| ### "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence", George Washington. ### |
| ### "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence", George Washington. ### |
@SpireJimThe huge craters that pockmark many of the roads in Uganda's capital have become the subject of a Twitter trend.
Using #KampalaPotholeExhibition, residents have been sharing images of the city's many potholes that their vehicles have to gingerly make their way around or through.
The local authority has acknowledged the problem, saying the cavities amount to 8,500 sq m (91,493 sq ft) in area.
But it added that it did not have the funds to fill them all.
When academic, writer and cartoonist Dr Jimmy Spire Ssentongo started the campaign, even he could never have imagined the kind of material that would turn up.
"That is not a pothole! That is a pond!" he responded to one person who shared a photo.
Some have turned the photos into memes with graphics added - like ships sailing across potholes or people chilling on the beach, complete with palm trees, next to other ones.
@bruno_akampaThe florid descriptions accompanying the images - including details such as a pothole's age - might be satirical, but they also point to how long a particular road has been in bad shape.
Some potholes feel like they have become permanent geographical features, creating a series of mini lakes whenever it rains.
A few weeks ago, when I tweeted that in one part of town there were potholes within potholes, one follower responded that the ones on the road he regularly uses had become stairs.
"We have potholes of every design, and size, deep, shallow, wide, narrow, filled with water and dry ones, they are all in Kampala," the deputy speaker of parliament, Thomas Tayebwa, has been quoted as saying when calling for a minister to explain the situation.
The Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), charged with the city's road maintenance, will from time-to-time fill the crevices up with a clay-like soil called murram.
But piles of soil cannot withstand the heavy rainy season and the murram gets washed away, as can be seen in some of the tweets.
Dr Ssentongo says his campaign is intended to shame those who are failing to maintain the roads, "to make them uncomfortable at their own incompetence".
"If they have any sense of shame they should act," he said, pointing to the dangers of potholes and the fact that city residents paid tax for roads to be maintained.
In response, the KCCA tweeted that the issue could not be trivialised and it was aware of the damage they caused to cars.
It said the roads were "due for overhaul... which explains the high prevalence of potholes and other road damages".
"The situation has not been helped by the increased traffic levels on the roads, which in turn causes increased wear and tear," it added.
Dr Ssentongo's online "exhibition" is meant to last for a week and the academic is considering running a weekly pothole award in the future.
With the authorities being less than tolerant of protests on the streets, many feel this is an innovative way for Dr Ssentongo to address the issue - and no-one has been arrested yet for photographing a pothole.
Some online critics have said that the exhibition might affect tourism by keeping potential visitors away from the country.
But analyst Ivan Rugambwa disagrees: "The #KampalaPotholeExhibition is not a malicious campaign by unpatriotic citizens looking to tarnish their country's image.
"It is a patriotic act of citizen agency to draw attention to the sorry state of their capital so that those charged with the responsibility to fit it can do so," he tweeted.
In June 2010, some city residents took to "fishing" along one road in one district of the city, in their own attempt to draw the city authorities' attention to the potholes in the area.
| ### "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence", George Washington. ### |
By Danielle de Wolfe
The 18-year-old suspect behind the Southport stabbings has been charged with making the toxic chemical ricin and possession of an Al Qaeda training manual.
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Southport suspect Axel Muganwa Rudakubana is now set to face two new charges in court, Merseyside Police said on Tuesday.
The force confirmed the charges relate to the production of a biological toxin under section 1 of the Biological Weapons Act 1974 and possession of information - namely a PDF manual - likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.
Rudakubana had previously been charged with the murder of three young girls, 10 attempted murders and one charge linked to the possession of a bladed weapon following the Southport stabbings.
Rudakubana will now appear at Westminster Magistrates Court via video link on Wednesday on both charges.
Chief Constable Serena Kennedy of Merseyside Police confirmed on Tuesday that the force would continue to lead the investigation into the attack.
Kennedy added that a search of Rudakubana's home, which took place following the attack on July 29, led officers to uncover the highly toxic biological chemical.
Speaking at the press conference, Ms Kennedy told reporters that Rudakubana had been "charged with two further offences" while he "already faces three charges of murder, 10 charges of attempted murder and one charge of possession of a knife".
She said: "The two further offences relate to evidence obtained by Merseyside Police during searches of Axel Rudakubana's home address as part of a lengthy and complex investigation, which has been ongoing since July 29.
"The additional charges are the production of a biological toxin, namely ricin... and possession of information, namely a PDF file entitled Military Studies in the Jihad against the Tyrants, the Al-Qaeda Training Manual, likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism."
The suspect, who was 17 at the time of the attacks, has already been charged with three counts of murder following the deaths of murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, at a Taylor Swift Dance class in Liverpool.
Southport stabbing suspect charged with terror offence and production of poison
The spread of misinformation linked to the suspect following the knife attack, which took place at The Hart Space community centre in Southport, led to a series of riots across England in the weeks that followed.
More than 1,000 people have since been charged, with police vowing more rioters will be brought to justice.
Reporting restrictions preventing the teenager's identification were subsequently lifted by a judge at Liverpool Crown Court in the weeks following the attack.
Police continue to insist the attack was not terror related.
No ricin was found on or near Hart Street Community Centre, police confirmed on Wednesday - the location of the attack.
The force confirmed there was no evidence that any victims, members of the public or emergency services workers were exposed to ricin at any point during or after the Southport incident.
The Chief Constable rebutted widespread speculation noting the police had purposefully withheld information on the suspect following the attack, highlighting this was incorrect.
Instead, she confirmed that the force had been advised by the CPS on what they can and can't say in order to not jeopardise forthcoming court proceedings.
Following the teenager's arrest, police were handed an additional 96 hour extension by the CPS in which to question Rudakubana.
Following charges being brought by the force, it was was later revealed that the suspect was born to Rwandan parents in Cardiff before moving to the village of Banks in Lancashire.
During his court appearance in which he faced the three murder charges, Rudakubana was seen to spend the entire 55 minutes of the hearing covering his whole face.
Wearing a grey sweatshirt pulled up to his hairline, the teenager was seen to rocking back and forth and side to side as the charges were read out.
| ### "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence", George Washington. ### |
| ### "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence", George Washington. ### |
