From the monthly archives:

May 2011

Picture This – New Face of Louis Vuitton is 16-Year-Old Student Nyasha Maronhodze

May 31, 2011

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(Daily Mail Reporter By DEBORAH ARTHURS) — A 16-year-old who won her modeling contract in a competition has been announced as the new face of Louis Vuitton.

Nyasha Maronhodze in photo for Louis Vuitton

Nyasha Maronhodze entered the modeling world just two years ago after winning the UK Elite Model Look competition in 2009.

The student was scouted in the street in her Northamptonshire hometown by the model agency and invited down to London to take part in the contest.

The schoolgirl, who arrived for her first casting wearing her school uniform – experienced a meteoric rise through the echelons of the fashion industry, with an impressive debut season that saw her walking for shows including Louise Gray, Clements Ribeiro, Jonathan Saunders during London Fashion Week SS11 as well as Loewe, Emanuel Ungaro, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac and Louis Vuitton in Paris.

And now, the industry newcomer models couture clothes from Louis Vuitton’s latest collection in a slick advertising campaign art directed by the label’s creative head, Marc Jacobs and shot by world-renowned fashion photographer Stephen Meisel.

Youth trumps experience in the latest campaign as the Zimbabwe-born student, along with a group of five young pretenders, replace their more mature counterparts as the new faces for the fashion house.

The rest of the youthful line up includes models Zuzanna Bijoch, 17, Daphne Groeneveld 16, Gertrud Hegelund, 20, Anaïs Pouliot, 19, and Fei Fei Sun, 21 – who together have an average age of 18.

The girls take over from Kristen McMenamy, 46, Raquel Zimmermann, 28, and Freja Beha Erichsen, 23, who for the past two seasons have brought an elegant touch of maturity and sophistication to Louis Vuitton’s campaigns.

Uma Thurman, now 41, and Madonna, 52, have also starred in past campaigns.

Of the new campaign, Louis Vuitton Artistic Director Marc Jacobs says: ‘Steven Meisel and I met and decided we would do this wonderful story of beautiful vintage cars, little dogs and fresh-faced young women.

‘It’s a very classic scenario, and of course it suggests travel, but I think we gave it a fresh, modern and sometimes a little bit naughty, tongue-in-cheek spin.’

The resulting nine images showcase the season’s star accessories – among them shiny rubber boots, shearling officer’s caps and glazed lambskin gloves – as well as new takes on the iconic Lockit handbag, including the Extraordinaire clutch in alligator with its diamond-paved padlock and handcuff.

‘Who wouldn’t want to be this gorgeous young woman in the back seat of this beautiful car?’ Marc Jacobs says of the campaign.

‘And wherever she’s going, she’s dressed in style this season by Louis Vuitton.’

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Mother Cries as She Hears 911 Call Made by Casey Anthony 31 DAYS After Caylee Disappeared – Video

May 31, 2011

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(Daily Mail Reporter By JACQUI GODDARD) — A distraught Cindy Anthony buried her head in her arms and slumped on the witness stand today as she listened to a tape of her daughter, Casey Anthony, calmly telling 911 operators that two-year-old Caylee had been missing for 31 days.

Cindy Anthony in tears at murder trial

Casey Anthony, 25, is on trial for the alleged June 2008 murder of Caylee, whose remains were found in a swamp in December that year, wrapped in a Winnie the Pooh blanket and with duct tape over her mouth and nose.

SEE THE VIDEO OF 911 CALL PLAYED IN COURT HERE

Anthony appeared emotional at the start of the tape, but for the rest of the recording sat stone-faced as it was played to the jury.

Mrs Anthony gulped and wept as she was shown a photograph of a doll and a pink and turquoise backpack belonging to her grand-daughter Caylee, holding a handkerchief to her face as she testified before a court in Orlando, Florida.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Anthony has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

The court has heard how Anthony, a single mother who lived with her parents in Orlando, lied for a month about Casey’s whereabouts before her mother finally called in police on July 15 2008.

