Medical Team Remove 12 Centimeter Pin From Man's Privates

A four-member medical team at the Tamale TeachingHospital on Saturday successfully removed a 12-centimeter safety-pin from the penis of a 32-year old man.

Safety Pin.

The team, comprising two doctors, an anaesthetist and a nurse, used a surgical procedure called ‘open ureterolithotomy,’ which lasted for about 30 minutes.

Dr. Akis Afoko, a surgeon/urologist, who led the operation, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Tamale that for the sore to heal quickly the urinepassage had been diverted for a few days.

He said on September 12, the patient was admitted with the condition of a pin in his penis.

When asked about the cause, the patient, he said, initially said the pin was fixed in his bed spread but upon further query, he later confessed that he was masturbating with the safety pin.

Dr Afoko said the patient revealed that in the process of masturbating the pin moved deeper and close to the bladder.

He explained that the patient tried to get it out but the pin pierced the cavernous body, the opening of the genital.

Dr Afoko said the team also discovered that the patient was suffering from a psychological condition which needed immediate attention.

He advised those engaged in dangerous practices of masturbation to stop because they could end up impotent when their injuries were not properly treated.

Source: Ghana News Agency

RIP:Kenya's Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Wangari Maathai Is Dead

NAIROBI — Kenya's Wangari Maathai, who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her environmental work, has died of cancer, the campaigning movement she founded announced Monday.

Professor Wangari Maathai  April 1-1940-September 25-2011

"It is with great sadness that the family of professor Wangari Maathai announces her passing away on 25th September 2011 at the Nairobi hospital after a prolonged and bravely borne struggle with cancer," the Green Belt Movement said in a statement.

Born in 1940, Maathai became a key figure in Kenya since founding the movement in 1977, staunchly campaigning for environmental conservation and good governance.

Since its founding, her organisation has planted some 40 million trees across Africa. In the 1970s, she also headed the Kenya Red Cross.

Maathai won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her environmental work and reforestation in her native Kenya.

She was the first woman in east and central Africa to earn a PhD, and also the first African woman and Kenyan to receive the Nobel Peace prize.

Aside from her conservation work, Maathai was in 2002 elected an MP then named the environment assistant minister, a position which she held between 2003 and 2005.

Outside Kenya, Maathai was involved in efforts to save central Africa's Congo basin forest, the world's second largest tropical forest.

Maathai, who was divorced, leaves behind three children and a grandchild.

AFP.

Tens Feared Dead In Another Oil Tanker Explosion Tragedy Along Suo River, 20 Kilometres From Busia Town Along The Kenya-Uganda Highway.

By Marcel Masaga, 9:30 PM Tuesday, September 20, 2011.

File:Trailer Tanker On Fire.

Yet another fire tragedy has hit Kenya in the wake of the Sinai accident, as an out of control tanker carrying Super a highly inflammable petroleum product, explodes along a bridge on  River Suo in Busia County, Kenya. The 9:30 P.M accident  occurred at Suo River 12 kilometers from Busia Town, Busia County Along The Kenya-Uganda Highway on the frontier of Kenya  and Uganda.

At least four people have been confirmed dead .So far fifteen people with severe 3rd degree burns have been rushed to the nearby Busia District Hospital, the Busia Police Division OCPD Mr Micheni Muthamia has confirmed to a local FM station .So far the trailer is Still Burning and it  is feared that some fuel compartments might yet ignite.

                                                  File: Huge Oil Tanker Explosion

The trailer is said to have lost control while maneouvering through the notorious blackspot, that has claimed hundreds of lives in the recent past. Many more people, who had come to partake in the free fuel,  are now feared dead in the surrounding bushes rescue operations are still ongoing. We will keep you updated with this breaking story.

Offer Khweza Bed & Breakfast-A Top Accommodation Venue In Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa. Kenya Ngara Nairobi

Offer Khweza Bed & Breakfast-A Top Accommodation Venue In Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa. Kenya Ngara Nairobi

Gamers Solve AIDS Cure Puzzle Which Has Stumped Scientists For 20+ Years and In Under 10 Days.

