The Libyan Uprising Photo Gallery, 2911, The Christian Science Monitor,

Libya uprising

Image  23 / 30 :  The burned-out People's Hall, the main building for government gatherings where the country's equivalent of a parliament holds sessions several times a year, stands in Tripoli, Libya, on Feb. 21. AP

Libya uprising

Image  15 / 30 :  Antigovernment demonstrators listen to a Friday prayers speech in Benghazi on Feb. 25. Libya's rebellious city of Benghazi has filled a political void with a coalition which is cleaning up, providing food, building defenses, reassuring foreign oil firms, and telling Tripoli it believes in one nation. The city paid a high price for the revolt with up to 250 dead. Asmaa Waguih/Reuters

Libya uprising

Image  11 / 30 :  Libyan anti-government protesters, some carrying monarchist-era flags, chant slogans as they demonstrate against Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in Nalut, Libya, on March 1. The town is currently in control of the Libyan anti-government forces. Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

Libya uprising

Image  7 / 30 :  An anti-Qaddafi rebel holds his antiaircraft missile in the oil town of Ras Lanouf, Libya, on March 6. Hussein Malla/AP

Libya uprising

Image  20 / 30 :  Protesters riding in the back of a vehicle display the victory sign in Benghazi, Libya, on Feb. 21. Libyan protesters celebrated claiming control of the country's second largest city after bloody fighting and antigovernment unrest spread to Tripoli. Alaguri/AP

Libya uprising

Image  5 / 30 :  Anti-Qaddafi rebels pray at a checkpoint at Ras Lanuf, Libya, on March 10. The rebel leadership said that the oil port of Ras Lanuf in eastern Libya is under heavy bombardment. Asmaa Waguih/Reuters

Libya uprising
Image 3 / 30 : Students chant anti-Qaddafi slogans during a demonstration in Benghazi, Libya, on March 13. Hundreds of students took to the streets protesting what they called the Libyan leader's war crimes and demanding that the international community impose a no-fly zone over Libya. Nasser Nasser/AP

Libya uprising

Image  16 / 30 :  On Feb. 25, mourners carry coffins containing the bodies of Libyans who were killed in the recent clashes in Benghazi. Suhaib Salem/Reuters

Libya uprising

Image   15 / 30 :  Antigovernment demonstrators listen to a Friday prayers speech in Benghazi on Feb. 25. Libya's rebellious city of Benghazi has filled a political void with a coalition which is cleaning up, providing food, building defenses, reassuring foreign oil firms, and telling Tripoli it believes in one nation. The city paid a high price for the revolt with up to 250 dead. Asmaa Waguih/Reuters

Libya uprising

Image  12 / 30 :  Unidentified pro-Qaddafi security forces stand near a checkpoint on a street in Qasr Banashir, Libya, on March 1. Government opponents in rebel-held Zawiya repelled an attempt by forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi to retake the city closest to the capital in six hours of fighting overnight, witnesses said. Ben Curtis/AP

Libya uprising

Image  8 / 30 :  A rebel fighter fires his rifle at a military aircraft loyal to Qaddafi at a checkpoint in Ras Lanouf, Libya, on March 7. Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

Libya uprising

Image  6 / 30 :  Two Libyan rebels load an antiaircraft gun cartridge by the entrance of Ras Lanuf, Libya, on March 10. Qaddafi's forces pushed rebel fighters from the strategic oil port of Ras Lanuf on March 10, driving the opposition from the city with a withering rain of artillery fire. Nasser Nasser/AP

Libya uprising

Image  4 / 30 :  Pro-Qaddafi fighters raise their fists in victory during a government-organized visit for foreign media near Ras Lanuf, Libya, on March 12. The world moved closer to a decision on imposing a no-fly zone over Libya while Qaddafi advanced on the poorly equipped and loosely organized rebels who have seized much of the country. Ben Curtis/AP

Libya uprising

Image  21 / 30 :  Protesters stand on a tank holding a pre-Qaddafi era national flag inside a security forces compound in Benghazi, Libya, on Feb. 21. Alaguri / AP

Libya uprising

Image 2 / 30 : Two Libyan rebels check two Libyan passengers riding in a vehicle that is crossing toward Egypt near the border town of Musaed, Libya, on March 16.

