National Agricultural Research Organization in Uganda (NARO) Boss Dead

The director general for National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) in Uganda is dead following her admission at one hospital in Nairobi in Kenya. She ascended to the chair of Director General in 2011 having replaced Dr Kyetere. The sixty year old made many changes in the organization which saw many support staff being transferred to different institutes and others leaving the organization. More information will be availed soon.

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Muslim woman told to unveil to give trial evidence

A Muslim woman can attend all the proceedings with her face fully veiled but must remove it when giving evidence, a judge has ruled.

Lawyers for the woman had argued that removing the veil would breach her human rights and fly in the face of Britain's tolerance of Islamic dress codes.

The 22-year-old from London, who said it is against her religious beliefs to show her face in public, pleaded not guilty to a charge of intimidating a witness last week while wearing a niqab after the judge backed down from a previous decision that she would have to show her face to be properly identified.

Judge Peter Murphy made the ruling at Blackfriars Crown Court in London where the woman is due to stand trial for one count of intimidating a witness.

The order means that if the woman, who started wearing the veil in May 2012, refuses to comply during her trial she could be jailed for Contempt of Court.

In a niqab the only part of the face that is visible is a narrow horizontal stripe showing the wearer's eyes.

The judge said he would offer the woman a screen to shield her from public view while giving evidence but that she had to be seen by him, the jury and lawyers.

At other times during the trial the woman will be allowed to keep her face covered while sitting in the dock.

In the ruling Judge Murphy said: "The ability of the jury to see the defendant for the purposes of evaluating her evidence is crucial."

Referring to the woman as "D", he said he had "no reason to doubt the sincerity of her belief" and his decision would have been the same if she had worn the niqab for years.

He added that "the niqab has become the elephant in the courtroom" and there was widespread anxiety among judges over how to tackle the issue.

He added he hoped "Parliament or a higher court will provide a definite answer to the issue soon."

Judge Murphy said: "If judges in different cases in different places took differing approaches [to the niqab] the result would be judicial anarchy."

The judgement comes as Liberal Democrat Home Office minister Jeremy Browne

Mr Browne said he was "uneasy" about restricting freedoms but urged a national debate on the state's role in stopping veils being imposed on girls.

Possibility of appealing

Her defence layer Susan Meek had argued the woman's human right to express her faith through her attire would be breached if she was asked to remove her veil against her wishes.

When asked if they would appeal against the decision, the woman's lawyer said they were to look at all options.

The judge’s decision has brought mixed reactions among people. Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said he believed it was "vital" defendants' faces were visible at "all times" and said he "regretted" the judge's decision.

He added: "We will be complaining to the Office of Judicial Complaints and also be asking senior legal officers to make visibility throughout court hearings mandatory, and not subject to judges' discretion."

Source: Huffington post, bbc

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At least ten shot at US Navy base in Washington

Reports reaching us from the US Navy indicate that at least one person has been shot by unidentified gunman at the Washington Navy Yard, a naval installation in the US capital.

The Navy also confirmed police had entered the building in pursuant of the gunman, after at least three shots were fired at 08:20 local time (13:20 GMT). The gunman has been described as a tall black man with a bald head dressed all black. 

There are so far no reports of deaths but at least one person has been injured, the Navy said. Among the injured are two law enforcement officers.

All personnel at the base have been ordered to "shelter in place", the Navy said. Dozens of emergency vehicles have converged on the site.

The US Navy said shots were reported to have been fired at the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters at the yard in south-east Washington DC.

The Washington Navy Yard is the US Navy's oldest shore installation, first opened in the early 19th Century, according to the Navy. It is estimated that 3,000 people work at the command, which engineers, purchases, builds and maintains ships and submarines for the Navy.

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Scores die in train accident in India: The toll is staggering

A fast moving train has run over a group of hindu pilgrims, killing over 37 people in eastern Indian state of Bihar. The train is said to have been moving at 80 km/h.