Game of life: Foldit players can use different tools to interactively twist, jiggle and reshape proteins

Videogame players have solved a molecular puzzle that stumped scientists for years and could hold the key to finding a cure for AIDS.

A team of gamers needed just ten days to produce an answer to an enzyme riddle that had eluded experts for more than a decade.

The feat was accomplished using a collaborative online game called Foldit, which has been likened to Tetris and encourages players to fold a protein into intricate shapes.

'This is one small piece of the puzzle in being able to help with AIDS,' Firas Khatib, a biochemist at the University of Washington, the institution which invented the game, told MSNBC.

Mr Khatib is the lead author of a research paper on the project, published on Sunday by Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, which credits the gamers, mainly non-biologists, for the breakthrough.

The news is a boost for so-called citizen science, which enlists internet users to work on large-scale scientific tasks that sheer computer power cannot accomplish easily.

'People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at,' Seth Cooper, a UW computer scientist who is Foldit's lead designer and developer, explained. 'Games provide a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans.'

For more than a decade, an international team of scientists has been trying to figure out the detailed molecular structure of an enzyme from an AIDS-like virus found in rhesus monkeys.

Such enzymes, known as retroviral proteases, play a key role in the virus' spread - and if medical researchers can figure out their structure, they could conceivably design drugs to stop the virus in its tracks.

Scientists know the pieces that make up a protein but cannot predict how those parts fit together into a 3D structure. And since proteins act like locks and keys, the structure is crucial.

                                                          

                                                         Breakthrough: The gamers have solved a puzzle which could help cure AIDS

There are millions of ways that the bonds between the atoms in the enzyme's molecules could twist and turn. To design the right chemical key, you have to figure out the most efficient, lowest-energy configuration for the molecule.

No computer in the world is big enough for the challenge, and computers may not take the smartest approach. 

Tens of thousands of players have taken on the challenge of Foldit, which awards points based on the internal energy of the 3-D protein structure, dictated by the laws of physics. 

When someone playing the game comes up with a more elegant structure that reflects a lower energy state for the molecule, his or her score goes up.

The author list for the paper includes an acknowledgement of more than 57,000 Foldit players, which may be unprecedented on a scientific publication.

The monkey-virus puzzle was one of several unsolved molecular mysteries that a colleague of Mr Khatib's at the university, Frank DiMaio, recently tried to solve. 

'This was one of the cases where his method wasn't able to solve it,' Mr Khatib told MSNBC. So he and his colleagues put the puzzle to Foldit's teams to work on. 'This was really kind of a last-ditch effort,' he recalled. 'Can the Foldit players really solve it?

'They actually did it in less than 10 days,' Mr Khatib told MSNBC.

One piece in the puzzle: Firas Khatib, a biochemist at the University of Washington, the institution which invented the game said it was a boost for citizen-science

The final decisive move was performed by a player going only by the name 'mimi', who told MSNBC in an email that she had been playing the game for nearly three years since its inception in 2008.

'The game is not only an interesting intellectual challenge… but it also provides a unique society of players driven by both individual and team rivalry with an overall purpose of improving the game and the results achieved,' she wrote.

'I had looked at the structure of the options we were presented with and identified that it would be better if the 'flap' could be made to sit closer to the body of the protein… when I applied the same approach to the evolved solution that had been worked on by other team members, I was able to get it to tuck in.

'We were all very excited to hear that we had helped to find the answer to this crystal form, especially since it had been outstanding so long.'

Foldit has been well known in the scientific community for some time, even if it was not seriously thought of as a ground-breaking tool. 

But Principal investigator Zoran Popovic, a UW associate professor of computer science and engineering, told UW Today: 'I hope this paper will convince a lot of those people who were sitting on the sidelines, and the whole genre of scientific discovery games will really take off.'

Scientists are aware of the need to keep the game fun, though. 'Let's be honest, proteins aren't the sexiest video game out there,' Mr Khatib told MSNBC.

Source Daily Mail.

The New Windows 8-A First Look.

The Windows 8 Lock Screen.

For Windows to work on tablets and touchscreens, it needed to be designed with fingers, short battery life, and on-the-go tasks in mind.