The day before, Mr and Mrs Anthony were surprised to receive a notice from a car-towing service informing them that it had taken possession of their daughter’s white Pontiac Sunfire, which had been found abandoned.

After they collected the vehicle from the firm’s car lot, they noticed that it smelled bad.

911 call excerpt (as heard in video below)

911 operator: ‘Hi. Can you tell me a little bit what’s going on?’

Anthony: ‘My daughter has been missing for the last 31 days.’

911 operator: ‘And, you know who has her?’

Anthony: ‘I know who has her. I tried to contact her. I actually received a phone call today from a number that is no longer in service. I did get to speak to my daughter for about a minute.’

911 operator: ‘Did you guys call and report a vehicle stolen?’

Anthony: ‘Yes, my mom did.’

911 operator: ‘OK, so there has been a vehicle stolen too?’

Anthony: ‘No. This is my vehicle.’

911 operator: ‘What vehicle was stolen?’

Anthony: ‘It’s a ’98 Pontiac Sunfire.’

911 operator: ‘We have deputies on the way to you for that, but now your three-year-old is missing – Caylee Anthony?’

Anthony: ‘Yes.’

911 operator: ‘White female, three years old, 8/9/2005 is the date of birth?’

Anthony: ‘Yes.’

911 operator: ‘And you last saw her a month ago?’

Anthony: ’31 days.’

911 operator: ‘Who has her? Do you have a name?’

Anthony: ‘Her name is Zenida Fernandez-Gonzalez.’

911 operator: ‘Who is that, the babysitter?’

Anthony: ‘She’s been my nanny for about a year and a half, almost two years.’

911 operator: ‘Why are you calling now? Why didn’t you call 31 days ago?’

Anthony: ‘I’ve been looking for her and have gone through other resources to try to find her, which is stupid.’

911: ‘OK, can you give me the name of the nanny again – spell it out for me?’

Anthony: ‘Z-e-n-i-d-a Fernandez-Gonzalez.  The officers are here.’

911: ‘The officers are there?’

Anthony: ‘Yes’

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Syria’s Ruthless Response to 13-Year-Old Protester – Kneecapped, Genitals Removed, Then Killed

May 31, 2011

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(Daily Mail Reporter By LIZ HAZELTON) — Devotedly washed and sprinkled with rose petals, Hamza Ali al-Khateeb lies prepared for burial. But the rituals of death cannot wipe away the horrific injuries that have mutilated his body almost beyond recognition.

Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, 13

Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, 13, was tortured to death by Syrian security forces

Nor do they blot out that 13-year-old Hamza – riddled with bullets, kneecapped and with neck broken and penis hacked off – has the rounded cheeks and gentle face of a child.

At 13, he is one of the youngest known victims of Syria’s ruthless crackdown on protesters who have tried to overthrow the government of  President Bashar al-Assad.

The teenager’s family was told not to speak of his terrible fate. But in a pitiful act of defiance, they posted the footage of his corpse online.

The action led to his father being arrested last week. His whereabouts are unknown.

Posted on YouTube, the video is accompanied by a chilling commentary which details the worst of Hamza’s dreadful wounds.

An unseen attendant tenderly shifts the scarred limbs and head so that the viewer can see each injury, including two bullets which were fired through each arm and then entered his chest.

‘Look at the evidence of his torture,’ the narrator urges. ‘Take a look at the bruises on his face and his neck that was broken. Take a look at the bruises on his right legs

‘In addition there is worse. They did not satisfy themselves with all the torturing so they cut off his genitals.’

At this point, the video is censored as the wounds are too horrific to show.

Hamza was picked up by security forces at a protest in Jiza, a village in the rebel province of Dar’a in Syria on April 29.

For an agonizing month, his desperate family waited for him to go home, terrified of what had become of him.

And when his broken body was finally returned, the injuries which disfigured almost every part of his flesh told the horrific story that he could not.

