Saudi Arabia: Migrant Domestics Killed by Employers Brutal Beatings and Killings Symptomatic of Wider Abuse The killing of two Indonesian domestic workers by their employers in Saudi Arabia highlights the Saudi government's ongoing failure to hold employers accountable for serious abuses, Human Rights Watch said today. The brutal beatings by these employers also left two other Indonesian domestic workers critically injured.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/17/saudia16699.htm August 17, 2007
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China: Media Chokehold Tightens Before Party Congress Crackdown on 'False News' a Direct Threat to Reporting Freedom The Chinese government's announced crackdown on "false news" and "illegal news coverage" could be yet another direct threat to media freedom in China, Human Rights Watch said today.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/17/china16700.htm August 17, 2007
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Russia: New Campaign to Silence Rights Activist The Russian government's latest attempt to silence a leading human rights advocate reflects a deepening crackdown on critical voices in Russia, Human Rights Watch said today. A court in Nizhni Novgorod will today rule on whether to impose tougher terms on Stanislav Dmitrievsky, who was convicted in 2006 for publicizing human rights abuses in Chechnya.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/17/russia16702.htm August 17, 2007
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Jordan: Government Pledges to Grant Iraqis Education, Health Rights Iraqis Still Denied Refugee Status The Jordanian government in a welcome step has pledged to provide public health care and education to Iraqis living in Jordan regardless of their legal status, but continues to refuse to recognize them as refugees, Human Rights Watch said today. Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/16/jordan16687.htm August 16, 2007 ----- SCO Summit: Crackdown Highlights Failings on Human Rights Shanghai Cooperation Organization Should Not Undermine Rights in Name of Security Members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization missed a key opportunity to implement the organization's human rights principles when they met on August 16 at the SCO summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, Human Rights Watch said today.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/16/kyrgyz16698.htm August 16, 2007 -----
Jordan: Rights Groups to Visit Intelligence Agency Prison First Visit by Independent Experts The Jordanian intelligence agency has agreed to allow independent human rights monitoring organizations to visit prisoners at itssecretive detention facility for the first time, Human Rights Watch said today.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/15/jordan16673.htm August 15, 2007
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UK: Terrorism Powers Should Not Be Used Against Heathrow Protesters The British authorities should not use terrorism powers against protesters at London's Heathrow airport, Human Rights Watch said today. In a demonstration against global warming, hundreds ofprotesters have set up a tent camp next to the airport to pressure the government to halt the airport's planned expansion.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/14/uk16684.htm August 15, 2007
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Darfur Needs Most Efficient, Trained Troops Immediately Letter to African Union Chairman and the Under-Secretary-General for UN Peacekeeping Operations The nationalities of troops should not impede the urgent establishment of the most effective peacekeeping force possible for Darfur, Human Rights Watch said today in letters to the chairman of the African Union Commission and to the United Nations under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations. The new African Union-United Nations hybrid peacekeeping force must have military and civilian components, including police, that are experienced, well-trained and well-equipped if it is to deliver on its promise to protect civilians in Darfur.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/15/darfur16695.htm
Letter: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/15/darfur16694.htm August 15, 2007
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SADC: Take Action to End Zimbabwe Rights Crisis Send Human Rights Monitors to End State Brutality Government leaders gathered this week at a summit in Lusaka, Zambia should urgently press Zimbabwe's government to end its broadscale attack on human rights, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today. Human Rights Watch called on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to deploy human rights monitors to Zimbabwe to assess the situation.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/08/zimbab16615.htm August 14, 2007 -----
Libya: Men Face Possible Death for Planning Peaceful Demonstration Two Others 'Disappeared' for Nearly Six Months The Libyan government should drop charges against 12 men, one of them a Danish citizen, on trial for planning to hold a peacefulpolitical demonstration in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, Human Rights Watch said today. Two other men have "disappeared" since their arrest in connection with the case nearly six months ago.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/14/libya16638.htm August 14, 2007
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Rwanda: Investigate 'Disappeared' Businessman Confer Due Process Rights to Arrested Generals Rwandan judicial and police authorities should account promptly for the whereabouts of Assinapol Rwigara, a prominent businessman, and should assure due process rights to arrested generals Frank Rusagara and Sam Kanyemera, Human Rights Watch said today.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/14/rwanda16668.htm August 14, 2007 -----
Somalia: War Crimes in Mogadishu UN Should Address Civilian Protection Ethiopian, Somali and insurgent forces are all responsible for rampant violations of the laws of war in Mogadishu, causing massive suffering for the civilian population, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch urged the UN Security Council during its current deliberations on Somalia to include a strong civilian protection mandate in any peacekeeping mission.
Press Release: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/06/somali16599.htm
Report: http://hrw.org/reports/2007/somalia0807/ August 13, 2007

Sweat it out to stay healthy
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/08/18/10147413.html
The Telegraph Published: August 18, 2007, 00:05
London: Public health experts have warned people need to take "vigorous" exercise for at least 20 minutes three times a week to stay healthy.

Just taking the odd stroll is not enough to "maintain and improve health," according to the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association. They now want vigorous exercise to be "explicitly" recommended.

They fear their original guidance from 1995, which recommended adults aged 18-65 should engage in at least 30 minutes' moderate exercise on most days of the week, has been "misinterpreted".

Writing in Circulation, they stated: "There are people who have not accepted, and others who have misinterpreted, the original recommendation. Some people continue to believe that only vigorous intensity activity will improve health while others believe that the lightest activities of their daily lives are sufficient to promote health." The experts' original advice was adopted in 1996.

In the UAE, a cardiologist said the local weather poses a handicap for outdoor sports and the high cost gym membership deters some people from exercising.

