Dozens dead in Tanzania bus crash

Two lorries and a bus have collided in Tanzania's highland region of Iringa, killing 41 people, police say.

The accident happened after a lorry driver swerved to avoid a pothole, the regional commander told the BBC.
One of the lorries' containers fell on to the bus that had been heading to Dar es Salaam, crushing many passengers to death, he said.
Traffic accidents are common in Tanzania, where the state of the roads and the vehicles is often poor.

 

The crash happened next to this pot hole

President Jakaya Kikwete released a statement saying: "This gives cause for great mourning. The entire country has been shaken," the AFP news agency reports.

Iringa regional police commander Ramadhan Mungi said a further 23 passengers had been seriously injured and had been taken to Mafinga hospital. All the bodies trapped between the lorries had been removed, he said.
The bus had been travelling from the south-western town of Mbeya to the commercial capital.

Who is "Jihadi John?"

Emwazi was born in Kuwait but moved to London when he was a child and attended school and university in the capital.

The Daily Telegraph reported this weekend that he went to high school with two other boys who went onto become militants - Choukri Ellekhlifi, who was killed fighting in Syria, and Mohammed Sakr, killed fighting in Somalia.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Education said Saturday that it had launched a review into how Quintin Kynaston school in north London dealt with radicalisation "to see if there are any lessons we can learn".

It was also reported that Emwazi had contacts with the men responsible for failed attacks on London's public transport system in 2005, two weeks after suicide bombings killed 52 people in the capital.

'Jihadi John' contemplated suicide in 2010: Report

LONDON - The London man believed to be Islamic State executioner "Jihadi John" told a journalist four years ago that surveillance by British security services had left him contemplating suicide, it emerged Saturday.

Mohammed Emwazi, named by media and experts as the militant thought to have beheaded at least five Western hostages held by the IS group, told the Mail on Sunday reporter that he felt like a "dead man walking".

A British civil rights group that was in contact with Emwazi, Cage, claims that domestic spy agency MI5 had been tracking him since at least 2009, and blamed his radicalisation on their "harassment".

Prime Minister David Cameron and a former head of foreign spy agency MI6 strongly rejected the idea, while London mayor Boris Johnson accused Cage of an "apology for terror".

In an email to Mail on Sunday reporter Robert Verkaik, dated December 14, 2010, Emwazi described how he sold his laptop to someone he met online who he subsequently came to believe was with the security services.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm a dead man walking, not fearing they may kill me. Rather, fearing that one day, I'll take as many pills as I can that I can sleep forever!! I just want to get away from these people!!!" Emwazi wrote.

Emwazi was born in Kuwait but moved to London when he was a child and attended school and university in the capital.
The Daily Telegraph reported this weekend that he went to high school with two other boys who went onto become militants - Choukri Ellekhlifi, who was killed fighting in Syria, and Mohammed Sakr, killed fighting in Somalia.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Education said Saturday that it had launched a review into how Quintin Kynaston school in north London dealt with radicalisation "to see if there are any lessons we can learn".
It was also reported that Emwazi had contacts with the men responsible for failed attacks on London's public transport system in 2005, two weeks after suicide bombings killed 52 people in the capital.
- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/world/jihadi-john-contemplated-suicide-2010-report#sthash.PnYdqvGI.dpuf

MASTERS AND PhD ADMISSION IN 2014/2015 ACADEMIC YEAR

Dear,

The Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) is a Public Higher Learning Institution accredited by the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU). The NM-AIST operates in a network of Pan-African Institutions of Science and Technology located across the continent. These institutions envision training and developing the next generation of African scientists and engineers with a view to impacting profoundly on the continent’s development through the application of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET).

In the 2014/2015 academic year, the Government of Tanzania has granted permission for Tanzanian students that qualify for admission into Master’s and PhD programmes at NM-AIST to access loans from the Higher Education Students’ Loan Board (HESLB). The decision is intended to provide more opportunities for eligible Tanzanian citizens to pursue post graduate programmes offered at the Institution in order to increase the nation’s human resource capacity in Science, Engineering and Technology.

Information on admission requirements at NM-AIST is available on our website (www.nm-aist.ac.tz) and details on the conditions regarding issuance of loans to students that qualify for admission at NM-AIST is provided on HESLB website (www.heslb.go.tz).

