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Groton Daily Independent
Friday, May 17, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 3088 ~ 41 of 55
Salama also noted Mbandaka’s proximity to neighboring countries, including Central African Republic and Republic of Congo.
“The scenario has changed, and it has become most serious and worrying, since the disease is now af- fecting an urban area,” said Henry Gray, emergency coordinator in Mbandaka for Doctors Without Borders. The aid organization said 514 people believed to have been in contact with infected people are being
monitored. WHO said it is deploying about 30 more experts to the city.
Those exposed will for the first time in Congo receive Ebola vaccinations, the health minister said. WHO
has sent 4,000 doses to Congo and said it will dispatch thousands more in the coming days as needed. “This is a concerning development, but we now have better tools than ever before to combat Ebola,”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said of the new urban case.
The vaccine has been shown to be highly effective against Ebola. It was tested in Guinea during the
outbreak that killed more than 11,300 people in West Africa from 2014 to 2016.
WHO has said it will use the “ring vaccination” method. It involves vaccinating contacts of those feared
infected, contacts of those contacts, and health care and other front-line workers.
This is the ninth Ebola outbreak in Congo since 1976, when the disease was first identified. The virus is
initially transmitted to people from wild animals, including bats and monkeys.
There is no specific treatment for Ebola. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and
at times internal and external bleeding. The virus can be fatal in up to 90 percent of cases, depending on the strain.
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Petesch reported from Dakar, Senegal. AP reporter Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report. ___
Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa
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This story has been corrected to reflect that Wangata is a suburb of Mbandaka.
Cases against bikers struggle 3 years after Waco shootout By EMILY SCHMALL, Associated Press
WACO, Texas (AP) — Texas prosecutors who have failed to convict a single person in the three years since a Waco shooting left nine bikers dead are trying a new tack of targeting fewer cases, but attorneys for the bikers say the evidence is so shaky and the lead prosecutor’s credibility so damaged that it will be difficult to make the remaining charges stick.
The May 17, 2015, shooting also left 20 wounded and nearly 200 arrested at the Twin Peaks restaurant. Investigators say it was sparked by rivalries between the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs ahead of a meeting. Waco police monitoring the gathering said officers opened fire after fights and gunfire broke out. Ballistics evidence shows that police bullets struck four of the nine dead, at least two of them fatally.
Prosecutors initially indicted 154 bikers, using a conspiracy law that is difficult to apply because it re- quires proof beyond all reasonable doubt that three or more people acted together to support a criminal organization.
In the two weeks before the anniversary on Thursday of the deadliest biker shooting in U.S. history, prosecutors in Waco dismissed 98 indictments and have narrowed the cases to 25. Three of those are murder charges against Bandido members Glenn Walker, Ray Allen and Jeff Battey.
A problem for the prosecution is that McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna is a lame duck, having lost a Republican primary race in March after being accused of mishandling the biker cases. A new prosecutor won’t be elected until November. Instead of resigning or keeping a low profile until then, Reyna has moved more aggressively.
“One would have thought that repudiation in the March primary would have resonated,” said Clinton Broden, an attorney for one of the bikers still being prosecuted. “Instead, Reyna appears intent on being the last player at the blackjack table at 3 in the morning who keeps doubling down until he is out of chips.”