"Twenty per cent of the UAE adult population has diabetes and only half of them really exercise," said Dr J.V. Sebastian, head of cardiology department at Welcare Hospital. "People should choose a sport or exercise they can do easily and enjoy and then stick to it," he said.
With additional inputs from Emmanuelle Landais/Gulf News Staff Reporter

Can mosquitoes transmit Aids? http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Aug182007/living2007081719735.asp
Dr Chittaranjan Andrade

We live in a mosquito-infested part of the world, and even if all the experts reassure us, we want to know why mosquitoes cannot transmit Aids. So, consider three situations in which concerns arise.

In the first scenario, you are in a room with a bunch of people and a cloud of mosquitoes. It is dinnertime, and one of the mosquitoes sups on a gentleman who has Aids. The mosquito wobbles off in search of dessert and chances upon you. Now, without washing its mouth parts, it chooses to feast on your blood. You worry that its fangs are blood-stained; you remember that Aids can be spread through contaminated syringes; you panic: when that mosquito bites you after biting an Aids host, is it injecting Aids-containing blood into you?

In the second scenario, you have just been bitten by a mosquito. You wonder: has this mosquito fed on an Aids host recently? If yes, has the mosquito become a flying host to the Aids virus? Has the virus multiplied inside the mosquito and migrated to the insect's salivary glands? And, has the virus been transmitted to you in the mosquito's saliva during the course of the bite, just as happens with the classical mosquito-transmitted diseases?

In the third and what, to you, seems to be the worst-case scenario, the mosquito has gorged itself on an Aids-infected crowd of people. It can fly no longer and settles down on you to rest. You resent being treated as a landing zone; so, you swat at it. Hooray, for the first time that evening you manage to kill one of these pests. Alas, you are aghast to discover that there's Aids-blood splattered all over your skin in the very place that you have a cut. What are your chances of getting Aids?

Scientists have studied each of these scenarios with a variety of blood sucking insects and here, in a nutshell, are the reasons why mosquitoes do not transmit Aids. As an Aids-infected individual actually has very little Aids virus actively circulating in his bloodstream, estimates suggest that Aids transmission through contaminated mouth parts would require being bitten by ten million mosquitoes that have just fed on Aids-infected individuals.

So, the chances of this form of transmission are virtually nonexistent.

For the same reason, the chances are negligible that a mosquito will ingest sufficient Aids-virus particles in its tiny meal to transmit Aids even if the mosquito is killed directly over a cut on the skin immediately after feeding on an Aids-infected person.

Then, mosquitoes digest the virus that causes Aids. As the virus does not survive to reproduce and later migrate to the salivary glands, the mechanism that most mosquito-borne parasites use to get from one host to the next is not possible for the Aids virus.

Lastly, mosquitoes take in blood through one channel and inject saliva into you through another channel. This is different from the syringe and needle analogy wherein the same channel draws in and flushes out fluids. So, if the mosquito bites you after feeding on an Aids host, it does not flush out Aids blood into your bloodstream. In other words, the syringe and needle analogy is not applicable to mosquitoes. So, although mosquitoes may transmit diseases such as malaria, they do not transmit Aids.

Nearly 70,000 children living with HIV virus in India
http://www.spiritindia.com/health-care-news-articles-12404.html

Indian Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi said paediatric antiretroviral ARV drugs are available at 127 centres across the country.

She said as per the revised estimates, there are 70,000 HIV infected children in the country and nearly 21,000 new infections occur in children every year.

"Following the launch of paediatric ART initiative in November 2006, more than 18,000 infected children have been identified and currently nearly 6,500 eligible children are receiving ARV paediatric drugs," she said.

Denying that there was any shortage of ARV drugs, she said about 17,000 children are availing them.

The minister said the estimates for the year 2006 recently released by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), supported by UNAIDS and WHO, indicated that there are around two million to 3.1 million people living with HIV in the country.

Noting that the epidemic has stabilised at 0.36 per cent prevalence level during the last four years, she said in 2006 and 2005, the HIV figure in the country stood at 2.47 million.

By using the new method of estimation, she said the number of HIV infected persons in 2004 was found to be at 2.44 million.

Andhra Pradesh, which has a prevalence rate of 1.6 per cent, has around 4,79,866 people infected with the virus, while in Manipur, having a prevalence rate of 1.68 per cent, the figure stands at 22,010.

In Nagaland with a prevalence rate is 1.27 per cent, around 15,277 people have been infected with the virus.

Illegal Exaction Ceased Medicine Supply to Indian State
http://www.medindia.net/news/Illegal-Exaction-Ceased-Medicine-Supply-to-Indian-State-25117-1.htm

Medicine shipments to a revolt-hit state in India's northeast have dried up after pharmaceutical firms were told to pay 250,000 dollars in extortion money, officials said on Thursday.

Separatist rebels in Manipur ordered all pharmaceutical companies operating in the state to pay militants a total of 10 million rupees (250,000 dollars).

The extortion demand was telephoned in to local newspapers in Manipur in early August and appeared as news reports.

The reports did not specify in detail who made the extortion demand, gave no deadline for payment and did not specify the consequences if no money was paid.

However, the state's top health official said the government was taking the demand seriously and was working with drug companies to encourage them to resume supplying Manipur.

"We're negotiating with companies to resume supplies very soon and have assured them of full protection and security," Manipur Health Minister Parijat Singh told AFP by telephone from state capital Imphal. "

There's no need to panic and in a day or two we shall ensure supplies of drugs," he said.

Among the thousands affected as drugs became scarce were many people living with AIDS in a region where HIV-infection rates are high.

"I have been without ART (anti-retroviral therapy) for the last four days -- there are no medicines available," Bimla, an HIV-positive woman, told AFP.

Pharmacy stores reported they were running low on many drugs and basic materials like syringes and bandages.