With the 2016 presidential elections approaching, tension in the Democratic Republic of Congo is increasing. President Kabila is nearing the end of his second term and political manoeuvring within the government to create conditions for a third term is mobilising popular opposition, testing the country’s fragile democratisation and stability. International pressure is now vital to find a peaceful way forward.

Alors qu’une tentative de coup d’Etat contre Pierre Nkurunziza, émanant de l’ex-chef d’état-major, Godefroid Niyombaré, est en cours au Burundi, Thierry Vircoulon chercheur à l'International Crisis Group, explique qui est le général putschiste et analyse, plus généralement, l'appareil sécuritaire du Burundi.

More than four years after the passage of ESSA, English-language-learner education policies across the country remain "disjointed and inaccessible," a new report concludes.

The quinoline MK-571 is the most commonly used inhibitor of multidrug resistance protein-1 (MRP-1) but was originally developed as a cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 1 (CysLTR1) antagonist. While studying the modulatory effect of MRP-1 on anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) direct acting-antivirals (DAA) efficiency, we observed an unexpected anti-HCV effect of compound MK-571 alone. This anti-HCV activity was characterized in Huh7.5 cells stably harboring a subgenomic genotype 1b replicon. A dose-dependent decrease of HCV RNA levels was observed upon MK-571 administration, with an EC₅₀ of 9±0.3 μM and a maximum HCV RNA level reduction of approximatively 1 Log₁₀. MK-571 also reduced the replication of the HCV full-length J6/JFH1 model in a dose-dependent manner. However, probenecid and apigenin homodimer (APN), two specific inhibitors of MRP-1, had no effect on HCV replication. In contrast, the CysLTR1 antagonists SR2640 increased HCV-SGR RNA levels in a dose-dependent manner, with a maximum increase of 10-fold. In addition, a combination of natural CysLTR1 agonist (LTD4) or antagonists (zafirlukast, cinalukast, and SR2640) with MK-571 completely reversed its antiviral effect, suggesting its anti-HCV activity is related to CysLTR1 rather to MRP-1 inhibition. In conclusion, we showed that MK-571 inhibits HCV replication in hepatoma cell cultures by acting as a CysLTR1 receptor antagonist, thus unraveling a new host-virus interaction in the HCV life cycle.

Globally, mutations in the katG gene account for the majority of isoniazid-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Buyankhishig et al analyzed a limited number of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains in Mongolia and found that isoniazid resistance was mainly attributable to inhA mutations. The GenoType® MTBDRplus assay was performed for isolates collected in the First National Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey and the Third Anti-Tuberculosis Drug Resistance Survey to investigate genetic mutations associated with isoniazid resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Mongolia. Of the 409 isoniazid-resistant isolates detected by the GenoType® MTBDRplus assay, 127 (31.1%) were resistant to rifampicin, 294 (71.9%) had inhA mutations without katG mutations, 113 (27.6%) had katG mutations without inhA mutations, and two (0.5%) strains had mutations in both the inhA and katG genes. Of the 115 strains with any katG mutation, 114 (99.1%) had mutations in codon 315 (S315T). Of the 296 trains with any inhA mutation, 290 (98.0%) had a C–15T mutation. The proportion of isoniazid-resistant strains with katG mutations was 25.3% among new cases and 36.2% among retreatment cases (p=0.03), as well as 17.0% among rifampicin-susceptible strains and 52.8% among rifampicin-resistant strains (p<0.01). Rifampicin resistance was significantly associated with the katG mutation (adjusted odds ratio 5.36, 95% CI 3.3–8.67, p<0.001). Mutations in inhA predominated in isoniazid-resistant tuberculosis in Mongolia. However, the proportion of katG mutations in isolates from previously treated cases was higher than that among new cases, and that in cases with rifampicin resistance was higher than that in cases without rifampicin resistance.

Google has made it easier to join the company's Advanced Protection Program, which is designed to stop the most sophisticated hackers from breaking into your Gmail account. Before you needed two security keys to enroll. Now you just need a smartphone.

The password-fatigued masses will be pleased to find Keeper's new 30 percent off deal, which brings it down to $20.99 per year from its typical $29.99.

Google's Takeout service was designed to let people download their data, but accidentally sent videos from Google Photos accounts to strangers.

The precious metal eased for a third day after US equities hit the highest in almost seven weeks as states including Florida took steps toward easing restrictions.

Swiss refiner Valcambi SA tried for five straight days last month to move a shipment of gold out of Hong Kong. Twice the metal was packed carefully onto a plane, only to be offloaded again.

In number 10 in our countdown, I tried to offer a few thoughts to funders as they embraced new agendas and looked to avoid repeating yesterday's missteps.