Libya uprising

Image   17 / 30 :  Gunmen prepared to fight against Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi stand on a small military truck with weapons taken from a Libyan military base, in Benghazi, Libya, on Feb. 24. Hussein Malla/AP

Libya uprising

Image  13 / 30 :  A pro-Qaddafi Libyan soldier sits in an armored vehicle next to a mosque in Qasr Banashir, Libya, on March 1. Ben Curtis/AP

Libya uprising

Image  9 / 30 :  Anti-Qaddafi rebels fire multiple rockets during a battle against pro-Qaddafi fighters near the town of Bin-Jawad, Libya, on March 6. Hussein Malla/AP

Libya uprising

Image  22 / 30 :  On Feb. 22 in Benghazi, Libya, a placard shows photos of some of those who have died in Libyan antigovernment protests. Alaguri/AP

Libya uprising

Image   18 / 30 :  On Feb. 25, protesters against Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi pray next to coffins containing the bodies of Libyans who were killed in the recent clashes. Suhaib Salem/Reuters

Libya uprising

Image  14 / 30 :  Bangladeshi workers who have been trying to leave Libya for more than six days wake up in the morning in a makeshift tent as they wait to be evacuated in Benghazi, Libya, on March 1. Tara Todras-Whitehill/AP

Libya uprising

Image  10 / 30 :  Smoke rises following an air strike by Libyan warplanes near the anti-Qaddafi rebels' checkpoint in Ras Lanouf, Libya, on March 7. Libyan rebels say they are regrouping after forces loyal to Qaddafi pounded opposition fighters with helicopter gunships, artillery, and rockets to stop the rebels' rapid advance toward the capital. Hussein Malla/AP

Libya uprising

Image   19 / 30 :  Egyptians who used to work in Libya and fled the unrest in the country wait for their breakfast in a makeshift refugee camp set up by the Tunisian Army at the Tunisia-Libyan border in Ras Ajdir, Tunisia, on Feb. 25. Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

Libya uprising

Image  24 / 30 :  Antigovernment protesters demonstrate in Tripoli, Libya, on Feb. 22 in this image taken from television. APTN/AP

Libya uprising

Image  25 / 30 :  Buildings burn at the entrance to a security forces compound in Benghazi, Libya, on Feb. 21. Alaguri/AP

Libya uprising

Image  26 / 30 :  A girl perched in a car window displays the victory sign in Benghazi, Libya, on Feb. 21. Alaguri/AP

Libya uprising

Image  27 / 30 :  A protester stands on top of a burned guard post at the entrance to a security forces compound in Benghazi, Libya, on Feb. 21. Alaguri/AP

Libya uprising

Image   28 / 30 :  An army soldier and antiregime protesters pose for photos in front of a tank in the early hours of Feb. 22 in Benghazi, Libya. Alaguri/AP

Libya uprising

Image  29 / 30 :  This image was taken from a broadcast on Libyan state television on Feb. 22. Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi appeared for less than a minute to say that he was in Tripoli and to deny rumors he had fled to Venezuela amid the unrest sweeping his country. Libyan State Television/AP

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December 24, 2015, The Christian Science Monitor, 200 Islamic extremist fighters split from rebels, pledge allegiance to IS, by Tom Odula, Associated Press,

AFRICA200 Islamic extremist fighters split from rebels, pledge allegiance to IS,

By Tom Odula, Associated Press DECEMBER 24, 2015

About 200 Islamic extremist fighters have split from Somalia's Al Shabab rebels, who are allied to Al Qaeda, and have instead pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, Kenya's police chief saidThursday.

An armed member of the militant group Al Shabab attends a rally in support of the merger of the Somali militant group Al Shabab with Al Qaeda, on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia, in 2012. The defections of two American Islamic extremist fighters in Somalia highlight tensions within the insurgent group Al Shabab over whether it should remain affiliated to Al Qaeda or switch allegiance to the Islamic State group, according to an AlSShabab commander Dec. 8, 2015.




NAIROBI, KENYA — About 200 Islamic extremist fighters have split from Somalia's Al Shabab rebels, who are allied to Al Qaeda, and have instead pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, Kenya's police chief said Thursday.