Microsoft accomplished that with Windows 8 by redesigning everything, right through to the first screen you see before you log on. That "lock screen," which displays at boot-up and when the screen times out, shows quick-glance information about users' next calendar appointment, how many e-mails and messages they have, battery life and Wi-Fi signal strength.

Users navigate out of this lock screen to begin using applications with an upwards swipe of the finger, or a swing of the mouse.

                                                            The Windows 8 Start Screen.

Windows' new "Metro" user interface does away with the desktop and replaces it with the start screen. Customizable, interactive tiles replace icons.

But for those longing for a traditional desktop, never fear: Windows 8 still offers a point-and-click desktop that is similar to the experience in Windows 7. Users can navigate between the interfaces with the touch of a button, a click, or -- since this is a Microsoft product -- a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl - Page Down).

Windows 8 also offers a hybrid experience, allowing laptop and desktop PC users to navigate the Metro user interface with a mouse or a keyboard.

                                                       The Windows 8 File Management Screen.

Microsoft was among the first software companies to bring a graphical interface to file management. With Windows 8, users will be able to navigate through files with touches, drags, swipes and pinches.

The new user interface works particularly well with photos, which can be automatically synced with your other PCs as well as cloud-based services like Facebook and Flickr. That means photos uploaded to Facebook or stored on another computer will immediately populate on all of that user's Windows 8 devices.

                                                         The Windows 8 Applications Screen.

It's not just the operating system's user interface that comes in two flavors, Metro and desktop. Applications themselves will also be available in the two different formats.

The Metro applications, like Internet Explorer 10, pictured above, have a distinct touchscreen look and feel to them, simplifying the layout to just a few large buttons and boxes.

But if that doesn't suit you, users can quickly load their browser session -- or calendar, e-mail, etc. -- in desktop mode with a click of a button.

Many applications will have both Metro and desktop versions, but some apps will only work with Metro, and others will work exclusively on the desktop experience

The Windows 8 Apps And Keyboard.

Like a traditional desktop experience, Metro allows users to pin frequently used applications to the start screen and leave the rest in navigable folders and application lists.

For power users with hundreds of applications, that's where the keyboard can come in handy -- start typing, and Windows 8 immediately begins searching for the application you're looking for. Not searching for an app? You can make the computer search through settings, files, or the Web with a touch of a virtual button. Read More Here

Courtesy Of CNN Money.

Google Introduces Search By Image.

Google Search by Image

Now you can explore the web in an entirely new way by beginning your Google search with an image. Learn more about images on the web and your own photos.

Four Ways to Search by Google Image Search.

Drag and drop

Drag and drop an image from the web or your computer into the search box on images.google.com.

Upload an image

On images.google.com, click the camera icon, then select “Upload an image.” Select the image you want to use to start your search.

Copy and paste the URL for an image

Found an image on the web you’re curious about? Right-click the image to copy the URL. On images.google.com, click the camera icon, and “Paste image URL”.

Right-click an image on the web

To search by image even faster,download the Chrome extension or the Firefox extension. With the extension installed, simply right-click an image on the web to search Google with that image.

Courtesy Of Google

Bharti Airtel Kenya Launches Online Payment System - PayOnline Allows Mobile Subscribers To Purchase Online In Partnership With Standard Chartered Bank and MasterCard Worldwide.

Bharti Airtel Kenya Distinctive Logo.

KENYA/NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel Wednesday said that its African-arm has launched an online payment system - PayOnline that will allow its mobile subscribers to use handsets to make purchase online along with Standard Chartered Bank and MasterCard Worldwide. 

"While initially launched in Kenya, this product will soon be available across Africa," the company said in a statement. 

PayOnline will allow registered airtel consumers to make online purchases from any site where MasterCard is accepted. The customers will be able to request a one-time virtual card number with the amount of purchase. 

Airtel money services platform will generate a special 16 digit number that enables the completion of the transaction. On completion of the transaction, a confirmation message will be sent to the consumer's handset. 

"The sustained socio-economic changes witnessed in Africa over the last decade have shown that the continent has the ability to leapfrog conventional systems and embrace innovations on platforms such as the mobile phone," said N. Arjun, chief projects and transformation officer, Airtel Africa. 

