Gays dangerous than terrorists, says Bishop

By Patrick Beja

The gay movement in Kenya is posing greater threat to Christianity than terrorism.

Mombasa Anglican Church of Kenya Bishop Julius Kalu told a congregation including Gachoka MP Mutava Musyimi that Christians are confronted by “the enemies of the Church” mainly homosexuals and lesbians and terrorism was a lesser threat.

“Our greatest fear as Church should not be the grenade attacks, but the new teachings like same sex marriages,” Kalu said, urging Christians to be “spiritually fully armed” to confront the challenges. Kalu has been out of the country for about two months during which the debate on gay sex unions has raged across Coast Province where the practice is prevalent.

In April, a grenade attack on Christians killed one worshipper in Mombasa and on July 1, armed men massacred 17 people including a Muslim policeman in a hail of bullets on two churches in Garissa.

Big enemies
On Sunday, Kalu and Musyimi said Christians are now living in fear after the attacks and are not keen to attend Sunday service.

Kalu said terror attacks and the crusade for gay unions are twin challenges the church must confront.
He said church attendance has dropped in recent times.

“The congregation does not close eyes in prayer for fear of grenade attacks,” Kalu said during a Sunday sermon at ACK Memorial Cathedral, on Sunday. The clergyman said the Church should be more worried about the new liberal teachings allowing same sex marriages.

Kalu said the gay movement has popularised a new moral logic that is threatening to cripple the Church by introducing “unacceptable teachings” in the name of freedom of worship and association and asked Christians to stand up against the “unholy wave”.

“Christians must be fully armed spiritually as it is only divine intervention that will enable the country overcome these challenges,” Kalu said.

 “The Church is at war with enemies of the faith,” Kalu said. The enemies are the people who wanted to change the Christian doctrine.

Source

Case that could reverse gains in war against HIV

By Dann Okoth Kenya and the rest of the developing world is staring a drugs procurement crisis in the face after a multi-national drugs manufacturer moved to court to stop the production of generic medicines by Indian drugs companies.

India is often called the ‘pharmacy of the developing world’ because it produces affordable generic versions of medicines that are used the world over.

More than 80 per cent of the antiretroviral medicines (ARVs) used by organisations involved in HIV and Aids programmes in Kenya come from producers of generics based in India, just as 80 per cent of the ARVs purchased with donor funds globally come from India.

Deathly blow
But if Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation of Switzerland succeeds in its suit lodged at India’s Supreme Court and whose hearing started on July 10 — it could see prices of essential medicines such as ARVs and cancer drugs skyrocket by more 1,200 per cent — dealing a deathly blow to cancer patients and some 500,000 people in Kenya already on life-sustaining HIV treatment.

 “It would be a disaster,” declares Jennifer Cohn of Medecins Sans Frontieres’ (doctors without borders). “More than 80 per cent of the ARVs used by MSF in its HIV and Aids treatment programmes in Kenya come from producers of generics based in India, we also rely on Indian generics for malaria and tuberculosis treatments a change in the patent laws and hence tougher rules on generics production would be devastating,” she adds.

India became the key producer of affordable medicines because until 2005, the country did not grant patents on medicines, allowing generic manufacturers to freely produce more affordable versions of medicines patented elsewhere.

Fierce competition among producers drove prices down dramatically – whereas ARVs for one person per year cost US$10,000 in 2000, today, they cost just less than one per cent of that figure.

India had to start granting patents for medicines in 2005 because of its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organisation. This means that price-busting competition between generic and originator drug producers will be blocked for drugs that receive patents – for example, for several newer medicines to treat HIV and Aids.  

Patent law
When designing its patent law, however, India decided only drugs that show an improved therapeutic effect over existing ones deserve patents. This part of the law – ‘Section 3d’ – intends to prevent companies from continually extending their 20-year drug patents by making minor changes or improvements – a process called ‘evergreening’.

Along these lines, the Indian patent examiner in 2006 rejected the patent that Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis sought for the leukemia drug Imatinib mesylate (marketed as Glivec), because it was based on a compound that already existed.

Novartis claims that Imanitib mesylate has 30 per cent increase in bioavailability — the body’s ability to absorb the drug — and should therefore deserve a patent under the terms of ‘increased efficacy’.
In response to its drug patent being rejected, Novartis took the Indian government to court in 2006, not only challenging the rejection of its patent, but also the part of India’s law, Section 3(d,) that formed the basis of the decision.

Lower the bar
By challenging the interpretation of section 3(d), Novartis is seeking to lower the bar on patentability in India and force the country to grant more patents. Indeed if Section 3d were overturned, it would mean patenting would become much more widespread in India, severely limiting the production of more affordable generics.

