Game Over; The End of Ethiopia’s TPLF Regime

If this new Ethiopian leader manages to stay alive, there is hope for Ethiopia, that the nationalities, starting with the Oromo’s, the largest, who have been calling for independence, will reconsider their quest for separation and continue as one country.

by Thomas C. Mountain-Jun 25, 2018

Jun 25, 2018

( June 25, 2018, Eritrea, Sri Lanka Guardian) Game Over! The Tigray People’s Liberation Front which has ruled Ethiopia since 1991 has been ousted from power in Ethiopia, replaced by a new breed of leadership who have quickly moved to reassure the people that a real change is in the making.

This past Wednesday, June 20, was a busy day for the new Prime Minister Abiy, an ethnic Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest nationality, traveling to the site of the latest ethnic massacre and addressing the leadership of the Gurage community calling on them to end the ethnic violence and bring peace to their land by dialogue and mediation. This was all broadcast live for all Ethiopians, both at home and abroad, to see via satellite television and warmly received by those to whom he directly spoke.

Next door, here in Eritrea we sat glued to our tv’s late into the night watching Ethiopian television broadcast the address our President Issias Aferwerki had made early that morning during our annual Martyrs Day commemoration where he held out an olive branch of peace to our neighbors in Ethiopia, repeated over and over. The Ethiopian P.M. then went live and thanked the Eritrean President and promised a future of peace and prosperity in brotherly respect. And he did it in Tigrinya, the de facto national language of Eritrea.

We could only pinch ourselves in disbelief, to have our long time enemies in Ethiopia suddenly change so positively, I mean EVERYTHING the Ethiopian P.M. has been saying could not be more true.

The Ethiopian P.M. has gone on tv and described his governments past actions, and he acknowledges he was a part of this, as “terrorist” regarding its treatment of its political prisoners. He has addressed the T.P.L.F regimes past policy of divide and rule via instigation of ethnic bloodshed and spoke to what needs to be done to heal divisions and move forward.

Here in Eritrea what we are hearing is music to our ears for the Ethiopian P.M. is saying just what our President Issias Aferwerki has been saying for two decades now, that we shouldn’t be fighting, instead uniting, to build a more humane and just society absent of foreign intervention.

If this new Ethiopian leader manages to stay alive, there is hope for Ethiopia, that the nationalities, starting with the Oromo’s, the largest, who have been calling for independence, will reconsider their quest for separation and continue as one country.

While one must respect the right to self determination reality is that the “Prison House of Nations” that has been Ethiopia up to now is best transformed into a modern, peoples democracy rather than torn asunder and left to fend for themselves as small, independent countries. This
new P.M. could be the one to give them hope and allow a violent upheaval to be avoided.

The Horn of Africa, the Horn of Hunger, the Horn of War and Famine may be seeing the birth of a new era, where Ethiopia no longer invades its neighbors at the behest of the USA. Where Ethiopians are able to leave behind their lives of hunger and thirst, of being cold, sick and illiterate and start to feed, clothe, house, medicate and educate its people, and turn a perpetual famine victim into a modern, prosperous land.

For us here in Eritrea after 20 years of war followed by no war, no peace, we have hardened ourselves to not seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. This new leadership in Ethiopia is almost to much to believe, its almost like a dream to us still. Could we really live as brothers and sisters with our huge neighbor to our south?

Just as with North Korea the Trump Regime has broken with decades of past policy towards the the Horn of Africa and allowed common sense and experience to hold sway. It may be just pragmatism, but those veteran diplomats in the US State Department know they have little choice in the matter, any further support for the TPLF regime would have been counterproductive and damage American credibility let alone result in the disintegration of Ethiopia, possibly followed by a South Sudan scenario.

One thing is for sure, and Eritrean President Issias Aferworki said it with glee when he spoke at our Martyrs Day commemoration, “Game Over!” for the T.P.L.F regime, shocking all in attendance into spontaneous applause. What we have only dreamed about is now reality here in the Horn of Africa, and if the seasonal rains arrive this year and another drought is averted, then we can truly be blessed with “selam(peace) and rain for the Horn of Africa”.