The global opportunity for mobile payments is growing. According IE Market Research Corporation the global mobile purchases will reach $224.4 billion by 2014. 

The PayOnline solution is compatible with all mobile phones and operating systems via a configured update from Airtel customer service.








Economic Times India.

At Least Twenty Seven-27 Die After Consuming The 'yokozuna' Killer Brew In Kiamaina Slum Nyahururu, And Ruiru Kenya.

At least twelve people met their death in Kiamaina slums of Nyahururu district after ingesting an illicit local brew.

By Wangari Kanyongo,

And even before the nation comes to the reality of the trail of disaster left by the Sinal fire tragedy, death has come knocking once more.

The men succumbed to complications they developed after taking a new brew in the region known as Yokozuna.

9 people are still admitted at the Nyahururu and Ol kalou district hospitals where 7 of them have already gone blind.

Emotions ran high at Nyahururu Hospital as scores of relatives among them young mothers grieved the death of their young husbands whom they said had stopped working since the ‘yokozuna' brew, only introduced to the region last week.

It all began on Monday after two dead bodies were collected by the roadside at Kiamaina slum with foam oozing from their mouths.

Reports from the Olkalou police station indicate that four others had died over night and their bodies were collected in trenches where they fell as they went home with similar symptoms.

                               A Makeshift Factory Where The Killer Brews Are "Manufactured".

Eight other people at the slum who had been drinking together woke up complaining of stomach pains and were rushed to the Nyahururu district hospital in serious condition where four were admitted.

Six of the blind are at Olkalou Hospital while one is at Nyahururu district hospital where three more other are admitted in critical condition.

As residents of the slum threatened to demonstrate in the town against the brewers, Nyahururu District Commisioner Lucy Mulili ordered a crackdown on all drinking dens believed to be stocking the brew and other illicit drinks.

The Administration police managed to establish a depot believed to be distributing the brew which was broken into in the absence of its owners.

Speaking after confiscating over 100 cartons of the brew, the DC confirmed that the depot had no business license, health license and the brew had not been certified by the Kenya Bureau of standards.

                A Man Afflicted, Inebriated, Shunned  And Dispossessed After Over Indulging In A Yokozuna -Like  Drink In Kenya.

A raid on several bars in Nyahururu town enabled police to impound several cartons of Yokozuna where the plastic bottles had been pierced with a needle and dangerous concoctions added to the beer with syringes.

Other brews that were confiscated for lack of the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) label included Njamba, Sherehe, Tusky, Savana and Santana Ice.

On his part Nyandarua police boss Jaspher Ombati said the hauls would be taken to the Government chemist for analysis.

He appealed to the residents to stop taking taking adulterated brews.

Over 120 dead in Kenyan Pipeline Fire Explosion In Sinai, Lunga Lunga Slum Of Nairobi, Kenya.

NAIROBI — More than 100 people burned to death in a fire on a fuel pipeline in Sinai, Lunga Lunga slum area in the Kenyan Capital, three miles from the city center of Nairobi, police said Monday. 

"We are putting the number of dead at over 120, we are waiting for body bags to put the victims into," said Thomas Atuti, area police commander.

The explosion took place in Nairobi's Lunga Lunga industrial area, which is surrounded by the densely packed tin-shack housing of the Sinai slum.

"There had been a leak in the fuel pipline earlier, and people were going to collect the fuel that was coming out," said Joseph Mwego, a resident.

"Then there was a loud bang, a big explosion, and smoke and fire burst up high."

Many residents were caught up in the blaze, and an AFP reporter at the scene counted scores of charred bodies around the fire.

"People were trying to scoop fuel from the pipeline," a Red Cross official told AFP by telephone, adding that the organisation had sent a team to the scene of the fire.

Firefighters sprayed chemical foam to try to contain the fire, while both police and soldiers roped off the area and pushed people back from the area.

Fuel leaks and oil tanker accidents in Africa often draw huge crowds scrambling to scoop fuel, resulting in many deaths due to accidental fires.

In 2009, 122 people were killed after a fire erupted while they were drawing fuel from an overturned tanker in western Kenya.

AFP.

