US Ebola patient dies in hospital

The first person to be diagnosed with Ebola within the US has died, Texas hospital officials announced today.

"It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning at 7:51 am," a spokesman said in a statement.

Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, who caught the virus in his native Liberia, was being treated with experimental drugs in isolation in a Dallas hospital.

Duncan, who worked as a driver for a courier company, tested positive in Dallas, Texas, on 30 September, 10 days after arriving on a flight from Monrovia via Brussels.

He become ill a few days after arriving in the US but even after going to hospital and telling medical staff he had been in Liberia he was sent home with antibiotics.

Twitter sues US government over surveillance laws.

Twitter has filed a lawsuit against the US government in which it asks to be allowed to publish information about government surveillance of users, the company announced today

The suit, filed by the San Francisco-based social networking company in the US District Court of Northern California, says that US government prohibitions on sharing the nature of some of its demands for Twitter user data violate the First Amendment's free speech clause .

Twitter legal counsel Ben Lee said in a blog post that the firm believes that current government restrictions on transparency are preventing tech companies from being fully honest with the public.

Today in History October 08

Coat of arms

October 8 is the 281st day of the year. There are 84 days remaining until the end of the year.

Today's Highlight in History 1991 – Croatia votes to sever constitutional relations with Yugoslavia, rendering the country fully independent.

Flag

Republic of Croatia is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic at the crossroads of Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean. Its capital city is Zagreb, which forms one of the country's primary subdivisions, along with the twenty counties. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres (21,851 square miles) and has diverse, mostly continental and Mediterranean climates. Croatia's Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The country's population is 4.28 million, most of whom are Croats, with the most common religious denomination being Roman Catholicism.


The Croats arrived in the area of present-day Croatia during the early part of the 7th century AD. They organised the state into two duchies by the 9th century. Tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Peter Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir. Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the unrecognised State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs which seceded from Austria-Hungary and merged into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. A fascist Croatian puppet state existed during World War II. After the war, Croatia became a founding member and a federal constituent of Second Yugoslavia, a constitutionally socialist state. In June 1991, Croatia declared independence, which came into effect on 8 October of the same year. The Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration.

Banski dvori, former seat of Croatian bans and current seat of the government

Croatia today has a very high Human Development Index rank. The International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high-income economy. Croatia is a member of the European Union(EU), United Nations (UN), the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean. As an active participant in the UN peacekeeping forces, Croatia has contributed troops to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan and took a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2008–2009 term.

The service sector dominates Croatia's economy, followed by the industrial sector and agriculture. Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world. The state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatia's most important trading partner. Since 2000, the Croatian government has invested in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Internal sources produce a significant portion of energy in Croatia; the rest is imported. Croatia provides a universal health care system and free primary and secondary education, while supporting culture through numerous public institutions and through corporate investments in media and publishing.
-.Wikipedia

World Events 

1856 – The Second Opium War between several western powers and China begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River.
1860 – Telegraph line between Los Angeles and San Francisco opens.
1871 – Four major fires break out on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Peshtigo, Wisconsin, Holland, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan including the Great Chicago Fire, and the much deadlier Peshtigo Fire.
1932 – The Indian Air Force is established.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of Crucifix Hill occurs just outside Aachen. Capt. Bobbie Brown receives a Medal of Honor for his heroics in this battle.
1952 – The Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash kills 112 people.
1962 – Algeria joins the United Nations.
1969 – The opening rally of the Days of Rage occurs, organized by the Weather Underground in Chicago.
1970 – Vietnam War: In Paris, a Communist delegation rejects US President Richard Nixon's October 7 peace proposal as "a manoeuvre to deceive world opinion".
1974 – Franklin National Bank collapses due to fraud and mismanagement; at the time it is the largest bank failure in the history of the United States.
1978 – Australia's Ken Warby sets the current world water speed record of 317.60 mph at Blowering Dam, Australia.
1982 – Poland bans Solidarity and all trade unions.
1982 – Cats opens on Broadway and runs for nearly 18 years before closing on September 10, 2000.
1990 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: In Jerusalem, Israeli police kill 17 Palestinians and wound over 100 near the Dome of the Rock mosque on the Temple Mount.
1991 – Croatia votes to sever constitutional relations with Yugoslavia, rendering the country fully independent.
2001 – A twin engine Cessna and Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) jetliner collide in heavy fog during takeoff from Milan, Italy, killing 118 people.
2001 – U.S. President George W. Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security.
2005 – 2005 Kashmir earthquake: Thousands of people are killed by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