Given that GoDaddy's GoCentral Online Store is an add-on service to its web hosting product, you'll find its features a little more limited than much of the competition. But if you're a GoDaddy customer, then it's a great way to start quickly.

The Whistle GO Explore pet tracker improves on the previous generation in nearly every while, while adding a few new tricks in the process.

UEFA.com delves into the numbers and finds clean sheets were at a premium in the first legs.

Jose, an Argentinian worker serving in Southeast Asia, tells of how he entered overseas service and what he has seen God do through his not-so-typical ministry.

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Doron's experience on Logos Hope shows him God's faithfulness and uncovers leadership abilities he is using today in a new role.

An OM worker in Cambodia shares about how a new training she is attending is transforming the way she does ministry.

Anne Jenks, Michelle Shory, Ed.S, Irina V. McGrath, Ph.D, Kim Jaxon, Dr. Beth Gotcher, Elizabeth Stringer Keefe, Ph.D., and Keisha Rembert share their suggestions for using tech effectively in class.

Neither company made any product-specific announcements, except to say that future gadgets will continue to be available on iOS and Android.

If you're looking to get the perfect gift for the golfer in your life, here are 19 geeky golf gadgets they will love.

Cristiano Ronaldo's overhead kick for Real Madrid against his current club Juventus has been voted UEFA.com Goal of the Season.

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A signature program at Penn State Greater Allegheny, implemented to give students, faculty and staff the digital skills to communicate, solve problems and create new knowledge, is front and center in the University’s remote learning period.

Dedication to student print journalism paid off for several Penn State Greater Allegheny student reporters and designers.

Jose, an Argentinian worker serving in Southeast Asia, tells of how he entered overseas service and what he has seen God do through his not-so-typical ministry.

Rosario, Argentina :: Crewmembers with experience working with least-reached people share a message of unity between churches.

Doron's experience on Logos Hope shows him God's faithfulness and uncovers leadership abilities he is using today in a new role.

An OM worker in Cambodia shares about how a new training she is attending is transforming the way she does ministry.

Online learners at Penn State have elected 10 leaders to the World Campus Student Government Association to serve in the 2020-21 school year.

Google Translate is not the only app that can help you converse with someone speaking a different language. Here's how to translate real-time conversations with the Google Assistant.

The 10,700-capacity Pabellón Príncipe Felipe in Zaragoza will host the UEFA Futsal Cup finals in April involving Spain's Inter FS and Barcelona plus Portugal's Sporting CP and Győr of Hungary.

The company also announced a second Walkman, a pair of headphones, and an amplifier.

While we wait for Apple Arcade to launch for iOS devices, Google is preparing its own app/game subscription service for Android called Play Pass.

The latest version of Google's Android mobile operating system brings a batch of security and privacy improvements and a new Dark Theme, too.

Google removes the free WireGuard app from the Play Store for having a donation button, reigniting a debate over whether its policy hurts the open-source community.

Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides can already be saved and edited offline using the web app, but Google is expanding offline access to all file types, as long as you're using Chrome.

With the coronavirus pandemic pressing tens of thousands of the nation's school districts into extended closures, education administrators across the nation are wrestling with a complex and legalistic problem: how to keep services flowing for students with disabilities.

When Celtic arrived home after their defeat by Feyenoord on May 6, 1970, everyone at Parkhead was understandably deflated, while the fans were in mourning for the lost chance of glory.

Rangers vice-chairman John Bennett has criticised the SPFL for their 'cynical tactics' over their labelling of the club's dossier as a "smoking gun" - and insists the issue is not merely Gers vs the governing body.

How a public research event can bring education stakeholders together to discuss important early education issues.

Designed to work primarily with mobile devices, the Tango is one of the first printers to feature voice control. The portable Sprocket, meanwhile, lets you print photos from your phone.

Do your bit for the environment and reduce clutter in your own home or office by cutting down on the paper you use and keep. Learn how to go paperless with productivity expert Jill Duffy's tips and suggestions.

New ways of paying teachers launched by districts such as Denver and Houston are alone unlikely to produce the sweeping change that is needed on the compensation front, a report from the National Governors Association says.

CNA Staff, Mar 31, 2020 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- Local media in Nicaragua are reporting that despite the nation’s bishops’ conference suspending Mass and prohibiting large gatherings, the mayor of Granada is going ahead with an annual pilgrimage that the bishops had canceled.

For more than 150 years, Catholics in Nicaragua have venerated an image of Jesus del Rescate (Jesus of the Rescue) in Popoyuapa, near the city of Rivas. The image represents the crowning of thorns and the flogging of Christ.