Thomas C. Mountain is an independent journalist and historian in Eritrea, living and reporting from here since 2006. See thomascmountain on Facebook or best reach him at thomascmountain at gmail dot com

Algeria under new scrutiny over migrants 'abandoned' in the desert

Activists say thousands expelled from Algeria are arriving in Niger, but local media says focus on country is part of a 'humanitarian conspiracy'

NGOs and UN agencies are expressing alarm at the situation of migrants being expelled from Algeria to Niger (Twitter/OIM)

Wednesday 27 June 2018

ALGIERS – A report by the Associated Press alleging that Algerian authorities have "abandoned" more than 13,000 people in the Sahara desert has brought fresh scrutiny on the North African country's treatment of migrant travellers.

The American news agency report, which was published on Monday, collected over a dozen testimonies in Niger and also cited a survey conducted by the United Nations' International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which had interviewed thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who had left Algeria.

It said that those abandoned had included pregnant women and children and that some of them had been threatened at gunpoint to walk through the desert without food or water.

The report also came just a few weeks after Reuters exposed in late May incidents of slavery and torture committed by people smugglers working on migration routes in southern Algeria.

Concerns about mass deportations, “ethnic profiling” and suspicions of abuse have been raised by NGOs and, more recently, by the UN, which has denounced Algeria’s hardened stance on migration policies over the past few months.

28,000 expulsions

Officially, Algiers has acknowledged having deported nearly 10,000 undocumented migrants to their native countries since 2016.

Sayid Salhi of the Algerian League for Human Rights (LADDH) spoke to Middle East Eye about what he called "an increase in expulsions in recent months". He estimates that some "28,000 migrants on the Niger border have already been deported".

Alhoussan Adouwal, who works for the IOM in Assamaka, a town in Niger on the Algerian border, concurred.

"I have never seen deportations like the ones I am currently witnessing. They are arriving by the thousands," he said.

The testimonies published by AP also include videos made by migrants (screenshot)

Algerian authorities insist that the expulsions are being carried out "in cooperation with the governments of the countries in question", but a petition signed by several Algerian NGOs in late May challenged the state’s official position.

"No readmission agreements or requests for the possible return of nationals have been communicated by the governments of these countries," the petition read. "More than 1,500 migrants have been deported in recent weeks in operations marked by abuse and in direct violation of international human rights law.

'It would make more sense to point the finger at the people responsible for all the tragedies suffered by the African migrants'

- The Algerian Red Crescent

"Only Niger has been reached out to since 2014 regarding the return of its nationals, the majority of whom are women and children, in the context of an obscure agreement with the Algerian government."

In October, Amnesty International's Algerian office claimed that arrests "were based on ethnic profiling, since the police and constables were not checking passports or other official documents to establish whether the migrants were residing legally in Algeria or not.

"Among the migrants arrested and deported, some were undocumented, whereas others had valid visas."

Anger in Algiers

As of Tuesday, Algerian authorities had yet to comment on the latest allegations. Earlier in June, the president of the Algerian Red Crescent pushed back against NGO and UN critiques of the deportations.

“It would make more sense to point the finger not at the Algerian government, which has the upper hand in the present case, but at the people who caused all the tragedies being unwillingly suffered by the African migrants," said Saida Benhabiles.

READ MORE ►

Migrants in Algeria struggle for acceptance

On 27 May, the Representative of Algeria to the UN was instructed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs "to inform the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the Algerian authorities’ strong condemnation of its spokesperson’s unacceptable comments, and to ask for explanations as to why such unfounded accusations against Algeria were being made".

In Algiers, Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia further stated: "Since Algeria has not agreed to become a detention centre for African migrants for Europe’s benefit, we are under fire from outside organisations, which have gone as far as to accuse Algeria of racism."

The European Union was earlier this month reported to be considering a plan to set up migrant screening centres in North African countries, although Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European commissioner for migration, subsequently said that no countries in the region had agreed to the plan.

Algerian authorities and local media have hit back at criticism of its treatment of migrant travellers by accusing its critics of stoking conspiracy theories: "It is not migrants we are afraid of, but the people who manipulate them," the Ministry of the Interior claimed back in April.

In an article deriding "Anglo-Saxon media accusations", the Algerian news site Algerie Patriotique said on Monday that criticism of Algeria was part of a "humanitarian conspiracy".

- The article is based on an a translation of a story that was originally published by Middle East Eye's French website. 

Exclusive: Myanmar rejects citizenship reform at private Rohingya talks

Rohingya refugees are seen at a refugee camp at no-man's land at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh January 12, 2018. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/Files

JUNE 26, 2018

YANGON (Reuters) - A senior Myanmar official has told Western diplomats that a proposal to review a citizenship law that effectively renders most Rohingya Muslims stateless could not be implemented, five people present at the meeting in Denmark in early June told Reuters.