The splinter group is operating around the Somali border in Kenya's north, and has carried out at least two attacks in the last two weeks, killing one soldier and two civilians in Mandera County, Joseph Boinett told the Associated Press.The split in Al Shabab poses an extra challenge for Kenya's security forces, Mr. Boinnet said. Among those who have joined the pro-IS faction of Al Shabab is Mohamed Kuno, alias Gamadhere, who is wanted for the April 2 attack by Al Shabab gunmen on Kenya's Garissa University in the country's east, in which 148 people were killed, Boinnet said.
Recommended: Kenya: Amid fear and flight, a Muslim minority embraces self-sufficiency

Al Shabab has vowed retribution on Kenya for sending troops to Somalia to fight the Islamic extremists. Kenya has experienced a series of Al Shabab attacks since it sent its troops to Somalia in 2011.

The defections are causing tensions within Al Shabab.

Two men, an American citizen and U.S. resident, defected from Al Shabab and surrendered to Somali authorities earlier this month fearing they would be killed by their former colleagues on suspicion that they are IS supporters. Al Qaeda and Islamic State are rivals for jihadi recruits.

In October, Nigeria's Boko Haram extremists urged Al Shabab rebels to join them in pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and thus abandon Al Qaeda.

The appeal from an unidentified armed fighter is part of a wider courting of Al Shabab. Similar messages came nearly two weeks ago from militant extremists in Iraq, Sinai, Syria, and Yemen.

Abraham & Isaac

17th or 18th-Century Chinese Export Plate Depicting Yahweh's Command to Abraham to Sacrifice His Son Isaac,

Smallpox

A child infected with smallpox in Bangladesh, 1973. Patients with ordinary-type smallpox usually have bumps filled with a thick and opaque fluid, often alongside a depression or dimple in the center. This is a major distinguishing characteristic of the disease. Source: Wikipedia - Smallpox,







Two-year old Rahima Banu of Bangladesh (pictured) was the last person infected with naturally occurring Variola major, in 1975


Research Notes for Anthrax Attack Challenged, by Dahbud Mensch, Archived,


March 4, 1979, AP - Lawrence Journal-World, page 6B, Smallpox virus escapes; Tragedy trails lab's error,

February 17, 2011, BBC News, Smallpox: Eradicating the Scourge, by Colette Flight, Archived,

June 2, 2011, Birmingham Mail, When Birmingham was gripped by deadly smallpox virus, diigo, Archived,

Professor Henry Bedson was committed to finding out more about the deadly smallpox virus.

It was 1978 and it seemed the disease and its various strains, such as white pox and monkey pox, was on the verge of extinction.

For centuries smallpox had rampaged across the world and was the curse of both the rich and poor.

Bedson, a medical researcher at Birmingham University Medical School, had been working with other specialists and he told friends he was on the brink of a major breakthrough.

The World Health Organisation wanted him to continue his research but they were not satisfied with the condition of his laboratory facilities.

The lab was due for closure and Bedson knew he would not receive any further funding so he worked more rapidly, storing more samples and increasing the likelihood of an accident.

Conditions were not as stringent as now, but researchers were still confident that the virus could not escape the confines of the lab.

However, minute particles crept into an airduct which led directly up to the room where Janet Parker worked.

The Kings Norton photographer regularly used a darkroom above the research laboratory used by Bedson.

On August 11 1978, Mrs Parker fell ill. She initially thought it was a cold, but then she developed spots and the symptoms got worse.

She was first admitted to East Birmingham (now Heartlands) Hospital, and six days later diagnosed as suffering from smallpox, even though she had been vaccinated 12 years previously.

Health officials now had a major alert on their hands and Mrs Parker was placed in isolation at the previously redundant Catherine-de-Barnes hospital in Solihull.

Bedson and his family were placed in quarantine at their family home in Harborne and 500 other people were also isolated.

When smallpox was diagnosed, Bedson was horrified. Friends said he was a broken man. He took his work very seriously and felt he had done nothing which could have resulted in the tragedy.

His home and family were besieged by camera crews and reporters and the pressure on him became unbearable.

On September 1, while his wife was taking a telephone call, the professor walked out to his garden shed and cut his throat.