We kindly request you to circulate this information together with advertisement to members of your institution, friends and relatives you think have academic qualifications and professional talents to benefit from the offer.

We have included the attachment of our Advertisement.

Very Kind Regards

 Gilbert.Kallagho

Senior Admissions officer I

Bookie-tiam? World Cup fever turns illegal at Geylang coffee shops

SINGAPORE - The streets of Geylang were almost like a ghost town after midnight on Friday and Saturday.
Except at some coffee shops, where the crowds were spilling into the lorongs.

World Cup fever has come to Geylang.
And where there's football, there's money to be made - and lost. It's a temptation that bookies and punters alike cannot resist.
BOOKIES' TABLE?
When The New Paper checked out a coffee shop showing the quarter-final match between Germany and France, it was initially not obvious that illegal betting was going on.
We approached a man and discreetly asked if he knew where we could place a bet. He looked at us, shook his head and said: "I'm here to watch."
Then, with his arms folded, he tilted his head in the direction of a table occupied by five middle-aged men.
After several minutes of observing them, it became obvious that we had hit the jackpot.
Other people, nearly all men, kept popping by their table. They were seen whispering into one particular man's ear.
They then passed him money and he in turn scribbled something on pieces of paper and handed them to his visitors.
Just as the match kicked off, the man could be seen sticking a thick wad of notes into his shirt pocket.
Some distance away were two men who kept looking around the lorong, as if they were looking out for anything unexpected, such as an approaching police patrol car.
Their attention was briefly diverted when a beer "auntie" shouted at some men who were watching the match without buying drinks from the coffee shop. They seemed to be foreign workers.
Most men in the coffee shop looked like locals.
Not even the sight of pretty women in figure-hugging outfits walking past the coffee shop could get their attention. Their eyes were glued to the action unfolding on TV.
But some men occasionally fiddled with their mobile phones or tablets. Were they placing bets online?
We then noticed another table closer to the road that was occupied by a group of younger men. They, too, were receiving money from people who went up to them.
An elderly man, who appeared to be drunk, approached a young man and said aloud in Hokkien: "How many balls you give, I will eat." He was quickly dragged away by his friends.
After the match ended with a 1-0 win for Germany, most of the customers dispersed, some cursing under their breath.
A few of them were seen heading to the two tables where money changed hands again, except that it was now the visitors receiving the cash, probably their winnings.
TNP's check on another coffee shop screening World Cup matches showed similar scenarios taking place there.

Students offered extra credits linked to armpit hair

Female students at a US university have been offered extra credits – if they don’t shave their armpit hair for an entire semester.
The offer was made by a professor at the Arizona State University (ASU) in a bid to challenge social norms, the Mail Online reported.
The boys can also apply for extra credit by going the other way – shaving all their hair from neck down.
Professor Breanne Fahs, director of the Center for Feminist Research on Gender and Sexuality, encourages her students to document their experiences in a journal for the 10-week semester.
She said the social experiment helps students analyse society’s attitude to genders, with female students facing ridicule for having hairy armpits.
At the same time, men get an insight into how much pressure is put on women to stay hair-free.
Prof Fahs told the ASU News: “There’s no better way to learn about societal norms than to violate them and see how people react.
There’s really no reason why the choice to shave, or not, should be a big deal. But it is, as the students tend to find out quickly.”
Many of the female students who took the hairy option told ASU News that they were shocked at the reaction from their partners, friends and family.
Student Grace Scale said some of the strongest reactions came from her male friends. “One of my dearest friends — at the time — compared my underarm hair to ‘the sludge in the bottom of the garbage can’.”

Don't panic when you stumble upon these sculptures

Cities around the world are full of majestic monuments, stunning sculptures and artistic statues, each having a story to tell.
Thousands of them have been made but only a few of them are really extraordinary and picture-worthy.
That's why our readers set out to find the world's most creative statues and sculptures, which add colour and emotion to the most boring areas of the cities.

Jokes, compassion, sadness, rage - gamut of emotions after Brazil loss

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil - "Brazil have Neymar; Argentina, Messi; Portugal, Ronaldo. Germany have a team." That was just one of a blizzard of sardonic comments doing the rounds on social media, a virtual meeting point for tens of millions of Brazilians, after Tuesday's 7-1 hiding by the Germans.