Amid the mass of cigarette burns, the bullet wounds and bruises, it is impossible to know what finally killed him.

But it is perhaps unsurprising that Hamza, with his childish features and innocent smile, has become the most potent symbol of Syria’s uprising.

Thousands of protesters took to the country’s bloodied streets this weekend chanting his name.

Children demonstrated in Damascus while people clambered on the roofs in Aleppo to mark the ‘Day of Hamza’.

In the city of Hama, 116 miles from the capital, a huge crowd occupied the central square clutching copies of his photographs in their hands.

The video footage of his mutilated body posted online – and broadcast on Al Jazeera – has further fuelled the anger of Syria’s protesters.

Facebook group ‘We are all Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, the Child Martyr’ has attracted 58,000 people while the English version has 3,000 members.

Radwan Ziadeh, an exiled human rights activist told the Washington Post the boy had already become a symbol of the Syrian revolution.

‘(His death) is the sign of the sadism of the Assad regime and its security forces,’ he said.

‘Torture is usual in Syria. It’s not something new or strange. What is special about Hamza is that he was only 13 years old. He really is a child.’

The Syrian uprising against President Bashar al-Assad is now entering its seventh week.

Foreign journalists are banned from entering the country and the rebellion has been conducted amid a media blackout.

But stories of the brutality of Assad’s troops have still trickled out indicating that protests have been ruthlessly suppressed.

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Emergency Landing Escorted by Two F-16’s – Result of Passenger Fistfight over RECLINED SEAT

May 31, 2011

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(Daily Mail Reporter) — A United Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing escorted by two F-16 fighter jets after two passengers started a fistfight over a reclined seat, it has emerged.

United plane at airport

Flight 990, from Washington’s Dulles Airport bound for Accra in Ghana, had 144 people on board when the fight broke out on Sunday night, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

Government officials confirmed that fighter jets were scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

United spokesman Mike Trevino said Tuesday that the Boeing 767 dumped fuel as a safety precaution to lighten its weight on landing.

The Washington Post, which first reported the incident, reported that the fight began not long after takeoff when a passenger lowered his seat and a passenger behind him objected.

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Picture This – ‘Manhattanhenge’ Sunset Illuminates Every Cross Street in Manhattan

May 31, 2011

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(Daily Mail Reporter) — One of the most beautiful things in nature must surely be the sun rising and setting. When that sunset happens to align with a street grid, basking a city that never sleeps in a radiant glow of light, even busy New Yorkers would be pushed not to stop and marvel at its brilliance.

Sun sets in Manhattan

It’s that time of year again known as ‘Manhattanhenge’ – when the sun aligns precisely with the street grid in Manhattan, simultaneously illuminating both the north and south sides of every cross street of the borough’s grid.

This special day – also known as Manhattan solstice – comes twice a year. This year it falls on May 30 and July 12 – when the sun sets with half the disc sitting above and half below the horizon. Though fans can also enjoy the spectacular views on May 31 and July 11 when at sunset, you can see the entire ball of the sun on the horizon.

The times are calculated every year by the astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, who coined the term ‘Manhattanhenge’ in 2002, named after the British Stonehenge, which celebrates summer and winter solstice.

Though in New York it does not signal the solstice – the changing of the season – due to the position of Manhattan’s grid.

Mr deGrasse Tyson explains: ‘In spite of what pop-culture tells you, the sun rises due east and sets due west only twice per year on the equinoxes – the first day of spring and of autumn. Every other day, the sun rises and sets elsewhere on the horizon.

‘Had Manhattan’s grid been perfectly aligned with the geographic north-south line, then the days of Manhattanhenge would coincide with the equinoxes. But Manhattan’s street grid is rotated 30 degrees east from geographic north, shifting the days of alignment elsewhere into the calendar.’

Mr deGrasse Tyson notes that the dates correspond with Memorial day and Baseball’s All Star Break.