The protracted legal battle saw Novartis file a case in the Madras High Court in 2006 challenging the constitutionality of section 3d. However, in 2007 they lost in the High Court in Chennai which, in a landmark decision, decided to uphold the constitutionality of Section 3d of India’s Patents Act.
The company was also unsuccessful in its appeal before the Intellectual property Appellate Board (IPAB) in June 2009 to overturn the patent rejection of Imanitib mesylate.

However, having never given up Novartis again brought a new case to India’s Supreme Court (the county’s highest judicial authority) trying to attack and weaken the interpretation of Section 3d.
A narrow or a broad interpretation is likely to have a significant impact on the patents regime in India. What the court decides will then be applied to any subsequent application for any patent for any drug.

After a series of false starts and delays throughout 2011 and 2012, final arguments started on July 10 in India’s Supreme Court in New Delhi with stakeholders in the health and pharmaceutical sectors crossing their fingers.

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Kenya stocks at 1-year high, shilling flat

By Beatrice Gachenge NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Kenyan stock market rose 1 percent to a year high on Thursday, as investors anticipated positive results at the beginning of the corporate earnings period, while the shilling traded flat, supported by tax payments. On the Nairobi Securities Exchange, the main NSE 20-Share index rose to 3,825.93 points, a level last seen on July 21 2011. "The earnings season has kicked off and what can be seen, is guys taking positions," said Samora Kariuki, an analyst at NIC Securities. The country's No. 2 cement manufacturer, Athi River Mining, was the top gainer of the main index, rising 8.8 percent to 198 shillings, while beer maker East African Breweries rose 1.3 percent to 227 shillings. On the foreign exchange market at the 1300 GMT close, the shilling was at 84.10/20 to the dollar, barely moved from Thursday's close of 84.05/25. "(Shilling) Tax payments went through and that tightened the market," said Chris Muiga, a trader at Kenya Commercial Bank, adding that that caused the central bank to stay out of the repurchase agreement market for first time this week. Traders, who had expected money supply of 6 billion shillings from maturing repos of various durations in the session, said payment of value added taxes due on Friday, had seen companies withdraw money from banks, reducing excess supply of shilling. The central bank has regularly drained excess shillings from the market this year through seven-day, 14-day, 21-day and 28 day repurchase agreements, underpinning the currency, which has strengthened by 1 percent against the dollar so far this year. In the last eight sessions, the bank has absorbed 24.73 billion shillings. Commercial banks have shunned the debt market in favour of repos after yields on government paper fell as the central bank cut key lending rates. On Thursday, yields on Kenya's 91-day Treasury bill rose to 12.929 percent at in an oversubscribed auction, from 12.001 percent previously. The bank said it received bills worth 4.2 billion shillings for the 3 billion shillings worth of debt on offer, a 140 percent subscription rate. It accepted bids worth 2.9 billion shillings. The yields were still well below last year's rates, which reached about 20 percent. Traders had anticipated that the central bank would push liquidity back to the debt market, after months of low subscription rate, due to low yield. Ignatius Chicha, head of markets at Citibank said the central bank was likely to push liquidity back to the debt market by propping up yields to converge with repo rates, probably at 13 percent and by dropping repo rates. In the debt market, government bonds worth 1.06 billion shillings were traded, down from 1.94 billion shillings previously, with most activity on the 12-year infrastructure bond at a yield of 12.35 percent. Source

Nairobi: Rage as husband meets wife in lodging

By Allan Olingo A married couple busted each other when they bumped into each other at the same lodging in Mlolongo town on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway. The little town, which is just a collection of shops and pubs spread on both sides of the highway, is popular with amorous track drivers and married men and women with secrets to hide. According to Salma, an eyewitness in Mlolongo, husband and wife separately hooked up with their respective clandestine lovers a fortnight ago. “They both checked into the same guest house and proceeded to their respective rooms with their clandestine lovers in tow. But hours later, hell broke loose,” Salma offers. Apparently that evening, the guesthouse experienced power outages and as the woman came out of the shower, the lights went out. Wrapped in a towel, she walked to the main reception to enquire what was a miss. But in a twist of fate, “Her husband also came out in a pair of shorts and an unbuttoned shirt and headed straight to the reception to for the same reason,” says Salma. Scream Forgetting that each was guilty, they both demanded to know what the other was doing at the lodge before throwing caution to the wind and wrestling each other to the ground. “I just saw the woman scream and grab her husband who slapped her hard out of fury,” Salma reports. “The lovers who were still in the room were attracted by the loud confrontation only to find man and wife tearing into each other. They both quickly slipped through the door and disappeared in the darkness as the couple beat the hell out of each other,” Salma says. ”You lied to me that you would be at the project site this evening supervising the construction of our house,” the woman shouted at her husband who was also trying to get answers from her. Apparently, the woman has been secretly entertaining her young lover, not knowing that the husband also frequented the same lodging with a clandestine lover. The couples were thrown out of the lodging by the management as curious onlookers enjoyed the free evening drama. More

