Drinking coffee could be your secret elixir, scientist says Here’s another reason to start the day with a cup of coffee: Scientists have found that people who drink coffee appear to live longer. Drinking coffee was associated with a lower risk of death due to heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, …
Read More »S.Africa circumcision ritual: a dangerous route to manhood
S.Africa circumcision ritual: a dangerous route to manhood Coffee Bay, South Africa | AFP | Naked, covered in white clay mud, and with his penis wrapped in leaves, Abongile Maqegu, 20, sits in a hut in South Africa recovering from his circumcision — a traditional ritual that can prove …
Read More »SCIENCE: AIDS in 10 dates
Paris, France | AFP | From the start of the AIDS epidemic in 1981, here are 10 dates in the history of the disease. – 1981: First alert – On June 5, 1981, US epidemiologists report the first deaths among young homosexuals from a mysterious immune-wrecking disease later named acquired …
Read More »Five key numbers on AIDS
Paris, France | AFP | Someone is infected with the AIDS virus every 17 seconds in the world, and the disease has killed the equivalent of the population of Canada, figures released Thursday by UNAIDS show. Here is a numerical snapshot of the disease. – 17 seconds – Roughly 1.8 …
Read More »Israeli ‘mental first-aid’ method offered to attack victims abroad
Tel Aviv, Israel | AFP | An Israeli who developed an unorthodox model for treating mental trauma and preventing post-traumatic stress disorder during his years in the military is now sharing it with first responders in other countries. Moshe Farchi says Israel’s decades of conflict have afforded it “lots of experience” …
Read More »ARTS: Tasty githeri of art
Exhibition tackles Buganda totems and nostalgic paintings Kampala, Uganda| DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | Githeri is a Kenyan word that loosely means cooking different foods – usually maize and beans – in one bowl. When art borrows the concept, the resukt is a wonderful mixture of different ideas, techniques, styles, themes and …
Read More »Trump blames Democrats for failure of bill to replace Obamacare
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump blamed Democrats and a few holdouts in his own party Tuesday for the collapse of the latest Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare — one of Trump’s key campaign pledges. A Republican drive in the Senate to come up with a …
Read More »PROFILE: Sarah Aporo on sharing her HIV positive status
At only 22 years, Sarah Aporo took the brave step of sharing her HIV-positive status on social media. Aporo used the Facebook platform to post a video of her taking antiretroviral drugs. Kampala, Uganda | AGNES E NANTABA | In the video, Aporo advises young people to test with their …
Read More »Colonial boundaries no solution to Tororo District split controversy
Kampala, Uganda | J OLOKA-ONYANGO | Recent newspaper reports about the issue of Tororo state that President Yoweri Museveni has directed that the matter be resolved using the “colonial boundaries” in order to determine where the municipality should be located in the event of a split of the district. Such …
Read More »Promising immunotherapy helps adults with leukemia
Miami, United States | AFP | A cancer treatment that genetically alters immune cells has shown success in 71 percent of adults with the most common form of leukemia, and for whom other medicines had failed, US researchers said Monday. The treatment, known as experimental chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell …
Read More »