He survived in hospital for five days but became the first fatality of the outbreak – killed not by the virus he battled to defeat for so long, but by the panic it caused.

In a suicide note he apologised to his family and friends for the strain he had placed them under.

It read: “I am sorry to have misplaced the trust which so many of my friends and colleagues have placed in me and my work and above all to have dragged into disrepute my wife and beloved children. I realise this act is the last sensible thing I have done but it may allow them to get some peace.”

Just four days later, Mrs Parker’s father, Fred Whitcomb, died of a heart attack. He and his wife Hilda had been placed in quarantine at the same hospital as their daughter but the strain of the ordeal had become too much for him.

The city was gripped with panic and a month after she initially fell ill, Mrs Parker lost her battle for life. She remains the last person to die from smallpox.

Former hospital domestic worker Katie Conlon, of Quinton, said her mother worked at East Birmingham Hospital when Mrs Parker was first admitted. “She never came into contact with the woman but she was vaccinated in case the virus spread. It was terrifying and a very sinister time,” said Mrs Conlon.

Birmingham University was cleared of any blame regarding the photographer’s death, but her husband Joseph received a payout of £26,500 over her death.

Catherine-de-Barnes hospital is now a luxury housing estate and many of Mrs Parker’s former neighbours in Burford Park Road have moved on.

Young families now occupy the houses next to Mrs Parker’s former home unaware of the drama that unfolded over 30 years ago.

But the awful memory of the time a city was under the shadow of the world’s biggest killer disease will never die.


August 18, 2013, i09, The horrifying story of the last death by smallpox, by Esther Inglis-Arkell, Archived,

Smallpox has been around for a millennium, and claimed hundreds of millions of lives. Each death was tragic, but the last person to die by smallpox left behind one of the most wrenching tragedies of them all.

Smallpox was one of the most feared killers the world over. Those it didn't kill it often blinded or left sickened for life. It was also one of the most celebrated triumphs of any international medical effort. In 1959, the World Health Assembly officially announced a drive to eradicate smallpox. In 1977, Ali Maow Maalin, a hospital cook in Somalia, became the last person get a natural case of smallpox. The world waited for the official announcement of its eradication. A year later, another case was reported.

Janet Parker was a medical photographer who worked at the University of Birmingham medical school. From the moment she was diagnosed, there was no question where she got the virus. She worked directly above a laboratory studying smallpox. The lab, headed by Professor Henry Bedson was winding down its research. Bedson was caught between competing demands. He believed he was on the verge of a breakthrough in smallpox research, and the World Health Organization believed him. It believed him enough to send him samples of the virus. It, however, couldn't keep sending him samples of the virus because his lab didn't meet safety requirements, and no one was willing to put up the money to make the improvements in his lab for a virus that was all-but-eradicated. As a result, the researchers in the lab worked on an airborne virus without air locks and without separate showers or changing facilities, and without special clothing in the lab to prevent contamination. Because Bedson knew his time was running out, they also handled the virus in the main lab, away from safety cabinets.

The horrifying story of the last death by smallpox
The researchers in the lab, however, kept current on their vaccinations. The smallpox vaccine requires renewing every few years. Janet Parker hadn't had a vaccination in twelve years. In the investigation, after she was diagnosed, no one could determine exactly how the virus got into the air system, but once it had it traveled up the vents into her work space.

At first she thought she had a cold. Then doctors thought it was a drug rash. Then the pustules started appearing. Janet was treated and her parents, with whom she had had contact, were quarantined. The first person to die was Henry Bedson. While his wife was distracted, he went into his garden and cut his throat. A few days later, Janet Parker's father died of a heart attack. The stress and worry of the ordeal killed him. Janet herself eventually succumbed to smallpox. Her mother was diagnosed with smallpox, but was treated and survived the illness.

Today, people who want to eradicate the last strains of smallpox - all housed in labs - point to Janet Parker as an example of how a virus can escape a lab. After the tragedy, health guidelines and monitoring for labs receiving these kinds of illnesses grew more stringent.