Ethiopian PM in Critical Condition

European media are reporting that Ethiopia's longtime Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is hospitalized in critical condition, contrary to statements by the government. News reports say the prime minister is hospitalized at Saint Luc Hospital in Brussels. The hospital on Wednesday declined to say if Mr. Meles is there. In interviews with VOA, government officials and a former ruling party leader confirmed the prime minister is sick. But they denied reports that the 57-year-old leader is gravely ill. The officials did not indicate the nature of Mr. Meles' illness. An official with the Ethiopian Embassy in Kenya said Mr. Meles is “a little bit sick” and “exhausted,” but added Prime Minister Meles will be back at work soon. Mr. Meles' friend and former ruling party leader, Sibhat Nega, told VOA the prime minister will be back in Ethiopia within a week. He has not been seen in public for at least two weeks. The government had scheduled a news conference Wednesday afternoon, but it was cancelled without explanation. Nega said the government has been functioning normally during the prime minister's absence. The parliament passed the prime minister's budget on Monday. Nega said if anything happens to the prime minister, the parliament will choose a new leader after the ruling party presents its candidate. All but one of the members of Ethiopia's Parliament are part of the ruling party TPLF. More

Merkel: Circumcision Ban Makes Germany ‘Laughing Stock’

Chancellor Angela Merkel REUTERS Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that Germany could become a laughing stock if it fails to overturn a district court ban on circumcision that has enraged Jews and Muslims, reports Reuters. Merkel's government has already criticised the Cologne court ruling and promised a new law to protect the right to circumcise male infants, but the conservative leader's strong comments underline how sensitive Germany is to charges of intolerance because of its Nazi past. "I do not want Germany to be the only country in the world where Jews cannot practise their rituals. Otherwise we will become a laughing stock," the Bild daily quoted Merkel as telling a closed meeting of her Christian Democrats (CDU). Joerg van Essen, parliamentary floor leader of Merkel's junior coalition partner the Free Democrats, told the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper that the new law would be introduced in the autumn. The main political parties represented in Germany's parliament were negotiating the text of a resolution late on Tuesday that would exempt from punishment circumcision of under-age boys, parliamentary sources told Reuters. The parties want to pass the resolution on Thursday when the lower house, the Bundestag, interrupts its summer recess to vote on a bailout for Spanish banks. The Cologne court, ruling in the case of a Muslim boy who suffered bleeding after circumcision, said the practice inflicted bodily harm and should not be carried out on young boys, but could be practised on older males who give consent. This is not acceptable under Jewish religious practice, which requires boys to be circumcised from eight days old, nor for many Muslims, for whom the age of circumcision varies according to family, country and branch of Islam. Jewish and Muslim groups have branded the court ruling an attack on their religious freedom and Jewish leaders say it could even threaten the continued existence of their community in Germany - a disturbing claim for a country still haunted by the Nazis' murder of 6 million European Jews in the Holocaust. But the court ruling has drawn support from some, including Britain's Secular Medical Forum, which has written to Merkel urging her to resist pressure to make non-consensual circumcision lawful. "We are shocked that religious groups deny the harm (caused by circumcision) and at the distorted and disingenuous claims made by those opposing the court's decision, wrongly suggesting that it is an indication of anti-Semitism," the chairman of the Secular Medical Forum, Dr. Antony Lempert, said in the letter. "We urge you not to let such emotional blackmail persuade you to change the law or criticise the court's decision. As it stands, the court's decision ensures that today's children will be free to grow up to make their own decisions," it said. Echoing such comments, Ronald Goldman, head of the U.S.-based Jewish Circumcision Resource Center, which opposes the practice, cited studies he said show that circumcision causes considerable pain and trauma.

Lawmaker: Give Germans subsidy to visit Greece

A German lawmaker is suggesting giving holidaymakers a subsidy to visit Greece and other ailing southern European economies. The Associated Press Berlin A German lawmaker is suggesting giving holidaymakers a subsidy to visit Greece and other ailing southern European economies. Erwin Lotter of the Free Democrats says a government-sponsored vacation voucher would help boost the economies of the struggling countries, while helping to lift the mood in Germany where rainy weather has dampened public spirits this summer. The idea floated by the lawmaker has been enthusiastically reported by German media, but seems unlikely to gain wider traction in Parliament, which is currently on its summer break. Germany, the richest economy in the 17-country eurozone, has to pay proportionately more than others in Europe's bailouts.