At a meeting in Copenhagen on June 8, Myanmar’s Social Welfare Minister Win Myat Aye told a group of diplomats, analysts and members of a commission chaired by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan that eight of its recommendations - including one that asks authorities to take steps to amend the 1982 law - were problematic in the current political climate and could not be immediately fulfilled, the people present said.

“He made it very clear that citizenship reform was a non-starter,” said one of the people at the meeting. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because Myanmar had requested the talks be confidential.

Win Myat Aye and government spokesman Zaw Htay did not answer calls seeking comment.

Amending the law, which largely restricts citizenship to members of what it terms “national races” - the 135 ethnic groups deemed by the state to be indigenous - was a key recommendation of the Annan commission.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingya as an indigenous ethnic group and refers to them as “Bengalis”, a term they reject as it implies they are interlopers from Bangladesh, despite a long history in the country.

The Annan commission was created by Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2016 to find long-term solutions to deep-seated ethnic and religious divisions in Rakhine.

A day after the panel issued its report in August 2017, Rohingya insurgents launched attacks on security forces, provoking a military crackdown the UN has called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

The admission by Win Myat Aye, who is overseeing plans for reconstruction in violence-ravaged Rakhine state, casts further doubt on plans to repatriate the roughly 700,000 Rohingya currently sheltering in crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Many Rohingya refugee leaders say they won’t return without guarantees of citizenship.

However, Myanmar’s National Security Adviser Thaung Tun, who was also at the meeting in Denmark, told Reuters authorities were implementing the Annan commission’s recommendations “to the fullest extent possible and as expeditiously as we can”.

“Over 80 recommendations have been carried out in less than 10 months,” he said in an email.
Referring to the recommendations that had not been implemented, he said they were “also being looked into”.

Annan’s spokesman referred questions to the Myanmar government.

Refugees have reported killings, burnings, looting and rape by members of the Myanmar security forces and Buddhist vigilantes in Rakhine. Myanmar has rejected accusations of ethnic cleansing, and dismissed most accounts of atrocities.

“PATH TO CITIZENSHIP”

In January, Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a deal to repatriate the refugees within two years, but disagreements have held up the implementation of the plan.

Many Rohingya refugees say they will not return unless the 1982 law is changed.

People who identified themselves as Rohingya were excluded from Myanmar’s last nationwide census in 2014 and many had their identity documents taken or nullified, blocking them from voting in a landmark 2015 election.

Suu Kyi, who before coming to power said the government should have the “courage” to review the law, is now urging Rohingya to accept the National Verification Card, a residency document that falls short of full citizenship.

However, many Rohingya refuse to accept the document, which they say classifies life-long residents as new immigrants and does not allow them to travel freely.

The military, with whom Suu Kyi shares power, flatly rejects Rohingya calls for citizenship. In a speech in March, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said Rohingya “do not have any characteristics or culture in common with the ethnicities of Myanmar” and that the current conflict had been “fuelled because the Bengalis demanded citizenship”.

DIPLOMATIC DIFFICULTIES

At the Copenhagen meeting, diplomats were about to break for lunch when Win Myat Aye said Myanmar had begun implementing only 80 of the 88 recommendations made by the commission, due to political and practical differences with the remaining eight, one of those present said.

According to a second person present, Annan responded: “You said you’re having difficulties with eight – which are those? Let’s get back to this after the break.”

Win Myat Aye then listed the recommendations he said Myanmar was struggling to implement. They included commitments to create an independent body to review complaints about citizenship verification, empower community leaders and civil society, and establish a mechanism for feedback on government performance.

“In diplo-speak when you say that something is difficult it tends to be a rejection,” the second source said. “That is how I understood this.”

Malaysian police seize $273 million in goods from former PM Najib’s properties

By Max Walden | 27th June 2018

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak gestures as he delivers his opening speech at Malaysia's ruling party United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) general assembly in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 21 October 2010. Source: AP /Lai Seng Sin

POLICE in Malaysia have seized hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of luxury items including Rolex watches and Hermès handbags from several properties owned by former Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The total value of the goods is estimated to be up to 1.1 billion Malaysian Ringgit (US$273 million) said the Royal Malaysian Police’s director of commercial crime investigation Amar Singh in a press conference on Wednesday.

The former premier is being investigated over accusations he siphoned off billions of dollars from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state-owned company established by Najib’s administration in 2009 ostensibly to help fund national economic development.

