Federer out for a month after knee surgery

World number three Tennis player Roger Federer has pulled out of the world Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam and the Dubai Championship after having an arthroscopic knee surgery. The 34-year-old 17-times Grand Slam champion had the surgery in his native Switzerland to repair a torn meniscus after he injured himself during his four-set Australian Open semi-final defeat by Djokovic last week.

Federer won the Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2012, is the reigning champion in Dubai, and has won the Rotterdam twice.

"My doctors have assured me the surgery was a success and, with proper rehabilitation, I will be able to return to the Tour.

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Benoni plane crash pilot ‘a true hero’

A plane went up in flames on Wednesday in Johannesburg and crashed landed in a park in Wattville in Benoni. The residence tried to help rescue the plane occupants but the pilot and two passengers died.

The light aircraft took off at Brakpan Airfield, but it experienced technical failure while flying over the Ekurhuleni Township on its way to a golf resort in Mookgopong, Limpopo.

According to eye witness “The engine made two blasts as it came down, skidded over the roof of a shack and then hit the ground nose first,” said Mohoto. “It stopped and it was on fire so we and the guys from the nearby car wash took buckets of water and tried put out the fire.” He went further to say that “The hero was the pilot, honestly. He did his best to avoid the houses. You can see that he wanted to land in the street but was disturbed by vehicles that were on the road. We’re lucky there were no (school) kids when he landed in the park.”

The police helped put out the flames with a fire extinguisher.

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Somali plane lands in Mogadishu with hole in its side

A passenger plane with Daallo Airlines made an emergency landing in Somalia's capital with a gaping hole in its fuselage on the 2^nd of February 2016. The hole appeared shortly after take-off from Mogadishu at 10,000ft (3,048m). The plane was bound for Djibouti, and was carrying 60 people on board.

It is suspected that a fuselage had caused hole to appear.

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The Ex-FIFA Vice President has been Placed Under House Arrest

The former FIFA vice president, Alfredo Hawit, charged with corruption, has been placed under the United States house arrest on Tuesday after posting $1m bail.

The 64-year-old was extradited to the United States from Switzerland last month following his arrest on December 3 for 12 charges including racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. He posted his $1m in bail at a Brooklyn court, of which he paid $50,000 in cash with the rest was guaranteed with property.

US prosecutors allege that Hawit accepted and laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes as general secretary of the Honduran football federation between 2008 and 2014.

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Is The Zika Virus an STD

On Tuesday, in Texas the first known case of Zika virus transmission was recorded. Reports from health official released today suggests that the virus was contacted through sexual intercourse and not a mosquito bite.

The virus is currently linked to the bite of mosquitoes of the Aedes genus, which is why it will be disturbing if it is confirmed that it is also an STD.

Dallas County Health and Human Services said it received confirmation of the case in Dallas from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They stated that the infected person had not traveled to South America or any country where the virus is active.

The Texas Department of State Health Services was slightly more cautious in its assessment, saying in a statement, "Case details are being evaluated, but the possibility of sexual transmission from an infected person to a non-infected person is likely in this case."

More investigations are being carried out to confirm this alarming hypothesis. Which is based on the medical case in which the virus was detected in the semen.

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World Health Organisation Declares Zika Virus Public Health Emergency

The World Health Organisation has declared that the Zika virus which is responsible for the birth of brain-damaged babies born in Brazil, constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.

The declaration was made by the WHO director Margaret Chan and it will trigger funding for research to try to determine whether the Zika virus, spread by mosquitoes, is responsible for the large numbers of babies born with underdeveloped brains and dedicate resources to prevent pregnant women from becoming infected, and control the virus from spreading by reducing to amount of mosquitoes.

“Members of the committee agreed that the situation meets the conditions for a public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted this advice,” Chan said.

“It is important to realise that when the evidence first becomes available of such a serious condition like microcephaly and other congenital abnormalities, we need to take action, including precautionary measures,” she said.

Chan has however called for countries to refrain from imposing any sort of travel restrictions on those Latin American countries where the Zika virus is spreading as the virus is not transmittable by person to person contact although precaution should be taken to prevent the mosquitoes from entering into other countries.

Prof David Heymann, chair of the emergency committee, clarified that the Zika virus is not a serious issue as it kills off , it is the mocrophany it causes to newborn babies that is the issue.

Meanwhile Brazil has dispatched hundreds of thousands of troops on mosquito-eradication campaigns in the worst affected areas, but the government is struggling to comprehend let alone cope with the epidemic. While reported cases have spiked since the virus was first identified in the country last year, officials admit their estimate of 1.5m cases is based on guesswork.

In an effort to get a clearer picture, the authorities have instructed local health authorities to report on all cases from next week, when most states should have the equipment and personnel to carry out Zica tests. It will ban people who have the virus from donating blood.

Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, acknowledged at the weekend that the country was losing the battle. “We do not have a vaccine for Zika yet. The only thing we can do is fight the mosquito,” she told reporters during a visit to the emergency headquarters of the anti-Zika campaign. “As long as [the mosquitoes] are reproducing, we are all losing the battle. We have to mobilise to win it”.

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