Nigeria a newcomer in list of deadliest countries for journalists

Index of most dangerous countries for journalists. (Committee to Protect Journalists)

Nigeria is a new addition to the list of the most dangerous countries in which to be a journalist, joining mainstays such as Pakistan, Somalia and Mexico.

Five journalists in Nigeria have been murdered since 2009. None of the cases have been solved.

“Investigations into these killings are usually carried out with sloppiness, and no real culprits are caught," said Ayode Longe, a senior officer with the Media Rights Agenda, a press freedom group in Nigeria. “That has emboldened others to assault journalists, believing nothing would be done to them."

The global index is released each year by the Committee to Protect Journalists and calculates unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country's population.

The index also found soaring impunity rates in Somalia, Pakistan, and Brazil.

The CPJ said conditions for journalists are improving in Nepal and Russia, "although both nations remain dangerous for the press."

The analysis founds increasing anti-press violence in Somalia, Pakistan, and Brazil, where national leaders are unwilling or unable to address the issue. In Somalia, 23 journalist murders have gone unsolved over the past decade.

The CPJ report highlights the cased of Wali Khan Babar, a journalist with Geo TV in Pakistan who was murdered in 2011.

While several suspects connected to one of the country’s leading political parties, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, are facing trial, the prosecution has been hindered by the murders of five people connected to the investigation, including witnesses and police officers.

In November 2012, an eyewitness was gunned down two days before he was due to give testimony, the CPJ said.

Iraq is said to be the most dangerous country in which to be a journalist. Over the past 10 years, there have been 93 unsolved killings of journalists in the country of 33 million. Somalia was ranked No. 2, followed by the Philippines, where 55 journalists have been murdered without any convictions in the country of 94 million.

Rick Westhead is a foreign affairs writer at the Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

Training rats in Tanzania to detect tuberculosis

 

NPR's excellent health blog, Shots, has a post today that alerted me to a living, breathing, four-legged tool for diagnosing tuberculosis in low-resource areas: rats.

More specifically, giant African pouched rats -- a rodent that is native to most of Africa and has an excellent sense of smell.

Journalist and photographer Jonathan Kalan reports that a nonprofit organization called APOPO, which has been using the animals for landmine detection, is teaching giant African pouched rats to sniff out tuberculosis in samples of human sputum (mucus from the upper airways).

Kalan explains:

"The team trains the critters with a Pavlovian click-and-reward approach. When the rats are just a few weeks old, technicians teach the animals to associate a click sound with a small bite of mashed bananas and a special pellet of food. The next step is to link the scent of TB with the reward."

Basically, if the rats smell Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a sputum sample, they will pause over it; if they don't, they move on. (For more information, APOPO's website has a helpful infographic that explains how the process works).

Kalan interviewed chemist Negussie Beyene, who said that APOPO's trained rats (they have 54, according to the website) can accurately sniff out a TB sample roughly two-thirds of the time. When two or three rats are used, however, the accuracy rate increases to about 80 per cent.

Some rats are already being put to work at a lab in Morogoro, Tanzania, Kalan reports. And not only are the four-legged helpers catching positive samples being missed by lab workers, the smell test works much faster than microscopy -- the rodents can evaluate up to 200 samples in a session and one particular rat, named Harod The Rat, can perform 10 evaluations in just 20 seconds.

At least one study has shown that the rats can improve TB detection by 31.4 per cent. APOPO researchers have also published a paper about the use of rats in TB detection that includes some interesting data, which you can check out here.

Jennifer Yang is the Star’s global health reporter. She previously worked as a general assignment reporter and won a NNA in 2011 for her explanatory piece on the Chilean mining disaster. Follow her on Twitter: @jyangstar

Crowdsourcing for climate change

Would you like to know how climate change is affecting peoples' lives in Africa? Do you want to hear about it from the people who live there?

Then the documentary film series Youth Climate Report is for you.

But wait, the series has yet to be made. And it needs your help.

The series is about $2,500 short of its target. The series — produced in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme and Youth Climate Report, a new agency with roots in Toronto — presents the latest climate research as reported by youth from around the world to international policymakers at UN conferences.

The campaign is hosted by Catalyst, a crowdfunding initiative of the Centre for Social Innovation. Its goal is to raise $7,500 in a month and with two days to go, nearly $5,000 has been raised.

“I’m overwhelmed by the support our project has received,” YCR founder John Kelly said in a statement. “A total of 64 backers from around the world are supporting us, with more expected. We have received contributions ranging from $1 to $1000.”

The funds are being raised to establish a country starter kit for Ghana. The kit will provide training to local youth reporters so they can participate in a dialogue with researchers about the effects of climate change in their country. The starter kit will be a model for other countries to use in setting up their own productions.

The film series is the third in a successful partnership between UNEP and the producers of The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning (COP15, Copenhagen, 2009) and The Polar Explorer (COP16, Cancun, 2010).

When this series is done, it will premiere at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in November in Warsaw, Poland.