In what Singh called the “biggest seizure in Malaysian history”, police searched six properties owned by Najib in Kuala Lumpur and the administrative capital Putrajaya, finding a treasure trove of cash, luxury handbags, watches and jewellery.

SEE ALSO: US files explain seizure of $250m superyacht in 1MDB scandal

A team of 150 officers were required to work over the Eid holiday analyse the goods, he said. Some 35 bags contained RM116.7 million (US$29 million) in cash from 26 different currencies, taking three days to count.

Singh said police were holding 25 bags of gold, diamonds and other gems, valued by an expert at RM442 million (US$110 million). The items numbered 12,000 in total including 1400 necklaces, 2200 rings, 2100 bangles, 2800 pairs of earrings and 14 tiaras.

A singular necklace had the shop price of RM6.4 million (US$1.6 million), Singh said. The collection of 567 handbags from Hermès, Prada, Chanel and special-order luxury brand Bijan were worth RM51.3 million (US$13 million).

Commissioner Amar Singh, Malaysia’s Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director, displays a photo of items from a raid during a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia June 27, 2018. Source: Reuters/Lai Seng Sin

Some 423 watches seized were worth 78 million (US$19 million), with one Rolex valued at almost US$900,000. There were also RM374,000 (US$93,000) worth of sunglasses.

Najib has denied that the goods were purchased with funds from 1MDB, claiming that the cash, luxury handbags and jewellery were gifts to his family.

Singh said police would “soon” be questioning Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor over ownership of the items and who provided the gifts. As PM, Najib was only paid around US$92,000 per year.

SEE ALSO: Malaysian ex-PM explains seized piles of cash, jewellery and handbags

“We’re flabbergasted,” Cynthia Gabriel, executive director of the Kuala Lumpur-based Center to Combat Corruption & Cronyism (C4 Center) told Asian Correspondent. “We continue to be shocked by much wealth has been amassed by the abuse of power by Najib during the time he was Prime Minister.”

“It is perhaps the largest corruption scandal in the world now,” she said, adding that the raids “show that there’s so much more that needs to connect in terms of the financial flows, the losses that have taken place.”

A report published by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday claimed that Rosmah was likely a “political force” and “central actor” in the 1MDB affair, driven by her taste for expensive luxury goods.

Media coverage of her handbag collection in recent weeks has drawn comparisons with Emelda Marcos, the wife of corrupt former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Rosmah was questioned for five hours by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission earlier this month.

Rosmah Mansor, the wife of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, arrives to give a statement to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in Putrajaya, Malaysia June 5, 2018. Source: Reuters/Lai Seng Sin

Her lawyers K. Kumaraendran and Geethan Ram Vincent denied her involvement with 1MDB in a statement this week, claiming that “this is a pure trial by media, expounded by the court of public opinion.”

“As the wife of the then prime minister, Rosmah stayed away from matters dealt by Najib and never did she at any point influence the outcome of any executive decisions made,” they said.

“Linking Rosmah directly to 1MDB and piling accusations against her, we are afraid, is an attempt to influence the outcome of the investigations which are currently underway and at worst, to tarnish Datin Seri Rosmah’s image.”

She has previously rejected scrutiny of her spending as politically motivated.

SEE ALSO: CEO of Malaysia’s troubled 1MDB explains what went wrong

PM Mahathir Mohamad, who defeated Najib in the country’s May election, has vowed to reclaim the $4.5 billion thought to have been lost from 1MDB and has said authorities have “an almost perfect case” against his predecessor.

Attorney General Tommy Thomas has vowed the government “will institute criminal and civil proceedings in our courts against the alleged wrongdoers” and that there will be “no cover up”.

Earlier this month, a source told Reuters that Najib faces charges of money laundering and misappropriation of property, for which he could spend up to five years in prison.

Politicians are rarely prosecuted for corruption in Malaysia in the past, which is ranked 62 in the world on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

India, DRC, US among most dangerous countries for women: poll

Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria also top list in Thomson Reuters Foundation survey.

Internally displaced women and children in a camp in Bunia, Ituri province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo [File: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters]

26 Jun 2018

Correction 26/06/2018: This article has been corrected to say the survey was done by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, not the Thomas Reuters Foundation as previously stated.

