Kioo17 Journal

Dhaka, BANGLADESH: Nusrat Jahan Rafi was doused with kerosene and set on fire at her school in Bangladesh. Less than two weeks earlier, she had filed a sexual harassment complaint against her headmaster. Her courage in speaking out against sexual assault, her death five days after being set alight and everything that happened in-between has gripped Bangladesh and brought attention to the vulnerability of sexual harassment victims in this conservative South Asian country. Nusrat, who was 19, was from Feni, a small town 100 miles (160km) south of Dhaka. She was studying at a madrassa, or Islamic school. On 27 March, she said the headmaster called her into his office and repeatedly touched her in an inappropriate manner. Before things could go any further she ran out. Many girls and young women in Bangladesh choose to keep their experiences of sexual harassment or abuse secret for fear of being shamed by society or their families. What made Nusrat Jahan different is that sh...

Iranian boxer Sadaf Khadem poses in the locker room after winning the fight against French boxer Anne Chauvin during an official boxing bout in Royan, France, in this April 13, 2019, file photo.   Image:Reuters . Paris, FRANCE: Sadaf Khadem, who on Saturday became the first Iranian woman to contest an official boxing bout, has canceled her return to Tehran after an arrest warrant was issued for her there, her representative said on Wednesday. An arrest warrant was also issued against Mahyar Monshipour, the Iranian-born former boxing world champion who set up the bout in western France and was planning to travel back to Iran with Khadem this week, the representative, Clara Dallay, told Reuters. Monshipour is a French citizen. On Saturday, Khadem beat local boxer Anne Chauvin in an amateur bout. The 24-year-old, who was in Paris on Monday, was returning to Monshipour’s home town of Poitiers. Franco-Iranian relations are in a tense phase after comments by Fran...

Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez, 23 May 1949 – 17 April 2019)  was a Peruvian politician who served as President of Peru from 1985 to 1990 and again from 2006 to 2011.  He was the second leader of the Peruvian Aprista Party and the only party member ever to have served as President. Image: REUTERS/Guadalupe Pardo/File. Lima, PERU: Peru’s ex-president Alan Garcia has died after shooting himself as police arrived to arrest him in a bribery probe. He was taken to hospital in a critical condition in Lima but later died, according to the leader of Garcia's political party. "This morning a dramatic accident took place: the president took the decision to shoot a bullet (in the head),"  his lawyer, Erasmo Reyna, told journalists outside the hospital. The 69-year-old was president of Peru from 1985 to 1990 and again between 2006 and 2011. Police arrived at Garcia's home around 13.30 CEST on Wednesday, according to AFP news agency. He was set to be ...

The ANC has described a spelling error on one of its billboards in Nelson Mandela Bay as mere "human error" on the part of one of its service providers. The error will not "derail" the party and the immediate removal of the billboard will "kill the campaign of the opposition," the party's regional task team said on Tuesday. News24 previously reported that the posters, showing President Cyril Ramaphosa's smiling face, urged citizen: "Let's grow South Africa togher." The last word should have read "together". In response to the buzz generated by the discussion on social media, the ANC released a statement that contained spelling errors of its own. In it, the party said it "notes with concern, a billboard containing a misspelling of ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa encouraging people to vote for the ANC". "The ANC makes use of service providers to put up it's (sic) billboards and have (sic) note...

Rodgers Ssekawoko Muhumuza, left, checked Owamani Bruce for pneumonia with a portable ultrasound scanner in the Kabale district in western Uganda. Bushoro, UGANDA : Lying on a church pew with his arm over his head, 6-year-old Gordon Andindagaye whimpered a bit — in fear, not pain — as Dr. William A. Cherniak slowly swept a small ultrasound scanner up and down his chest. Dr. Cherniak and Rodgers Ssekawoko Muhumuza, the Ugandan clinical officer he was training, stared at the iPhone into which the scanner was plugged, watching Gordon’s lung expand and contract. “O.K.,” Dr. Cherniak finally said. “What do you recommend?” Gordon had a persistent cough and swollen lymph nodes, and looked tired and unwell. As other boys ran around outside, kicking a soccer ball made of rags and twine, he clung weakly to his mother. The scan on the iPhone’s screen suggested his lungs had fluid in them. As Dr. Cherniak nodded approval, Mr. Muhumuza prescribed an antibiotic, and ordered bloo...