The campaign closes May 3 at 7 p.m. To contribute, go to: click here.

Raveena Aulakh is the Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact, now and long-term, and wildlife. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

Elephant meat now on the menu as poaching grows

(Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images)

There were up to 5 million elephants in Africa 70 years ago. Today, just several hundred thousand are left and in the past year, an estimated 32,000 elephants were killed for their ivory.

There is more bad news. World Wildlife Fund and World Conservation Society say that pachyderms are being slaughtered in huge numbers in the Central African Republic.

The two agencies say they have received “alarming reports from their field operations” that elephants are being slaughtered in the violence-ridden country as a new government scrambles to take control of the situation.

CAR has been plagued with violence for decades but things came to a head in March when rebels seized control and the president Francois Bozize fled the capital, Bangui.

Due to the violence and chaos in the area, the exact number of elephants being slaughtered is not known, says WWF.

The agency says it has confirmed that forest elephants are being poached near the Dzanga-Sangha protected areas, a World Heritage Site. What is worse is that elephant meat is reportedly being openly sold in local markets and is available in nearby villages. “The security situation is preventing park staff from searching the dense forest for elephant carcasses,” says WWF.

WWF and WCS have worked in CAR since the 1980s and have called on the country and its neighbours to immediately increase security to protect the people and elephants.

Black-market ivory sells for about $1,300 per pound.

Wildlife experts say that illegal ivory trade is hastening the decline of already endangered elephants throughout Africa.

Raveena Aulakh is the Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact, now and long-term, and wildlife. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

Students win $25K for developing anti-malaria soap

Billions of dollars have been spent battling malaria, a mosquito-borne disease which the World Health Organization estimates killed 660,000 people in 2010, most of them African children.

While malaria continues to be a plague for which there is no failsafe remedy, researchers have made inroads.

One recent cause for hope is an effort financed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others to genetically engineer mosquitoes and prevent the transmission of malaria.

Another is the fact that countries continue to invest in fighting the disease. In 2011, the amount spent on the disease rose to $1.8 billion, compared with $100 million in 2000, according to the WHO's 2012 annual report on malaria.

Now, add another reason for hope: a pair of African students have created a soap made from karate citronella and other herbs that repels malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

Moctar Dembélé, from Burukina Faso, and Gérard Niyondiko, from Burundi, are students at the International Institute of water and environment in Burkina Faso and have won a $25,000 Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) award prize for their creation, according to a report on Ventures Africa, a website that reports on small business and entrepreneurship in Africa.

Dembélé and Niyondiko are the first non American-born citizens to win the social venture competition, Ventures Africa reports.

Rick Westhead is a foreign affairs writer at the Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

PHOTO: A polio vaccine in Somalia

A Somali baby receives a polio vaccine at the Medina Maternal Child Health centre in Mogadishu, Wednesday. On the eve of the Global Vaccine Summit in Abu Dhabi and coinciding with World Immunization Week, authorities in Somalia, which has one of the lowest immunization rates in the world, have launched a new push to vaccinate against several potentially fatal childhood diseases. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Women-led startups outperform rivals: study

Here’s some advice for venture capital funds looking to turn a profit on upstart businesses: bet on women.

According to a new study released by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy that analyzed 90,000 deals in the U.S. from 2000 to 2010, venture capital funds that invest in women-led companies had better results than those that didn’t.Women-owned businesses account for 28.7 per cent of U.S. companies and are a fast growing entrepreneurial sector.

Georgia topped U.S. states in the growth of female-owned businesses, reports the Atlanta Business Chronicle, which first reported on the study. Those firms performed well even though they received less private equity funding than their rivals, the study said.

The U.S. study’s results are hardly isolated.

In India, a recent study of nine Indian companies run by the female women managers outperformed the 30 leading listed firms on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Over five years through 2008, the nine companies had a compounded annual growth rate of around 35 per cent in pretax income, compared to 21 per cent for the BSE-30 firms.

In fact, many non-profit charities have made it a priority to focus on helping to finance female entrepreneurs. For good reason. The International Monetary Fund forecasted last year that Africa would have the fastest-growing economy of any continent over the next five years, and many new entrepreneurs in Africa are women.

The rate of female entrepreneurship is higher in Africa than in any other region of the world, The New York Times reported last year, citing World Bank statistics.

Rick Westhead is a foreign affairs writer at the Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

Madonna versus Malawi

Madonna visiting an orphanage in Malawi. (AP Photo/Thoko Chikondi)

The mud slinging between Madonna and Malawi continues. 

The BBC is reporting that President Joyce Banda is furious that her office without her permission accused the American superstar of demanding VIP treatment and exaggerating her contribution to helping Malawi's poor. 

The controversy started with a withering statement that said Madonna thinks the government "should have rolled out a red carpet and blast the 21-gun salute in her honour because she believes that as a musician, the whiff of whose repute flies across international boundaries, she automatically is candidate for VVIP treatment." 

Now Joyce Banda is "incandescent with anger" the BBC reports. But the anger is qualified. 