MOST DANGEROUS COUNTRIES FOR WOMEN

1. India
2. Afghanistan
3. Syria
4. Somalia
5. Saudi Arabia 
6. Pakistan
7. DRC
8. Yemen
9. Nigeria
10. United States

India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the US are among the top 10 most dangerous countries for women, according to a new poll by Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The organisation surveyed nearly 550 experts focused on women's issues, asking them to rank countries based on a number of key issues, including access to healthcare, prevalence of sexual abuse and discrimination.

The experts ranked India as the most dangerous country for women.

"The world's second most populous nation, with 1.3 billion people, ranked as the most dangerous on three of the topic questions - the risk of sexual violence and harassment against women, the danger women face from cultural, tribal and traditional practices, and the country where women are most in danger of human trafficking including forced labour, sex slavery and domestic servitude," the findings said.

The report specifically pointed to the 2012 gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student.

The rape of Singh caused widespread protests and drew international attention over violence against women.

Indian girls take a pledge to act towards stopping atrocity on women [File: Ajit Solanki/AP Photo]

The last time Thomson Reuters Foundation conducted the poll, India ranked fourth overall.

This year's survey listed Afghanistan as the second most dangerous country for women.

The country was ranked the most dangerous on the topics of non-sexual violence, including conflicted-related violence and domestic abuse, access to healthcare and access to economic resources.

The DRC was ranked seventh. It came in second in the 2011 poll.

On a visit to the DRC earlier this year, Norwegian Refugee Council chief Jan Egeland said that women and children were being exposed to the "worst sexual abuse ever".

According to the United Nations, about 4.3 million people are internally displaced in the country due to violence aggravated by a political crisis sparked by President Joseph Kabila's refusal to step down at the end of his mandate in 2016.

#MeToo

The United States was listed as the 10th most dangerous country for women, ranking third on the question of sexual violence and sixth on the issue of non-sexual violence.

READ MORE

What does Harvey Weinstein's arrest mean for the #MeToo movement?

Thomson Reuters Foundation pointed out that the survey was conducted after the #MeToo movementwent viral last year after several women accused prominent Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual abuse.

Weinstein has since pleaded not guilty to rape and criminal sex act charges.

#MeToo has since grown into a global movement against sexual violence against women, with many exposing the prevalence of sexual harassment and abuse in the workspace worldwide.

Almost one in five women have been raped, and more than one in three experienced rape, violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the US, according to 2010 statistics by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

People participate in a protest march for survivors of sexual assault and their supporters in Hollywood [File: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters]

It is worth noting that no Latin American country topped the list, despite many countries having high rates of femicide and 49 countries having no laws to protect women from domestic violence, according to UN Women.

Some including, Cindy Southworth, executive vice president at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, said that media coverage of #MeToo in the US may have attributed to this.

"People watch the US," she told Reuters news agency. "They watch our elections. They watch our media coverage. They watch our celebrity violence against women cases.

"The perception is understandable, but not based on reality."

Globally, it is estimated that one in three women experience physical or sexual violence during her lifetime, and nearly 750 million women and girls married before their 18th birthday.

Other countries that ranked among the top 10 were Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation poll was a repeat of a similar survey in 2011 that found Afghanistan, DRC, Pakistan, India, and Somalia were seen as the most dangerous countries for women.

DNA 'barcode' delivering personalised breast cancer care

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Fergus Walsh

-@BBCFergusWalsh

Scientists in Cambridge say advances in genetics are set to transform the treatment of breast cancer, making it more personalised to each patient.

All women there diagnosed with breast cancer have their entire genetic code mapped.
Doctors say it is helping them chose the right treatment and predict whether patients are likely to experience side effects.

It can also reveal whether their cancer is becoming resistant to treatment.

Cancer 'barcode'

Carlos Caldas, Prof of Cancer Medicine and programme director at Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, said: "By sequencing the tumour we have something like a barcode which gives us the pattern of mutations in that cancer.

"We can understand how the body, and in particular the immune cells are responding and this enables us to deliver more precision medicine.

"This barcode also enables us to do surveillance and identify early whether a tumour is coming back because it is developing resistance to treatment - when those cells start releasing their DNA we can detect them in a blood test known as a liquid biopsy."

To date, 275 women have joined the Personalised Breast Cancer Programme in Cambridge, which was launched in 2016 with just over £1m funding from Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust.
They aim to enrol 2,000 patients in the next four years.

Prof Caldas said: "Breast cancer is not one but 10 or 11 diseases that are distinct molecular entities and we will increasingly see patients being categorised into one of these groups, enabling us to tailor the way we monitor them; it's a dramatic improvement in the way we personalise their treatment."