As Brazil crashed to an epic World Cup semi-final loss thousands of web users in a country with a voracious appetite for social media came up with the hashtag #vergonhabrasil (humiliation Brazil).
Some posts to sites depicted Rio's iconic Christ the Redeemer statue covering its face in shame - or even replaced by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"Can somebody explain to me how a knee in the back for (absent injured star) Neymar renders 11 (Brazilian players) paraplegic?" asked Twitter user #MonteiroLovato.

Some users scolded the critics, preferring to offer thanks to their players, including skipper David Luiz, for their World Cup effort which finally imploded spectacularly.
"Before the game everyone waqs talking about us winning a sixth title, you ungrateful lot who only back Brazil when they are winning," huffed @itspetrov4l.

However, most posts were humorous and ironic in nature.
"If we're going to lose then let it be by a margin that puts us in the Guinness Book of Records," was one such post accompanied by an image of the team holding a pitchside group hug as if aware of the German assault to come.

"There goes my re-election," was another post in allusion to President Dilma Rousseff, who faces general elections in October and whose chances many Brazilians felt took a knock with Tuesday's thrashing.
Still more posts alluded to the protests which have assailed the giant nation in recent months over the cost of staging the event rather than investing in poor public services.
"The worst thing is there are no hospitals to treat my depression" about the result, was how one internet user put it.
"It would have been better to build hospitals," was a comment put into the mouth of Brazil's 2002 champion Ronaldo.

As a member of the organising committee Ronaldo said the Cup required stadiums as opposed to hospitals.
Still more posts showed the Brazilian flag mocked up as a goal bulging with blue balls to represent Germany's goals.

One user had German coach Joachim Loew as asking Brazil's second-round victims Chile: "Will that do - or shall we score a few more?" Others showed an image from the City of God film about violent crime in Rio showing an armed gang with the caption: "The Cup doesn't leave here."

Israel 'to intensify Gaza attacks'

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to "further intensify attacks on Hamas" in the Gaza Strip after talks with his defence chiefs.

He said the Palestinian militants would "pay a heavy price" for their rocket attacks on Israel.
Israel's military said Hamas had fired 72 rockets at Israeli cities on Wednesday, after dozens of air strikes were carried out in Gaza overnight.

Some 40 Palestinians are reported to have died in the recent hostilities.
The officials say half of the casualties were civilians, a number of them women and children.
Hamas has warned that all Israelis are now targets.

James Reynolds looks at where Gaza militants are aiming rockets

Israel earlier said it might send ground troops into Gaza. It has authorised the call-up of up to 40,000 military reservists.
 
'Aggression'
The Israeli military said its Iron Dome missile defence system had intercepted 14 of 72 rockets fired on Wednesday, including three above Tel Aviv, three over Ashkelon and three over Ashdod.
The town of Hadera 100km (60 miles) north of Gaza, was hit with an M-302 surface-to-surface rocket, the furthest target so far reached.

The Israeli military added that it had carried out 129 air strikes in Gaza on Wednesday, bombarding tunnels, rocket launchers and what it said were Hamas command centres.
It brings to 550 the number of sites in Gaza attacked as part of "Operation Protective Edge".

Somali president's palace under attack from al-Shabab

Islamist al-Shabab militants have attacked the presidential palace in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and entered the heavily fortified compound.

An al-Shabab spokesman said fighting was ongoing, but a government official told the BBC the attack was over and the militants had all been killed.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was not at the palace at the time.
The al-Qaeda-aligned al-Shabab group lost control of Mogadishu in 2011, but often carries out attacks in the city.

Al-Shabab in 60 seconds

The group has vowed to step up attacks during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
On Saturday, a suicide car bomb exploded near the capital's parliament building, killing at least four people.
The BBC's Mohammed Moalimu in Mogadishu says President Mohamud was attending a function at the residence of the UN special envoy to Somalia, near the airport.

A large contingent of the Somali military police accompanied him, leaving the presidential palace, known as Villa Somalia, mainly under the protection of African Union soldiers, he says.
The presidential palace is the seat of government and many top government officials live and work there.