Kigali, RWANDA : Rwanda’s president has pardoned hundreds of girls and women jailed for abortion. The women are expected to be released immediately under the presidential prerogative . “Pursuant to the powers conferred upon him by the laws … the president of the republic informed the cabinet meeting that he has exercised his prerogative of mercy and pardoned 367 persons convicted for the offences of abortion, complicity in abortion and infanticide,”  read a statement published after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, when the decision was approved. “The government has proven once again that Rwanda is a cradle of women’s rights,” said Athanase Rukundo, director of programmes at Health Development Initiative, a human rights organisation. “We are very pleased by the decision taken by the president, Paul Kagame, as it reflects the rights and freedoms of women and girls enshrined under the constitution of Rwanda, regional and international human rights instruments, and par...

Accra, GHANA: It may probably sound like a fairy tale to hear there exists a woman who has more than one vagina and one womb, but Elizabeth Amoah has lived with this condition for quite some time and has now decided to let the world know about it. Speaking on Ghana famous Radio Station, 3FM ’s Drive with Giovani Caleb over the week Elizabeth, also known as ‘Special Lady’, disclosed she has had to undergo seven medical surgeries after she was diagnosed of having sexual complications. “I discovered I had a double womb and a double vagina canal in 2015 after an MRI scan, so I had to undergo about 7 surgeries,”  she told Giovani Caleb. The scan, according to her, also detected she had Endometriosis: a sexual disorder in which tissues linings of the uterus grows outside the uterus. She explained having a double vagina means “having one vagina outside and the other inside”. She added that the double womb usually does not come with any symptoms but rather expos...

California, UNITED STATES: The world's largest airplane -- a Stratolaunch behemoth with two fuselages and six Boeing 747 engines -- made its first test flight on Saturday in California. The mega jet carried out its maiden voyage over the Mojave desert. It is designed to carry into space, and drop, a rocket that would in turn ignite to deploy satellites. It is supposed to provide a more flexible way to deploy satellites than vertical takeoff rockets because this way all you need is a long runway for takeoff. It was built by an engineering company called Scaled Composites. The aircraft is so big its wing span is longer than a football field, or about 1.5 times that of an Airbus A380. Specifically, the wing span is 117 meters; that of an Airbus A380 is just under 80. The plane flew Saturday for about two and a half hours, Stratolaunch said. Until now, it had just carried out tests on the ground. It hit a top speed of 304 kilometers per hour (189 mph) and...

Julian Assange gestures from a police vehicle on his arrival at Westminster Magistrates court in London. Julian  Paul Assange born Julian Paul Hawkins on 3 July 1971  is an Australian journalist , computer programmer and the founder and director of WikiLeaks .   He is currently in police custody in London, England after having been arrested on 11 April 2019 by the Metropolitan Police Service for breaching his bail conditions in December 2010.  Immediately before his arrest, he had been under the protection of Ecuador as an asylum seeker, and had been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012. Image: Getty. London, UNITED KINGDOM : Ecuador’s former regime reportedly tolerated Julian Assange smearing poop on the walls of their London embassy before he was evicted by the new government, an official from the South American nation said. Ecuador’s Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo made the startling claim about the WikiLeaks founder’s p...

John Pombe Joseph Magufuli (born October 29, 1959) is the fifth president of United Republic of Tanzania. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from University of Dar es Salaam.He  previously been a Member of Parliament (MP) for four terms(from 1995-2015) before he was elected as the president in 2015 General election. Image: BBC. Iringa, TANZANIA: The President of United Republic of Tanzania, Dr.John Pombe Magufuli has called on the minister of water and irrigation Professor Makame Mbarawa to be strictly regulating projects aimed by the government. As he was in ongoing presidential tour in Njombe region, the highlands of southern Tanzania President Magufuli has explored various projects including opening the road from Mafinga to Igawa which is 138.7 km. In addition, Magufuli has expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of some water projects in Tanzania.  As a joke, President Magufuli asked the Minister of Water Professor Mbarawa to smoke marijuana in ord...