Normally there is an annual pilgrimage to the image, which pilgrims make by wagon and on foot, during the "Week of Sorrows" that marks "the final stretch" of the time of Lent, according to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner.

However, the bishops have said that this year it will not be possible to carry it out in the traditional way, given the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Nevertheless, Julia Mena, mayor of Granada, has organized and funded a group of pilgrims to do the pilgrimage, providing them with food and personal hygiene supplies, according to the Nicaraguan news website Confidencial. The priest at the shrine told Confidencial that he has “no plans to receive the pilgrimage.”

The Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference has not commented publicly on the matter.

Nicaragua has five confirmed cases of COVID-19. The government has not yet decreed any kind of alert or emergency regarding the pandemic, nor has it ordered a suspension of classes, Confidencial reports.

The country’s Ministry of Health has maintained that the internal movements of travelers arriving from countries with outbreaks of coronavirus would not be restricted, La Prensa reports.

President Daniel Ortega has been president of Nicaragua since 2007, and oversaw the abolition of presidential term limits in 2014.

The Church had suggested that elections, which are not scheduled until 2021, be held this year, but Ortega has ruled this out.

Ortega was a leader in the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which had ousted the Somoza dictatorship in 1979 and fought US-backed right-wing counterrevolutionaries during the 1980s. Ortega was also leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990.

Bogotá, Colombia, Apr 3, 2020 / 04:04 am (CNA).- Diana María Toro Vélez was kidnapped on a September day, as she drove home from Mass in the Colombian city where she lived. She spent 453 days in captivity. And she says that God’s grace kept her hope alive during the ordeal.

“I left Mass one Thursday and was driving home in my car and when I got home they assaulted me. They asked me a few questions and took me away. They sold me to the guerrillas,” Toro told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner.

Toro, the mother of three, told ACI Prensa that during her captivity, she was sometimes forced to march a lot, one time for up to 15 days in a row.

“I clung to God. I cried and prayed a lot. I really held fast to God. I taught the kidnappers how to read and write. We prayed. There was a certain coexistence, and good things came out of the bad,” she said.

Toro, 41, was kidnapped Sept. 27, 2018, in Amagá, about an hour’s drive from Medellin. Her captors were criminals, members of a gang called “The Sorcerers,” who handed her over to Marxist guerrillas from the the National Liberation Army (ELN) for 48M pesos, about $12,000. The ELN reportedly asked 3 billion pesos, about $745,000 for her return.

Toro was released from captivity on Christmas Eve, 2019.

The Catholic Church in Colombia had appealed for her release, and the release appeared to be a goodwill gesture toward achieving some kind of peace agreement between the ELN and the country’s government. Public officials credited the Church with arranging the release.

Speaking to ACI Prensa, the young mom said that she was “very devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe. When I was kidnapped I made a rosary and prayed it every day, praying a lot to the Virgin that she would allow me to be returned to my children. And God heard me, because I was released on Dec. 24, 2019.”

It was difficult, Toro said, to be “separated from my three children, one of them 3, another 4 and one 14 years old. Separated from my husband, my parents, my siblings, my family members, relatives and friends.”

“These were 453 days of anxiety, grief, sadness and despair. 453 days of living in the middle of the jungle, sleeping under a canopy, on branches, with snakes, scorpions, mosquitos and many other animals around,” she said.

Toro told ACI Prensa she subsisted on parrot, pasta, cooked banana, and rice. She had only two sets of clothes and infrequently bathed. 

“These were really hard days without knowing anything about my family, just with the certainty that God was with me, filling me daily with his strength and fortitude and firmly believing that if I woke up okay, my family was okay too,” she said.

“And God brought me out of that really hard situation. I saw that his glory and his mercy are immense.”

Toro said the ordeal has filled her with gratitude.

“I want to tell those people who in these times feel alone or in despair because of the situation we’re going through in Colombia and the entire world, that God is with us, he never has left us alone, especially now.”

“Let’s pray the rosary, let’s pray as a family. The power of prayer is immense,” she added.

 

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

 

Ross LaJeunesse, Google's former head of international relations, published a scathing 2,175-word blog post today about his former employer. But he's also running for Senate in Maine, so it could be a good move, politically.

Microsoft originally sought to become a 'carbon neutral' company, meaning it could generate carbon emissions as long as it offset them through other means, but "in short, neutral is not enough to address the world's needs," says Microsoft President Brad Smith.

The new foldable phone from Pablo Escobar's brother is a Samsung Galaxy Fold with no changes to the software, according to a YouTuber and a journalist who obtained the products amid consumer worries the business is a scam.