He said: ‘Future anthropologists might conclude that, via the sun, the people who called themselves Americans worshipped war and baseball.’

He explains that the reason this unique urban phenomenon occurs in Manhattan is due to a clear view to the horizon beyond the grid – as New York does across the Hudson River to New Jersey. Combine that with the tall buildings which line the streets, creating a vertical channel to frame the sun and you get a rare and striking photographic opportunity.

To get the best view of this rare and beautiful sight, sun watchers need to be as far east in Manhattan as possible and look west across the avenues.

The best places to get a view are the Empire State or Chrysler buildings as well as along 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, and 57th Streets.

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Dumber and Dumber – Man Who Loudly Boasts On Phone That He Is Wanted is ARRESTED

May 31, 2011

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DELMAR, Md. (WBOC16 By Kye Parsons) — A man staying at a Delmar motel who loudly admitted during a telephone conversation that he was wanted by authorities ended up in custody early Tuesday after other patrons staying in adjacent rooms overheard his unwitting confession and notified police, the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office said.

Richard R. Vermalyea

Richard R. Vermalyea

At around 1:31 a.m., a sheriff’s deputy responded to a noise complaint at the Traveler’s Motel on the 9400 block of Ocean Highway. Police said that patrons called police to report that a man staying in one of the motel rooms was yelling loudly during a phone conversation. The patrons stated that during the conversation they overheard the man state that there was an open warrant for his arrest. The patrons, who were staying in adjacent rooms, reported that they could hear the man’s conversation through the motel’s walls and it was disturbing them.

The deputy went to the room in question and located 32-year-old Richard R. Vermalyea of Rehoboth Beach, Del. It was discovered that Vermalyea was wanted in Cecil County, Md. on two open warrants. One of the warrants was for failure to appear in a felony theft case and the other was for a violation of probation in a felony theft case.

Vermalyea was taken into custody and ordered held on $10,000 bond each on the two warrants, pending transfer to Cecil County.

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Gay High School Student Named Prom Queen

May 31, 2011

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(NBC Washington) — Becoming prom queen at Blacksburg High got harder this year. Young women aspiring to wear the tiara don’t just have to worry about the other girls anymore – guys can become prom queen at the high school now too.

Tiara

The proof: Senior student Jake Boyer took the title at this year.

“This prom queen thing sort of became a manifestation of ‘all right, this is who I am’,” Boyer told WDBJ News. “It’s time to show it off.”

Boyer came out as gay publicly during the school year. Encouraged by his friends, he entered into the running for queen of the Blacksburg Prom this spring.

The night of the dance, Boyer showed up wearing a green Lady Gaga-inspired outfit.

He called his run for prom queen a social experiment gone right. “More than anything, this experiment just gave me hope for the future,” he told WDBJ. “Like, oh my gosh, this little town in the middle of Virginia is able to be this open.”

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Ungrateful – Patient Shoots Dead Top Surgeon Who Saved His Life with Double Organ Transplant

May 31, 2011

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(Daily Mail Reporter By PAUL THOMPSON) — A top surgeon has been shot dead by a disgruntled patient whose life he had saved with a double organ transplant.

Nelson Fletcha

Dr Dmitriy Nikitin was killed by former patient Nelson Fletcha, pictured, after finishing his shift at the Florida Hospital, Orlando

Dr Dmitriy Nikitin, 41, was gunned down as he walked to his car after finishing his shift at a hospital in Orlando, Florida, where he worked as a leading multiple organ transplant surgeon.The attacker, Nelson Flecha, spoke briefly to Dr Nikitin before pulling out a gun and shooting him several times.

The 52-year-old transplant recipient then walked to another parking level and turned the gun on himself. The murder-suicide last Thursday was caught on CCTV cameras in the parking garage at the Florida Hospital in Orlando.

Police said Flecha had laid in wait to ambush the surgeon as he left the hospital. Flecha was known to have been a former patient of Russian-born Dr Nikitin and had undergone a liver and kidney transplant a year ago.

