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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has indicated that a policy recommendation for the RTS,S malaria vaccine candidate is possible as early as 2015 if it is granted a positive scientific opinion by EMA.” The malaria trial was Africa’s largestever clinical trial involving almost 15,500 children in seven countries. GSK has been developing the vaccine for three decades.
Westgate Mall terror
SA celebrates B-BBEE milestone 2013 marked ten years since South Africa introduced Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) and it remains an integral part of the country’s economic policies and transformation, according to President Jacob Zuma. Speaking at the first ever B-BBEE Summit, hosted by South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry (dti) in collaboration with the Presidential B-BBEE Advisory Council, which Zuma chairs, he said that the State will continue to intervene and promote transformation. “B-BBEE is part of a broader objective of promoting inclusive growth and economic development,” he said. The policy has had its critics over the years and local commentators have been calling for more clarity and improved transparency as the government assesses its options to increase the pace of transforming black people’s lives.
On Saturday 22 October, between 12 and 15 al-Shabaab militants brought mayhem to an upmarket shopping centre in Nairobi, executing unarmed men, women and children as they tried to hide or flee. At least 67 people were killed in the terror attack. Al-Shabab has said it carried out the atrocity in retaliation for Kenyan military operations in Somalia and Kenya’s foreign minister said “two or three” Americans and a British woman were among the attackers. On 1 October, facing mounting criticism of Kenya’s handling of the Westgate attack, its President Uhuru Kenyatta promised an official inquiry.
ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela told South Africa’s Sunday Independent newspaper that Mr Mandela was unable to speak and was “quite ill”. She said he used facial expressions to communicate “because of all the tubes that are in his mouth to clear [fluid from] the lungs” but dismissed rumors that he was on life support. “He can’t actually articulate anything... He communicates with the face, you see. But the doctors have told us they hope to recover his voice,” Ms Madikizela-Mandel said. “I have heard this nonsense that he is on life support - he is not. It is difficult for him. He remains very sensitive to any germs, so he has to be kept literally sterile. The bedroom there is like an ICU [intensive care unit] ward.” Mandela sadly passed away on 12 December. Read more on page 26.
Cardinals elect new pope
Mandela’s health Former South African President Nelson Mandela wasn’t far from the headlines at all in 2013. In September he returned home after nearly three months in hospital with a recurring lung infection and received treatment at his home in Johannesburg, which was specially adapted for his care. In November, his
On Wednesday 13 March 2013 a new pope was elected. And it was a surprise choice - Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina. He took the name Francis I and became the first non-European pontiff in nearly 1,300 years. The choice of the 76-year-old from Buenos Aires was announced by cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran with the Latin words “Habemus Papam,” which translates as “We have a pope.” Pope Francis, who is the first Latin American and first Jesuit pope, was greeted by crowds roaring their approval when he appeared at the balcony overlooking St Peter’s Square. “It seems that my brother cardinals have gone to the ends of the earth [to find a pope],” he said.
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