Officials said those hit killed by the train were some of the passengers who got out of the train and started moving on the track before they got run over near Dhamara, a small town in Bihar state. Thirty three other people sustained serious injuries in the accident that occurred early Monday.

The train burning

Railways spokesman Anil Saxena said that the train driver was lynched by angry mobs that later got all the passengers out of the train before setting some cabins ablaze.

By press time district officials were still at the scene and rescue operations under way. The death toll is still staggers as dozens of others are reported to be in critical condition.

Bodies lay beside the track

Meanwhile several dead bodies mainly of women and children laid beside the track. 

Sources: Aljazeera TV and eye witness.

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Singing is panacea for snoring

A study carried out by the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital has revealed that snoring can be reduced simply by singing.

For three months, the patients in the clinical trial have been doing singing exercises to improve the tone of their throat muscles.

Choir director Alise Ojay is the inventor of Singing for Snorers exercises.

She told Today BBC Radio presenter Evan Davis that she had found that patients who sung the sounds "ung" and "gar" found that their snoring decreased or stopped.

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Egypt political crisis under calamity: Anti-coup Alliance demands inquiry into deaths

A cluster of Anti-Coup Alliance calls for international analysis over the deaths of 36 protesters under police custody. This has forced cohorts of the deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to hold a formal investigation into the killing of 36 protesters in police custody while

Being transported in a police van. On addition to other horrific crimes committed by leaders of the 3rd of July coup". It’s said that the men were killed while being transferred to Abu Zaabal prison near Cairo in a convoy of about 600 detainees. The real account to the death is not yet addressed.  Since conflicting reports has it to what exactly lead to the deaths. "We approached the chief attorney and requested a commission be formed and as we speak, the chief prosecutor has not taken any steps." The group earlier alleged that their supporters were killed in cold blood, but Egyptian security forces said the protesters suffocated when tear gas was used to stop them from escaping.  The Anti-Coup Alliance leaders say that some of the bodies were seen at the morgue bore marks of violence. This statement blamed the military chief, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Mohammed Ibrahim, the interior Minister, who is in charge of the police, for Sunday's incident. "The initial reports from the Interior Ministry said that armed attackers had attempted to free the prisoners. This was then amended to the fact that prisoners being transferred from a police station to another prison had overcome one of the escorts, and they had to be attacked to free that particular escort. "Then the version emerged that prisoners who were being transported from a police station or stations to another prison tried to escape, and tear gas was used which led to loss of life." 'Evidence of assassination'  the Anti-Coup Alliance had said it had "obtained evidence of the assassination of anti-coup detainees in a truck transferring them to Abu Zaabal prison". "They were reportedly assassinated in their truck with live ammunition and tear gas fired from windows." Abu Zabaal was the scene of a mass breakout of prisoners in 2011 as police abandoned their posts during protests against former President Hosni Mubarak. On Sunday, Anti-Coup protesters broke a military curfew to march through Cairo, as the latest violence added to the rising death toll in days of unrest. On Saturday alone, clashes between Morsi supporters and police killed 79 people, according to a government tally released on Sunday and carried by MENA, raising the death toll for four days of unrest across the country to more than 800 people killed. About 70 police officers were killed in clashes with protesters or retaliatory attacks during the same period, according to the interior ministry. The military of deposed Morsi on 3 July, saying that the army could not ignore the millions of protesters who had been demanding the resignation of Egypt's first democratically elected president.

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California passes transgender bill

California has become the first US state to protect the rights of transgender people. The law will require all public schools to allow pupils from kindergarten to the 12th grade to have access to either male or female toilets depending on their liking. The law further allows transgender schoolchildren to play girl’s or boy’s sports. Legislators in support of the bill think it will minimize bullying and discrimination.

Other states like Massachusetts and Connecticut have policies giving the same protections, but California is the first to ratify and pass them into law.

After the passing of the bill, State Assembly Speaker John Perez said, they had distinguished themselves as transgender activists and that it put "California at the forefront of leadership on transgender rights".

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