Emily Banda, head of Malawi's NGO board, told the broadcaster  although the president "did not approve" or was aware of the statement, there would be no apology either. Some of the criticism of Madonna's charity work was justified, she said.

The original, 11-point statement accused Madonna of overstating her contribution to educating Malawi's children.  

"For her to tell the whole world that she is building schools in Malawi when she has actually only contributed to the construction of classrooms is not compatible with manners of someone who thinks she deserves to be revered with state grandeur. The difference between a school and a class room should be the most obvious thing for a person demanding state courtesy to decipher."

Madonna is hitting back. She issued a statement through her charity Raising Malawi saying the accusations were "lies" and that she was proud of the 10 schools she had built which were teaching 4,800 kids.  

"I have no intentions of being distracted by these ridiculous allegations. I came to Malawi seven years ago with honorable intentions. I returned earlier this month to view the new schools we built. I did not ever ask or demand  special treatment at the airport or elsewhere during my visit. I will not be distracted or discouraged by other people’s political agendas. I made a  promise to the children of Malawi and I am keeping that promise.”

Hamida Ghafour is a foreign affairs reporter at the Star. She has lived and worked in the Middle East and Asia for more than 10 years and is the author of a book on Afghanistan. Follow her on Twitter @HamidaGhafour

At Chris Hani's gravesite, President Jacob Zuma takes a swipe

A shop in Johannesburg sells Zuma Shower Gel, a gag gift produced after the president said in 2006 that he stood little chance of contracting HIV/AIDS from an HIV-positive woman -- who was not his wife -- because he had showered well after having had sex with her. (Bill Schiller/Toronto Star)

They came to honour the late, great Chris Hani – not to bury him.

That happened 20 years ago this week, after Hani, one of South Africa’s most charismatic anti-apartheid leaders ever, was shot to death outside his home by a Polish immigrant working in league with a white racist politician.

But even at the slain hero’s gravesite on Wednesday, South African President Jacob Zuma – there to lead a commemoration ceremony – couldn’t resist escalating a war of words with his popular Planning Minister Trevor Manuel.

Last week, Manuel, who has never shied from speaking truth to power, told a conference in Pretoria that the time had come to stop blaming apartheid for everything wrong with the country, and start taking responsibility for the delivery of services.

“We – government – should no longer say it’s apartheid’s fault,” the popular minister said. “We should get up every morning and recognize that we have a responsibility.

“There is no longer the (P.W.) Botha regime looking over our shoulder. We are responsible ourselves.”

In the view of many, it was just the kind of butt-kicking honesty the Zuma government needed. And what could be better than having it come from inside the belly of the beast?

We wrote extensively last year about the mounting frustration inside South Africa about the corruption and incompetence of the Zuma government.

Some wonder how a country that has produced four Nobel Peace Prize winners (Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela) could elect the likes of a Zuma to the highest office in the land.

And so on Wednesday President Zuma didn’t disappoint those who have low expectations of him. Rather than wait for another time and another venue to strike back at Manuel, Zuma lashed out, taking some of the sacred shine off the day.

“To suggest that we cannot blame apartheid for what is happening in our country is a mistake,” he said.

“I’m just underlining the point because it became topical in the last few days,” he added as his staff and supporters sniggered nearby.

Nearly 19 years after South Africa’s first democratic elections, poverty, unemployment and inequality continue to dominate black life.

Related: How South Africa's dream turned into a grim reality.

Bill Schiller has held bureau postings for the Star in Johannesburg, Berlin, London and Beijing. He is a NNA and Amnesty International Award winner, and a Harvard Nieman Fellow from the class of '06. Follow him on Twitter @wschiller

Uganda's #SavetheMiniSkirt

Idi Amin would be pleased -- and likely thankful he didn't have to deal with Twitter.

Uproar over Uganda's proposed anti-pornography law banning "provocative" dress continues this week after the Mail and Guardian reported that women wearing miniskirts could be thrown in jail for 10 years.

According to Simon Lokodo, Uganda's ethics and integrity minister, short skirts are considered "indecent dressing."

"One can wear what one wants, but please do not be provocative," Lokodo, a former Catholic priest, is quoted as saying in the South African newspaper. "We know people who are indecently dressed: they do it provocatively and sometimes they are attacked. An onlooker is moved to attack her and we want to avoid those areas. He is a criminal but he was also provoked and enticed."

The suggestion that victims of sexual violence provoke attacks sparked social media rage and the Twitter hashtag #SavetheMiniSkirt (plus #SaveMiniSkirt and #AntiPornBillUg).

Perhaps Lokodo could have looked to Canada to anticipate how his comments would be received. Two years ago, a Toronto police officer suggested to a university audience that women should avoid dressing like "sluts" in order not to be victimized.

Women, first in Canada, then the U.S. and around the world, organized "SlutWalk" marches to raise awareness about sexual violence ... and to protest misogynist remarks.

 

Michelle Shephard is the Star's National Security correspondent and author of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a three-time recipient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. Follow her on Twitter @shephardm