WHO hopeful Ebola in Congo is waning
LONDON -- The World Health Organization said there is "cautious optimism" that the Ebola outbreak in Congo may be winding down.
In a report issued this week, the U.N. health agency and Congolese officials say that slightly over a month into the response, further spread of the lethal virus has "largely been contained."
WHO said the situation in urban areas -- where officials had feared transmission might take off -- has remained calm for the past several weeks. Attention since then has been focused on remote rural regions mostly accessible only by dirt roads and motorbikes.
To date, there have been 38 confirmed cases, including 14 deaths.
More than 3,000 people have been vaccinated with an experimental vaccine in the first-ever attempt to stop an emerging Ebola epidemic.
Indonesians urge larger ferry rescue
TIGARAS, Indonesia -- Distraught relatives slammed Indonesia's government for not enforcing basic safety measures on passenger boats and pleaded Wednesday for a bigger search effort for more than 190 people presumed drowned after a ferry sank on a picturesque Sumatran lake early this week.
The wooden vessel, overcrowded with passengers as well as dozens of motorbikes, didn't have a manifest and disaster officials have several times raised the number of people it was carrying as family members who rushed to Lake Toba in northern Sumatra provided information.
The boat was five times over its passenger capacity of 43 and equipped with only 45 life jackets, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi and Muhammad Syaugi, the national rescue agency chief, said at a news conference. The latest information is that 192 people are missing, Syaugi said.
Syaugi said four deaths were confirmed Wednesday after three more bodies were found 2-3 miles from where the ferry sank.
North Macedonia name OK'd in vote
SKOPJE, Macedonia -- A deal to end a decadeslong dispute over whether Greece can lay sole claim to Macedonia as a place name easily passed a ratification vote Wednesday in the parliament of neighboring nation Macedonia.
Lawmakers approved a bill to rename their country North Macedonia, with 69 votes in favor in the 120-member parliament. The main opposition VMRO-DPMNE party boycotted the session.
The deal -- which requires several more steps in the coming months to be implemented -- has angered opposition parties and hard-liners in both Greece and Macedonia, who claim their prime ministers conceded too much in reaching the agreement.
The dispute dates from shortly after Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Greece argued the name "Macedonia" implied territorial aspirations on its own northern province of the same name.
A Section on 06/21/2018