UK - Cooperative Pharmacy Chain, third largest in the UK with over 800 branches, will offer a special medical service for Muslims during the fasting month of Ramadan, to help patients observe the dawn to dusk fasting without endangering their health. During Ramadan many patients change the times they take their medicines, or the number of doses they take each day. The chain is offering free checks for Muslim customers during Ramadaan. (IOL, Aug 19)
SOMALIA- 60 civilians killed in Ethiopian attack on two minibuses outside Mogadishu. (BBC, Aug 16)
EGYPT - Ghazala Khamis, 27, an Egyptian gave birth to septuplets: four boys and three girls. The babies weigh between 1.5 and 2kg. The Egyptian government has promised to provide the family with free baby milk and nappies for the next two years. (BBC, Aug 17)
PHILIPPINES - The Philippine Supreme Court has begun a hearing on a government territorial agreement with Muslim separatists in the south. The government had agreed to expand an existing Muslim autonomous zone, in a bid to end years of fighting. But Christians launched an appeal. Fierce fighting broke out after the court suspended the deal on 4 August. Several hundred fighters from the Muslim Moro Islamic Liberation Front occupied 15 villages in North Cotabato next to the autonomous zone. Their action triggered military air strikes and artillery assaults. (BBC, Aug 15)
PAKISTAN - President Musharraf announced his resignation as he faced impeachment on charges drawn up by the governing coalition. Musharraf seized power from an elected government, ending democracy in Pakistan. (BBC, Aug 18)
INDONESIA - Automatic cameras captured images of a rare clouded leopard in Indonesia's Borneo Sebangua National Park, an area where the cats have not been recorded before. Based on estimates of density and population range, the team says the clouded leopards number no more than 10,000 sexually mature adults. (BBC, Aug 16)
News Aug 2008 (2)
