of which were dropped in 2009, shortly before Zuma was elected president.
Court grants Arctic village rights over hunting and fishing after lawyers for state were accused of ‘rhetoric of race biology’
Sami reindeer herders in northern Sweden. Photograph: Alamy
Sami people in northern Sweden. Photograph: Alamy
David Crouch in Gothenburg-Wednesday 3 February 2016
Sweden’s nomadic reindeer herders have won a 30-year battle for land rights in a court case that has seen the state accused of racism towards the country’s only indigenous people.
A decision in Gällivare district court on Wednesday granted the tiny Sami village of Girjas, inside the Arctic Circle, exclusive rights to control hunting and fishing in the area, restoring powers stripped from the Sami people, or Laplanders, by Sweden’s parliament in 1993.
“It is a symbolic step towards getting Sami rights acknowledged, and we hope that this verdict can shape policies towards Sami issues in Sweden, that was the main goal,” said Åsa Larsson Blind, vice-president of the Sami Council, which represents Sami people in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia.
After a long struggle during which the Swedish Sami Association petitioned the European commission and the court of human rights, the case came to court in Sweden last year.
Lawyers for the state claimed that the indigenous status of the Samis was irrelevant to the case. “Sweden has in this matter no international obligations to recognise special rights of the Sami people, whether they are indigenous or not,” they said.
In an open letter, 59 academic researchers, including ethnographers and anthropologists at the Sami Research Centre at Umeå University, condemned the lawyers for using the “rhetoric of race biology” and revealing “a surprising ignorance of historical conditions”.
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship John McCallum has been under intense pressure at recent national caucus meetings from Liberal MPs who want him to address the “mess” in the processing times of immigration applications, which in some cases is taking more than six years for family class applications.
“This is not acceptable. We have to do something about it,” Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal (Surrey-Newton, B.C.) told The Hill Times.
In the last two national caucus meetings—Sunday, Jan. 24 and Wednesday, Jan. 27—about 20 MPs spoke up, in total, in both meetings, Liberal sources told The Hill Times. Liberal MPs told Mr. McCallum (Markham-Thornhill, Ont.) that, up until the last election, Conservatives were to be blamed for the slow processing of applications because they were in power. But Canadians now want to know what the Liberals have done to speed up the processing times in the last three months, according to Liberal sources. During the Jan. 24 caucus meeting, Mr. McCallum and his departmental officials conducted a briefing for MPs about the causes of the delay and introduced them to some departmental resources that can help MPs in serving their constituents on immigration files.
Sources told The Hill Times that Liberal MPs recognize that Mr. McCallum and the Immigration Department is focused on the politically sensitive Syrian refugees file, but they also want swift action on Immigration applications in the regular streams.
During the last election campaign, the Liberals had promised to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the end of last year, but they missed the deadline and are now aiming to achieve this goal by the end of February. As of last week, about 14,000 have arrived in Canada. Because of the high-profile domestic and international implications of the Syrian refugee file, Mr. McCallum and the Immigration Department have been in the media spotlight for months. The Syrian refugee crisis is considered the biggest refugee crisis since the end of World War II and it’s estimated 12 million have been displaced as a result of the civil war in Syria.
It was a drug trial for a compound called BIA 10-2474. It was being tested for use as a painkiller or analgesic for cancers and people with Parkinson’s Disease.
But during the trial in Rennes, one man fell into a coma and died. Five other volunteers were taken to hospital. Four of them had neurological problems of varying degrees.
The health minister, at a press conference, described what happened as “an accident of exceptional gravity”.
The man who died was Guillaume Molinet. A 49-year-old father of four, who was a painter, singer, composer and poet.
And now his brother, Laurent, has spoken exclusively to Channel 4 News. It is heartrending, listening to him.
For 20 years they had collaborated. Guillaume was the manager of his composer brother’s career. He wrote the words and Laurent the music.
Now, he is dead and nobody knows why.
At first Biotrial, which was testing a compound for the Portuguese company, Bial, thought he had a stroke and that it was unrelated to the drug trial.
But then the others began to suffer. Now there are three separate investigations but as yet the family knows little.
Laurent Molinet told us: “At first they thought that Guillaume had an AVC (a stroke) but quickly just find it wasn’t an AVC.
“It is just a nightmare. Just you see your brother in the bed, just telling to my brother, please, come on, we are leaving now. It is time for you to come with me. We are just leaving the hospital now. No way. My brother he was just lying in the bed. It was really awful.”
Channel 4 News has learned, too, that Guillaume was intitally only meant to be on standby for the trial. But that one volunteer dropped out
Laurent Molinet said: “He told me I am going to do the trial on Monday and I will be home on Wednesday. I am not going to do the tests. ”
But he did, receiving doses of the compound between Wednesday, January 6 and Sunday, January 10.
Biotrial has said he complained of not feeling well on the Sunday and was sent to accident and emergency that evening, as a precaution.
They continued the trial, believing his condition was unrelated to the trial. But when they heard he had apparently had a stroke, they discontinued it.
It is exceptionally rare for a clinical trial to go wrong. They are carefully planned, rigorously controlled, They have all sorts of outside authorities having to give their approval. But when they do go wrong the consequences are devastating
Biotrial said they still did not know what had caused Guillaume’s death
But they added
“The five volunteers are being monitored. One of them is not displaying any symptoms, although he has had anxiety issues. The situation is variable for the other four. They have all returned home. Some of them are receiving rehabilitation. It’s too soon to know what the long term effects will be.”
A rare case of the Zika virus being transmitted through sex, not a mosquito bite, has been reported in the US.
A patient infected in Dallas, Texas, is likely to have been infected by sexual contact, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) told the BBC.
The person had not travelled to infected areas but their partner had returned from Venezuela.
Zika is carried by mosquitoes and has been linked to thousands of babies being born with underdeveloped brains.
It is spreading through the Americas and the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the disease linked to the virus a global public health emergency.
The American Red Cross has meanwhile urged prospective blood donors returning from Zika-hit countries to wait at least 28 days before donating their blood.
The "self-deferral" should apply to people returning from Mexico, the Caribbean or Central or South America during the past four weeks, the Red Cross said in a statement.
Zika has also been found in two unrelated cases in the Republic of Ireland, officials there said. A man and an older woman, who have both recovered, had a history of travelling to a Zika-affected country.
The UK has announced people will not be able to donate blood for 28 days after returning from a Zika-affected country.
Meanwhile, Brazil - the country worst hit by the outbreak - has revealed it is investigating 3,670 suspected cases of microcephaly in babies linked to the Zika virus.
A total of 404 cases have so far been confirmed - up from 270 last week - while 709 cases have been discarded, the country's health ministry said.
The ministry also said 76 infant deaths from microcephaly, either during pregnancy or just after birth, were suspected.Read More
Invoking the Prophet Mohammed and hailing the tolerance shown by American political icons, Obama hit out at anti-Muslim sentiment that is 'not who we are' (AFP) 
