Sierra Leone declares emergency as Ebola death toll hits 729

Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma attends a meeting of regional group Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS

 Sierra Leone has declared a state of emergency and called in troops to quarantine Ebola victims, joining neighboring Liberia in imposing controls as the death toll from the outbreak of the virus hit 729 in West Africa.

The World Health Organization said it would launch a $100 million response plan on Friday during a meeting with the affected nations in Guinea. It was in urgent talks with donors and international agencies to send more medical staff and resources to the region, it said.

The WHO reported 57 new deaths in the four days to July 27 in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

"The scale of the Ebola outbreak, and the persistent threat it poses, requires WHO and Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to take the response to a new level, and this will require increased resources," WHO Director General Margaret Chan said.

Nigeria opens long-awaited battle of ideas against Boko Haram

In classrooms facing a sandy courtyard in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, Maska Road Islamic School teaches a creed that condemns the violent ideology of groups like Boko Haram.

Not everyone has got its message. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, known as the "Pants Bomber", spent his youth in this school - and ended up trying unsuccessfully to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day 2009 with explosives hidden in his underwear.

But the school is steadfast in preaching tolerance to its pupils, and the government is about to adopt this message in a new strategy for containing Boko Haram, which has killed thousands in a five-year campaign for an Islamic state.

"We teach them that what they (Boko Haram) are doing is a total misunderstanding of the Islamic religion, that Prophet Mohammed was compassionate, he even lived together with the non-Muslims in Medina," said headmaster Sulaiman Saiki.

Orlando Bloom 'threw punch' at Justin Bieber

Orlando Bloom and Justin Bieber involved in altercation in Ibiza restaurant

                                Orlando Bloom, left, reportedly threw a punch at Justin Bieber, right

Orlando Bloom, the British actor, reportedly threw a punch at pop star Justin Bieber at a restaurant in Ibiza.
The fracas was said to have happened at Cipriani where both were dining, the celebrity news website TMZ reported.

Bloom, 37, then approached the 20-year-old singer pointing a finger at him as another man intervened. Bieber then left and the crowd clapped, according to TMZ.

MH17: Help return our children, families beg David Cameron

In meeting with PM at Downing Street, father of one victim says he is 'angry and frustrated' that his son’s body has not been repatriated 12 days after his death in the Malaysia Airlines disaster

    British families of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 victims gather at 10 Downing Street to meet with Prime Minister   David Cameron

The British families of the Flight MH17 crash victims have pleaded with David Cameron for help in bringing the bodies of “all our boys and girls home” as the European Union imposed the toughest sanctions on Russia since the Cold War.
In a meeting in Downing Street, the father of one victim said he was “angry and frustrated” that his son’s body has not been repatriated 12 days after his death.
The EU imposed sanctions including the targeting of state-owned banks, an arms embargo and restrictions on the sale of sensitive technology. Mr Cameron warned of further sanctions unless Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, stopped his “unacceptable behaviour”. The US is expected to announce its own new sanctions.

Europe 'funding al-Qaeda' as governments condemned for hypocrisy over ransom payments

British passport 'is death sentence' to kidnapped victims as UK and US refuse to pay ransoms to al-Qaeda, despite European governments handing over more than $125 million

                                 Vincent Delory, one of the two French hostages killed after being kidnapped in Niger

The sight of the French state jet sitting on a desert tarmac as the foreign minister greets a relieved newly released hostage is a familiar one but comes at a price in the form of a multi-million euro ransom payments that has filled al-Qaeda's coffers.

Despite a landmark G8 agreement banning ransoms for kidnaps, European governments are pouring money into terrorist groups in return for the release of their citizens.
A new survey suggests al-Qaeda linked groups from Mali in West Africa to Syria have garnered $66 million (£39 million) in the last year from hostages, a lucrative revenue stream that has fuelled its rise.
All told the group has taken in $125 million since 2009.