How often do you wash your towel? Some people wash once a week, while some, once a year. The towel is a fertile breeding ground for millions of microbes, especially those found on human skin and on the gut. No wonder the towel is one of the objects that facilitate fecal-oral contamination (literally connecting the two ends of the gut). Worse still, most people keep towels in the bathroom (near the toilet). Every flush of the toilet sends mist with millions of microbes, ranging from H.pylori, salmonella and other deadly bacteria and viruses. When you wash your hands ready for a meal, and dry them with your body towel, there's high chance you are directly ingesting your fecal matter, or, if in a shared lavatory, someone else's faeces. Unless cleaned well, viruses such as human papillomavirus (causes warts, anal cancer and cervical cancer) can be transmitted when towels are shared with infected individuals. So, what to do? 1. Launder towels once a week. 2. Use hot water and det...
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Judges at the International Criminal Court dealt a major blow to prosecutors trying to convict Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto over post-election violence by ruling on Friday that some testimony against him was inadmissible.
Ruto, expected to run again in elections next year and possibly stand for the top job in 2022, is charged with crimes against humanity. His co-accused, broadcaster Joshua arap Sang, greeted the decision with a jubilant Facebook post:
"Halleluyaaaaaaaaaaaa God is good. THANK you God. THANK you my lawyers. THANK you Kenyans ... ONE step to our FREEDOM."
Friday's ruling means prosecutors can no longer rely on depositions made before the start of the case by witnesses who have since recanted their testimony.
Ruto's lawyers are now expected to reprise their argument that, without the testimony of those witnesses linking Ruto to the violence, the case against him has "evaporated". There was no immediate response from the prosecution.
"The prior recorded testimony was delivered without an opportunity for the accused to cross-examine the witnesses," said presiding appeals judge Piotr Hofmanski, adding that this would prejudice the accuseds' right to a fair trial.
Both men deny accusations that they provoked violence that killed 1,200 people in 2007-2008 after elections.
A similar case against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta collapsed last year, also following the loss of witness testimony. In both cases, prosecutors alleged witnesses were bribed or threatened into recanting.
After 13 years and spending more than a billion euros, the court has convicted only two people.
Kenya has rallied its African Union allies in a diplomatic and public relations push to depict the court as a colonial institution that had only prosecuted Africans.
There have been widespread allegations of witness intimidation in the Kenya cases. ICC prosecutors have so far charged three Kenyans for offences against the administration of justice.
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