July 9, 2014, USA Today, Forgotten vials of smallpox found near D.C., by Liz Szabo, diigo,

Scientists last week discovered several vials of smallpox — one of the deadliest diseases known to man — in an unused storage room at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., according to officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Officials say there's no health risk from the vials — either to NIH employees or the public. The vials of smallpox, which apparently date to the 1950s, were "immediately secured" in a CDC containment lab, according to a CDC statement. NIH officials alerted the CDC about the smallpox July 1.

Smallpox killed about one-third of its victims and is estimated to have killed up to 500 million people in the 20th century. It devastated populations around the world for at least 3,000 years until being officially eradicated by vaccines in 1980. There is ongoing concern that smallpox could be used in a bioterrorist attack.

The smallpox samples were found in a lab run by the Food and Drug Administration. Scientists discovered the vials when preparing to move to the FDA's main campus in Silver Spring, Md.
A government aircraft took the smallpox vials to CDC's high-containment facility in Atlanta on Monday, according to the CDC statement. Overnight genetic testing in a top-security lab confirmed that the vials did indeed contain smallpox, but CDC officials say they will need to do additional tests to find out whether the smallpox is viable or able to reproduce and spread. Testing could take up to two weeks. CDC scientists will destroy the smallpox samples after finishing the tests.

The World Health Organization has designed two storage sites for smallpox, one at the CDC in Atlanta and one at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology (VECTOR) in Novosibirsk, Russia. The WHO oversees the inspection of both facilities and certifies their safety and security.

CDC has alerted WHO about the discovery and has invited the WHO to join its investigation of how the smallpox wound up in Bethesda. If the vials contain viable smallpox, the CDC will invite WHO officials to witness their destruction, the usual practice when smallpox has been found outside of official storage sites, the CDC says.

The CDC's Division of Select Agents and Toxins and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating how the smallpox vials were originally prepared and stored in Bethesda.

The discovery marks the second episode this summer in which federal agencies were concerned about potential exposure to a killer bug. In June, the CDC announced that up to 75 of its scientists may have been exposed to live anthrax bacteria after a safety lapse. Many were treated with antibiotics as a precaution, although none had symptoms.

Infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm says the smallpox discovery did not pose a safety risk.

"If smallpox were to occur in a few people in a lab because they handled a vial of variola," the scientific term for smallpox, "I am convinced that the global public health community would squelch that very quickly," says Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Osterholm, who served as an adviser to the Bush administration on bioterrorism, says smallpox is far less contagious than influenza. Its telltale symptoms of body-wide blisters would allow patients to be diagnosed and treated. Osterholm notes that that vaccination is effective even after exposure. An accidental release of a killer flu strain would be far more difficult to control, he says, because the flu spreads much more easily and because its symptoms can mimic those of other respiratory bugs. He praised the way NIH handled and publicized the discovery.

Osterholm says it's not totally surprising to find smallpox in an unused storage area. Still, he says it's likely that other labs will look a bit more carefully to see if they also have any aging vials with surprising labels.

"The freezers of the microbiology labs of the world are a lot like the trunks in your attic. When you open them up, sometimes you are surprised," Osterholm says. "Most people have already gone through their freezers, but some freezers get missed."

Computer Foibles

Unsigned Orphan Bastard


Microsoft Visual C ++ 2010 x86 Redistributable - 10.0.40219 (1)

61 out of 81 Microsoft Office updates seem rather to be "reupdates," installed en masse on Nov. 11, at which time a significant number of earlier updates disappeared. I didn't keep score, but I recall a number of "54" after a reinstall on October 10, with a few more scattered hence. Update KB2553347 has been installed 17 times here, so MS is inflating their semblance of security.

Suddenly....fourteen network adapters appeared in my device manager. I disabled all but the Realtek "family controller."

Somebody told me to unclick all the digital Autobahns in my network adapters' Local Area Connections properties, except for the two-lane macadam TCP/IPv4, but still I can get 3,000,000 bytes

From Device Manager:
Microsoft Input Configuration Device - Not digitally signed.
Trusted Platform Module 1.2 - non-functioning

Nov. 11, 2014
Failed Windows Updates:
KB3092601 Important
KB3107998 Recommended
KB3097877 Important
KB3101722 Important
IE11 KB3093983 Important

fltsrv.sys