Ethiopian Airlines Win Best Airline in Africa Award

Ethiopian Airline

Ethiopian Airlines has won the Passenger Choice Award for "Best Airline in Africa" for the second time at the Airline Passenger Experience (APEX) EXPO, held recently in California.

The Passenger Choice Award created by a US-based Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) was meant to give a voice to airline passengers. It encompasses a survey of passengers in 13 languages, and it is the customers themselves who rate airlines based on their overall experience.

Famous word from the pulpit

Pastor Chris Oyakhilome

Pastor Chris declared to his congregation through a live telecast:


"There are preachers and there are men of God. I am not a preacher; I am a man of God, and I go in the way I'm asked to go. You have to understand something about a man of God. A man of God is not just someone who worships God or preaches God. A man of God is handpicked by God, set on course by God. If you study the scriptures, you will not find one man of God go against God, sinning against God."

Today in History October 07

October 7 is the 280th day of the year. There are 85 days remaining until the end of the year.

Royal Dutch Airlines
Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij

Today's Highlight in History 1919 – KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands, is founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.


Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. (Royal Dutch Airlines), best known by its initials KLM, is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM's headquarters is in Amstelveen near its hub at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. KLM operates scheduled passenger and cargo services to more than 90 destinations worldwide. It is the oldest airline in the world still operating under its original name. As of 2013 it had 32,505 employees.

In 1919, a young aviator lieutenant named Albert Plesman sponsored the ELTA aviation exhibition in Amsterdam. This aviation exhibition was a great success, and, after closure, several Dutch commercial interests had the intention to establish a Dutch airline. Plesman was nominated to head this new airline.In September 1919, Queen Wilhelmina awarded the yet to be founded KLM its "Royal" ("Koninklijke") predicate. On October 7, 1919, KLM (which is the abbreviation for Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij which literally means Royal Airlines in English) was founded by Albert Plesman in The Hague as one of the world's first commercial airline companies.

The first KLM flight took place on 17 May 1920. KLM's first pilot, Jerry Shaw, flew from Croydon Airport, London to Amsterdam. The flight was flown using a leased Aircraft Transport and Travel De Haviland DH-16, registration G-EALU, and was carrying two British journalists and a number of newspapers. In 1920, KLM carried 440 passengers and 22 tons of freight. In April 1921, after a winter hiatus, KLM resumed its services using its own pilots and aircraft: Fokker F.II and Fokker F.III. In 1921, KLM started scheduled services.

Air France-KLM

                                                                                     

On 30 September 2003, Air France and KLM announced and agreed to a merger plan in which Air France and KLM would become subsidiaries of a holding company called Air France-KLM.

The merger which is incorporated under French law with headquarters at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport stipulated that both Air France and KLM would continue to fly under their distinct brand names as subsidiaries of the group. Air France and KLM are part of the SkyTeam alliance, the second largest in the world behind only the Star Alliance.
-Wikipedia

World Events 

1826 – The Granite Railway begins operations as the first chartered railway in the U.S.
1862 – Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) opens as the first hospital in the Canadian province of British Columbia
1870 – Franco-Prussian War – Siege of Paris: Léon Gambetta flees Paris in a hot-air balloon.
1919 – KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands, is founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.
1933 – Air France is inaugurated, after being formed by a merger of 5 French airlines.
1944 – World War II: During an uprising at Birkenau concentration camp, Jewish prisoners burn down the crematoria.
1949 – The communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is formed.
1955 – American poet Allen Ginsberg performs his poem Howl for the first time at the Six Gallery in San Francisco..
1959 – U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits the first ever photographs of the far side of the Moon.
1960 – Nigeria joins the United Nations.
1963 – John F. Kennedy signs the ratification of the Partial Test Ban Treaty.
1971 – Oman joins the United Nations.
1993 – The flood of '93 ends at St. Louis, Missouri, 103 days after it began, as the Mississippi River falls below flood stage.
1996 – The Fox News Channel begins broadcasting.
1998 – Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten by two young adults in Laramie, Wyoming.
2001 – The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan begins with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.
2003 – The govenor of California, Gray Davis, is recalled in favor of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Today in History October 06

October 6 is the 279th day of the year. There are 86 days remaining until the end of the year.