How it works:

• All cancer patients have two genomes - the so-called germline DNA they inherited from their parents and the corrupted genetic code in their cancer
• Women diagnosed with breast cancer in Cambridge have a sample of their tumour and of their blood sent for sequencing, with the full results coming back within 12 weeks
• The germline genome can tell whether they inherited mutations in BRCA1, BRCA2 genes, which increases their risk of both breast and ovarian cancer - these findings can also have implications for their wider family
• Tumour sequencing allows researchers to catalogue all the mutations in cancer cells and enables them to predict whether they will respond to specific treatments
• Some drugs, known as targeted therapies, are designed for people whose cancer cells have specific gene mutations which 'drive' tumour growth

Dr Jean Abraham, consultant oncologist at Addenbrooke's hospital, said: "We have had lots of cases where we either opted for a patient to go on a clinical trial because of the results of their sequencing or were offered an alternative treatment as that was a better option."

Elizabeth Banns, 61, joined the study after she was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer last year.

Like other patients, she had surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Despite this extensive treatment, her cancer returned and is now incurable, but Elizabeth remains optimistic: "Being part of research gives you are feeling of control and being part of something."

She told me: "It's reassuring knowing that I don't have to keep going back for biopsies because they have my genetic code and that of my cancer; it's banked and hopefully it will mean that first one targeted drug trial and then another will come along that I will be eligible for."

Image captionThe mice on the left have visible tumours under the skin whereas those on the right had successful treatment
Breast cancer patients in Cambridge are also offered the opportunity to take part in research involving so-called mouse avatars.

Within an hour of their biopsy, samples from their tumour is injected under the skin of laboratory mice.

These cancer avatars are used to model the effects of different treatments.

I was shown two sets of mice, all carrying the same tumour.

Mouse avatars

The patient had not responded to chemotherapy, and nor did the mouse avatars that were given the same drug - the tumours could be seen growing under their skin.

The second group were given a different drug from the patient and their tumours had not grown.

The hope is, for some patients, it will identify the most promising drugs and eliminate others which are unlikely to work.

Dr Alejandra Bruna, molecular biologist, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute told me: "We want to reduce the number of toxic drugs that we give to patients, and where possible treat them with targeted therapies with fewer side effects."

The patients' tumours are also grown in cells lines, enabling the majority of drug testing to be done in laboratory dishes, so minimising the number of animal tests.

The project is still at the research stage and not directly influencing clinical decisions.

Follow Fergus on Twitter.

Release the list of all those who surrendered or were detained during and after the war

 

Premananth Thevanayagam

August 17, 2017

Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice started this petition to President Sirisena

In the baking sun. Through the cold of night. Amid the dust and pollution of the roadside. And against the trials of old age, trauma, and sorrow. For approximately half a year, family members of those who disappeared during and after Sri Lanka’s civil war have been protesting continuously at various locations across the North and East of the country. This petition is in support of them.
The protestors are seeking answers as to the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones, many of whom were disappeared during the war, including after being taken into the custody of the Sri Lankan authorities in its final stages and immediate aftermath (2008-2009).

In order to obtain those answers, they are calling for the release of information that could provide vital clues. In particular, they want the government of Sri Lanka to release a list, known to have been kept by the authorities, of all those who surrendered or were detained by the security forces during and after the war.

This demand, along with four others, was issued by the protestors at a meeting with President Sirisena in June of this year. It was met by a pledge from the President that he would take immediate action to secure the release of the records. But as of today, they have not been disclosed.

Meanwhile, the protestors – mostly Tamil mothers – continue their fight in makeshift shelters dotted across Sri Lanka’s North and East. We have produced a series of infographics detailing the locations of the protests and the number of days occupied at each. By the end of this month the longest running of these will have surpassed the half-year mark. These figures speak to the extraordinary resilience and determination of the families. But they also tell a story of utter desperation in the face of government indifference.

The time has come to say: enough is enough. Promises and pledges from the government of Sri Lanka must now give way to concrete action. The release of the list of detainees, un-doctored and in full, would be a crucial first step in the right direction.

Please help us ensure that this action is taken – and let the protestors know that they are not alone – by adding your voice to this petition asking President Sirisena to #ReleaseTheList. Even better, share it with a friend today and ask them to do the same.
Thank you.

Click here to see the full appeal and infographics.

 Display my name and comment on this petition