Archive for month: August, 2014

An experimental US Ebola vaccine is to be trialed on humans at the country’s National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s campus in Bethesda, Maryland next week.

The NIH announced that it is launching the safety trial on a vaccine developed by the agency’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and GlaxoSmithKline.

It will test 20 healthy adult volunteers to see if the vaccine is safe and triggers an adequate response in their immune systems.

NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said the vaccine had worked in tests on monkeys.

“All the other monkeys, the control monkeys, that were given a lethal dose of Ebola all died. All of the animals who were vaccinated survived. So the results were pretty crisp and clear cut,” he said.

Later in September, the NIH and a British team will test that vaccine on volunteers in the United Kingdom, Gambia, and Mali.

Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, and sweat. It has killed around two-thirds of those it has infected over the last four decades, with two outbreaks registering fatality rates approaching 90 percent.

There is currently no known cure for Ebola. Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are grappling with the disease, which has also spread to Nigeria.

According to the World Health Organization, the Ebola epidemic has killed more than 1,400 people in four West African countries – Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

HN/HJL

A Norwegian doctor who served Palestinians during the recent Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip has urged the removal of the Israeli blockade on the coastal enclave.

“All of these injuries, every single death is man-made and totally avoidable, so every time I gave an interview about Gaza and I was asked what is needed, I said don’t send syringes, don’t send medical teams, don’t send bandages, stop the bombing, lift the siege and give the Palestinian people human rights and protection from occupants. That is at the end of day the most important medical effort to save lives in Gaza,” Dr. Mads Gilbet told Press TV during a gathering in South Africa’s capital, Cape Town.

During the gathering, Gilbert gave South Africans a first-hand account of the Gazans’ plight and urged action in support of the Palestinians.

South Africans also showed their solidarity with the Palestinians, saying they are planning to send ambulances and medical supplies to the impoverished Gaza Strip.

Gilbet, who is a strong supporter of the international “boycott Israel” campaign, says that, as world powers still turn a blind eye to the Israeli war crimes, it is only the people of the world who can force the Tel Aviv regime to end its atrocities against the Palestinians.

On Tuesday, Palestinian resistance groups and Israeli officials clinched a deal on a permanent ceasefire in the blockaded Gaza Strip, which is home to around 1.8 million Palestinians. The ceasefire stipulates the ease of Israel’s seven-year-old blockade of Gaza as well as the provision of a guarantee that Palestinian demands will be met.

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said the deal marks a victory.

Israel launched military strikes against Gaza in early July. At least 2,140 Palestinians, including around 570 children, were killed in the Israeli onslaught on Gaza. Some 11,000 others were wounded.

DB/HJL

Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khaled Meshaal has flatly rejected any attempts to disarm the Palestinian resistance movement.

“The weapons of the resistance are sacred and we will not accept that they be on the agenda” of future talks with the Tel Aviv regime, Meshaal said at a press conference on Thursday.

“The issue is not up for negotiations. No one can disarm Hamas and its resistance,” he added.

The senior Hamas official further congratulated the Palestinian people on their “victory” in fighting against the Israeli regime’s onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip, saying, “The people of Gaza have become a symbol of steadfastness and an honorable example to all the world. All Palestinians in Gaza and free people in the world are partners in this victory.”

Meshaal also praised the Palestinian resistance movements for emerging triumphant from the fight against the Israeli aggression, saying that the 50-day bloody offensive has “proven that the resistance cannot be blockaded.”

On Tuesday, Palestinian resistance groups and Israeli officials clinched a deal on a permanent ceasefire for the Israeli war on the blockaded Gaza Strip. The truce stipulates the ease of Israel’s seven-year-old blockade as well as the provision of a guarantee that Palestinian demands will be met.

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said the deal marks a victory.

“Today we declare the victory of the resistance, today we declare the victory of Gaza,” Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said.

Israel launched an aerial military campaign against Gaza in early July and later expanded its operation with a ground invasion.

At least 2,140 Palestinians, including around 570 children, were killed in the Israeli onslaught on Gaza. Some 11,000 others were wounded.

Tel Aviv says 69 Israelis were killed in the conflict, but Hamas puts the number at more than 150.

IA/MHB/SS

Latest figures and surveys show consumer confidence continues to drop in Italy, Press TV reports.

Italian consumer confidence index dropped in August for the third month in a row, reaching its lowest level since April.

Economic experts say the drop was due to the declining perceptions of the current economy and the lower expectations of future economic conditions.

Italy has fallen back into recession for the third time in five years in an unexpected setback that threatens to restrain the eurozone’s economic recovery

The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.2 percent in the second quarter of this year, meaning Italy is officially back into recession again.

Analysts say the new recession is a major blow to the administration of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who had earlier said his country planned to lead by example on growth.

Latest surveys show Italians expect unemployment to continue to rise and see no pick-up in consumer prices. The Press TV correspondent said no reforms which can bolster the economy are in sight.

Italian unions and opposition parties have said the new figures show Renzi has failed to address the problems of the country. Many blame the government’s prolonged focus on austerity policies and tight budget controls for holding back economic growth.

Over the past decade, Italy has been the slowest-growing economy in the eurozone as tough austerity measures, spending cuts and pension changes have stirred serious concerns for many people in the country.

Italians have been staging protests against high unemployment and economic hardship caused by a series of government-imposed austerity packages in recent years.

JR/MHB/SS

Iraqi Kurdish forces have recaptured seven villages from the grip of the ISIL Takfiri militants near a strategic dam in the northern city of Mosul.

“Peshmerga forces have secured seven strategic villages surrounding the Mosul Dam from the north,” the official Iraqi TV channel, al-Iraqiya, reported on Thursday.

Peshmerga forces liberated the village of Mahmoudia, near the northern border town of Rabia, as a result of which “the largest dam in Iraq and surrounding areas are now under control,” an Iraqi official said.

Peshmerga troops also pushed the Takfiri terrorists out of the Ain Zalah oil field near the city of Zumar.

Elsewhere, Iraqi military sources said a major operation against the ISIL terrorists was underway in the Shia Turkmen town of Amerli in the northern province of Salahuddin, where government forces have killed 29 ISIL Takfiris.

Since early this year, Iraq has been facing growing militancy by the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group and its allied militants, who have taken over areas in the west and north of the country. The crisis has deteriorated since June, when the ISIL declared a so-called caliphate in the territories they have seized.

The ISIL terrorists have been committing heinous crimes in the areas they have taken, including the mass execution of civilians and Iraqi army forces.

The Iraqi army, backed by Kurdish forces and thousands of volunteers, is engaged in fierce fighting with the ISIL militants to push them out of the captured areas.

IA/MHB/SS