The Ferry M.V. Spice Islanders-Sinks Of The Island Of Zanzibar, Tanzania With 300 Feared Dead -The Boat Capsized Early 10th September 2011

By Marcel Masaga.

Details are still emerging with reports of emergency rescue crews descending into the isles surrounding Zanzibar  part of Tanzania in a bid to search and rescue the 610 people who were aboard the ill fated boat, the M.V. Spice Islanders. We will keep you updated with more details as this story develops.

The MV Spice Islander was so overloaded leaving Zanzibar's port it started to list and passengers scrambled to get off, but most were prevented and remained aboard for Tanzania's worst maritime disaster for 15 years.

Four hours after the ferry left on Friday, Abuu Masoud got a call from relatives as the ferry started to sink. They were among the nearly 200 people who perished in the fast Indian Ocean currents.

"We were woken up by phone calls from our relatives at around 1 a.m. telling us their ship was sinking ... At around 3 a.m., they told us the vessel had tipped over and they were standing on its back waiting for assistance," Masoud said.

"They told us there were about 25 to 30 of them who were left standing on the ship. At around 4 a.m., their phones were not reachable and we haven't seen or heard from them since," said Masoud, who lost seven relatives in the accident.

Zanzibar Police Commissioner Mussa Alli Mussa said early on Saturday that more than 500 people were on the ship's manifest. According to the registrar of Zanzibar's seafaring vessels, the MV Spice Islander was licensed to carry 600 passengers.

But by Saturday evening Zanzibar police said 192 bodies had been recovered, as well as 606 survivors, plucked from the sea after clinging for hours to strewn cargo, some floating on mattresses and hanging onto a fridge.

The police said more bodies were brought later to the Maisara grounds in Stone Town, where the victims were wrapped in black blankets and laid in rows for men, women and children.

Rescue workers said the death toll was likely to rise on Sunday because more bodies were trapped in the wreckage.

The ship began its voyage in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, where it was loaded with passengers, some motor vehicles, bags of food, cement and other building materials.

When the ferry reached the Zanzibar, also known as Unguja, it was loaded with more passengers and cargo for its ill-fated voyage to the smaller Pemba island in the Tanzanian archipelago.

LADDERS REMOVED

Some passengers began to fret as the ship started to list while still at dock.

"A few of the passengers managed to get off the ship after noticing that it was tilting," said Aze Faki Chande, a 27-year-old mother who lost her two children and a sister.

"We also tried to disembark, but the ship's crew quickly removed the ladder and started sailing toward Pemba," she said, lying on a mattress between beds at the crowded Mnazi Mmoja Hospital in Stone Town.

The Zanzibar government and aid workers set up tents and emergency lights at the Maisara grounds to help relatives search for their loved ones, but sent them home shortly before 10 p.m. telling them to return in the morning.

Some hastily buried their relatives as the bodies started to decay in the humid equatorial climate. By the time people were told to leave, around 10 bodies were yet to be identified. The authorities said they would bury them on Sunday.

SLIM HOPE FOR SURVIVORS

Zanzibar residents said ships plying the Unguja-Pemba route are notoriously overcrowded and there are few, or no, inspections to ensure their safety.

"These ships are death traps, which have been brought here to finish us all," said Nassoro Abdallah Nassoro, who said he lost five relatives in the accident.

"The ships sailing to Pemba are always so overcrowded, you can't even find a place to put a foot. We've always warned that such a tragedy would happen one day, but no one was listening."

The government declared three days of mourning starting on Sunday and President Jakaya Kikwete postponed a trip to Canada.

Doctors at the Mnazi Mmoja Hospital said many of the survivors were dehydrated and suffered physical wounds from being thrown around the cargo-laden ferry before it capsized.

"I have never seen anything like this in my life. It is highly unlikely that we will find any more survivors now," Hamid Saleh, a rescue workers at the Zanzibar port, told Reuters.

"Many of those who drowned were children who were returning to Pemba ready for the start of school after celebrating Eid in Unguja," he said.

Tanzania's worst maritime disaster was in May 1996 on Lake Victoria. The MV Bukoba ferry sank with as many as 1,000 people on board. Only 114 passengers survived and the captain and eight officials were charged with the murders of 615 people.

- Reuters