Dr Nikitin, described as a ‘passionate and meticulous surgeon’, was married with four children, including a son aged just three. Despite the lifesaving transplant, neighbors said Flecha was a ‘bitter and angry man’.

He lived alone in a small apartment in Orange City and never seemed happy, even though he had been given a new lease of life with the double transplant.  One neighbor said: ‘Given what this guy had been given you would think he would smile, but he never did.’

Police say they are investigating whether Flecha could have been suffering from complications after the operation. Investigators said they will ask a court to release medical records to find out more about Dr Nikitin’s relationship with his killer.

Flecha’s family confirmed Dr Nikitin was the surgeon who carried out his liver and kidney transplant. Lieutenant Barb Jones, of the Orlando Police Department, said: ‘Why the doctor is targeted, we don’t know. We are working with the hospital. We still have a lot of unanswered questions. It’s a horrible incident. Certainly somebody who kills somebody like that in a parking lot. A doctor who works to save lives. It’s just a unfortunate situation.’

Dr Nikitin was a respected surgeon who taught at the University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine and specialized in liver, kidney, pancreas and intestinal transplants. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1996 from Omsk, in Siberia, and had previously worked in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Texas. Last year he was part of a surgical team that set a Florida Hospital record for the most number of transplants ever done in a weekend.

Robert A. Metzger, Chair of the Department of Transplantation at the Florida Hospital, said he and his colleagues will miss Dr Nikitin deeply. He said: ‘He was a very passionate and meticulous surgeon who had an inquisitive mind and a zealous pursuit of excellence. Our transplant team is stunned and grieving.’

A spokesman for the hospital said: ‘The Florida Hospital family is deeply saddened by the tragic event Thursday evening which has taken two lives, one of whom is Dr Dmitriy A. Nikitin, a respected and talented multi-organ transplant surgeon.  ’At this time, we ask for your sympathy as we and the family of Dr Nikitin grieve for our loss.’ The surgeon is survived by his wife, Lyubov, a daughter, Mariya,17, and three sons, Dmitriy, 13, Andrey, six, and Maxim, three.

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Picture Emerges of Muslim Girl, 19, ‘Stoned to Death after Taking Part in Beauty Contest’

May 31, 2011

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(Daily Mail Reporter By WILL STEWART) — A teenage Muslim girl was stoned to death under ‘Sharia law’ after taking part in a beauty contest in Ukraine.

Katya Koren

Katya Koren was attacked after taking part in a beauty contest which her friends said angered hardline Muslims

Katya Koren, 19, was found dead in a village in the Crimea region near her home.  Friends said she liked wearing fashionable clothes and had come seventh in a beauty contest.

Her battered body was buried in a forest and was found a week after she disappeared.

Police have opened a murder investigation and are looking into claims that three Muslim youths killed her, claiming her death was justified under Islam.

One of the three – named as 16-year-old Bihal Gaziev – is under arrest and told police that Katya had ‘violated the laws of Sharia’. Gaziev has said he has no regrets about her death.

Stoning is a divisive subject among Muslims, with some groups interpreting it as Islamic law and others disagreeing.

According to Amnesty International’s annual report on death sentences worldwide, issued in April, there were no reports of judicial executions carried out by stoning in 2010.  However, new death sentences by stoning were reportedly imposed in Iran, the Bauchi state of Nigeria and Pakistan.

At least 10 women and four men remained under sentence of death by stoning at the end of the year in Iran, where adultery is the only crime which carries that penalty under Sharia law.

It was widely imposed as a sentence in the years following the 1979 Islamic revolution, and even though Iran’s judiciary still regularly hands down such sentences, they are now often converted to other punishments.

The barbaric practice was thrown into the international spotlight last year when an Iranian woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery after suffering years of abuse at the hands of her drug addict husband.