Coat of arms

Fijian mountain warrior, 1870s

Republic of Fiji

Flag

Today's Highlight in History 1987 – Fiji becomes a republic.





Republic of Fiji is an island country in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,100 nautical miles(2,000 km; 1,300 mi) northeast of New Zealand's North Island. Its closest neighbours are Vanuatu to the west, New Caledonia to the southwest, New Zealand's Kermadec Islands to the southeast, Tonga to the east, the Samoas and France's Wallis and Futuna to the northeast, and Tuvalu to the north.

Huts in the village of Navala in theNausori Highlands

The British granted Fiji independence in 1970. Democratic rule was interrupted by two military coups in 1987 precipitated by a growing perception that the government was dominated by the Indo-Fijian (Indian) community. The second 1987 coup saw both the Fijian monarchy and the Governor General replaced by a non-executive president and the name of the country changed from Dominion of Fiji to Republic of Fiji and then in 1997 to Republic of the Fiji Islands. The two coups and the accompanying civil unrest contributed to heavy Indo-Fijian emigration; the resulting population loss resulted in economic difficulties but ensured that Melanesians became the majority.

In 1990, the new constitution institutionalised ethnic Fijian domination of the political system. The Group Against Racial Discrimination(GARD) was formed to oppose the unilaterally imposed constitution and to restore the 1970 constitution. In 1992 Sitiveni Rabuka, the Lieutenant Colonel who had carried out the 1987 coup, became Prime Minister following elections held under the new constitution. Three years later, Rabuka established the Constitutional Review Commission, which in 1997 wrote a new constitution which was supported by most leaders of the indigenous Fijian and Indo-Fijian communities. Fiji was re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations.

Nadi airport - Arrivals

Fiji has one of the most developed economies in the Pacific island realm due to an abundance of forest, mineral, and fish resources. Today, the main sources of foreign exchange are its tourist industry and sugar exports. The country's currency is the Fijian dollar. Fiji's local government, in the form of city and town councils, is supervised by the Ministry of Local Government and Urban Development.
=.Wikipedia

World Events

1777 – American Revolutionary War: General Sir Henry Clinton leads British forces in the capture of Continental Army Hudson River defenses in the Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery.
1789 – French Revolution: Louis XVI returns to Paris from Versailles after being confronted by the Parisian women on 5 October
1849 – The execution of the 13 Martyrs of Arad after the Hungarian war of independence.
1876 – The American Library Association was founded.
1884 – The Naval War College of the United States Navy is founded in Newport, Rhode Island.
1889 – American inventor Thomas Edison shows his first motion picture.
1903 – The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.
1908 – Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina, sparking a crisis.
1927 – Opening of The Jazz Singer, the first prominent talking movie.
1976 – Massacre of students gathering at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand, to protest the return of ex-dictator Thanom, by a coalition of right-wing paramilitary and government forces, triggering the return of the military to government.
1977 – In Alicante, Spain, fascists attack a group of MCPV militants and sympathizers, and one MCPV sympathizer is killed.
1977 – The first prototype of the Mikoyan MiG-29, designated 9-01, makes its maiden flight.
1979 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit the White House.
1981 – Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat is murdered by Islamic extremists.
1987 – Fiji becomes a republic.
1995 – 51 Pegasi is discovered to be the second major star apart from the Sun to have a planet orbiting around it.
2000 – Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević resigns.
2000 – Argentine vice president Carlos Álvarez resigns.
2002 – The French oil tanker Limburg is bombed off Yemen.
2007 – Jason Lewis completes the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe.