Top of the Morning: Experts Warn About TB; War Criminal Inside US Embassy

Top stories from DAWNS Digest

The Terminator Walks into the US Embassy…

…and asks to be handed over to the ICC. Though it is a relief that such an infamous criminal may finally be brought to justice, the move is puzzling and has analysts scrambling for an explanation. “[Ntaganda] denies charges of conscripting child soldiers, murder, ethnic persecution and rape. Those charges relate to his time as the leader of a militia in the north-eastern DR Congo between 2002 and 2003. Since then he has fought for other rebel groups in the region, as well as the Congolese army. Most recently he was believed to be one of the leaders of the M23 rebel group, which is fighting government troops in the east of the country. …On Sunday, the DR Congo government said Gen Ntaganda, who comes from the Tutsi ethnic group, had fled to Rwanda after he and some of his followers were apparently defeated by a rival faction of the M23 group.” (BBC http://bbc.in/YMgsTC)

TB: Invest Now or Pay More Later, Warn WHO and Global Fund

The spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in general is worrying enough; frankly, this is terrifying. They didn’t call it “consumption” for nothing. “TB is often seen as a disease of the past – but the emergence of strains that can not be treated by various drugs has turned it into one of the world’s most pressing health problems over the past decade. …In 2011, 8.7 million people fell ill with TB and 1.4 million died of the disease. The WHO says as many as 2 million people may be suffering from drug-resistant strains by 2015…[E]xtensively drug-resistant TB – which can evade even the most highly effective drugs – was reported in at least 77 countries in 2011, according to the WHO. Doctors in India have also reported cases of totally resistant TB, for which there are no effective drugs.” (AlertNet http://bit.ly/ZmxlEc)

Photo credit: AK Rockefeller