Miss Ashtiani’s lawyer said she was allegedly beaten and sold for sex by opium-addict Ebrahim Ghaderzade, who she is accused of killing. She was jailed for ten years for murder and sentenced to death for adultery. She was also convicted of having illicit relations for which she received 99 lashes. The Iranian authorities eventually suspended the stoning after an outcry from the international community.

The European Union has called the sentence ‘barbaric’, the Vatican pleaded for clemency and Brazil, which has tried to intervene in Iran’s stand-off with the West over its nuclear program, offered Miss Ashtiani asylum.

A number of celebrities, including Robert Redford, Robert De Niro and Sting called for her release in an open letter to the Iranian regime, backed by more than 80 actors, artists, musicians, academics and politicians.

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Cucumber Crisis Grows – 14 Dead in Germany, Hundreds Ill

May 31, 2011

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BERLIN (AFP by Frederic Happe) — Germany on Monday held crisis talks amid reports that at least 14 people have died and hundreds are ill in an outbreak of a highly virulent strain of bacteria found on imported cucumbers.

German cucumber slice

A slice of a German cucumber

Belgium and Russia banned the import of vegetables from Spain, believed to be the source of at least some of the contaminated cucumbers. Madrid shot back saying it would seek financial compensation from the European Union for lost sales.

More than two weeks after the food poisoning outbreak was first reported in northern Germany, the number of confirmed and suspected cases has reached 1,200, according to media reports.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany’s national disease institute, said three deaths have been officially linked to the bacteria, but “in total about a dozen people have died according to regional authorities”.

These authorities later Monday announced two more deaths: a woman of 50 and a man of 75 — bringing the toll to at least 14.

The Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has described the outbreak of the strain of E. coli as “one of the largest worldwide and the largest ever reported in Germany”.

Authorities in Germany warned against eating raw vegetables after traces of the bacteria were found on organic cucumbers from Spain last week.

But officials said they are unsure what caused the sudden outbreak of enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) which can result in full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a disease that causes bloody diarrhoea and serious liver damage and possible death.

The outbreak has hit countries including Britain, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, but most these cases appear to involve people who had recently travelled to or from Germany.

“Normally we see about 1,000 cases per year, but we’ve now had some 1,200 cases in just 10 days,” Jan Galle, director of the Luedenscheid clinic in western Germany, told ZDF public television.

“And we know that this time the EHEC strain is especially virulent and resistant, and has led to a very high number of HUS” cases, he added.

RKI has reported 329 confirmed HUS cases nationwide.

German Consumer Affairs Minister Ilse Aigner held emergency talks with Health Minister Daniel Bahr and regional state representatives, telling reporters the crisis has “taken a European dimension”.

Burger said the source of the contamination had not been definitively identified.

Last week his organisation said a study had shown that all those affected had eaten significantly above-average amounts of tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers.

Many German supermarkets and shops removed all Spanish-grown vegetables from their shelves.

Belgium said it was blocking cucumber imports from Spain, while Russia said it was banning vegetable imports from both Spain and Germany.

The Netherlands, which usually exports vast amounts of vegetables to Germany, said sales had collapsed. German farmers also said consumers were boycotting their vegetables.

Doctors remained unsure how to treat the disease which can result in total kidney failure.

“We have 61 adults hospitalised, 21 in intensive care,” a spokeswoman for the Eppendorf University Clinic in Hamburg, where most cases are being treated clinic, said Monday evening.

The clinic has appealed for blood donations.

“We are using between 500 and 700 bags of plasma per day, compared to 60 normally. We’re running out of supplies,” the spokeswoman said.

Rolf Stahl, a neurologist at the clinic, said nearly a third of patients there had lost all kidney functions and were on dialysis.

Doctors were experimenting with a new type of monoclonal antibodies drug, Eculizumab, which, while not officially approved, has been administered to 11 patients in a bid to save their lives.

“The infection source remains active and we have to reckon with a growing number of cases,” Bahr said.

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