7 needles was removed from a 3 year`s old stomach

The family of a 3-year-old Kenyan girl, Dorcas Chepchumba, who had 7 needles lodged in her stomach, can now heave a sigh of relief, as doctors Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret successfully removed the harmful metals, and further disclosed that she is now in a stable condition and responding to treatment. 

The needles in the girl's stomach was discovered on Thursday, May 3, by doctors at Kapenguria Referral Hospital shortly after she was rushed to the facility after falling ill. Her grandfather, John Chepkokei, who spoke to newsmen said they do not understand how the needles got into the minor’s stomach.

It was gathered that the mother of Dorcas Chepchumba ran away after the baby fell ill and got married to another man, leaving the baby in the custody of her parents.

"The mother escaped because the child was sickly. She is now married to someone else. We used to give her pain killers and we took her to Center Kwanza Dispensary.We are stranded and we don’t know where to start from,” said grandfather, John Chepkokei Ling’aa. 

According to x-ray scan images, five tiny metals were lodged the abdomen while two others were sandwiched between tissues on her back.  Her grandparents said they had initially thought the baby had been bewitched as she was staying with her mother and step-father, before they started taking care of her. Her grandmother said Chepchumba started complaining of abdominal pain, cough and fever and had been receiving medication at the facility for two days before the needles were discovered. 
“Chepchumba was born well in a hospital. She has been with her mother but when she started being sickly, the mother ran away. I was left to take care of her. We thought that she was bewitched because the child doesn’t belong to the family where my daughter is married," Chepkokei said.

Trial of laurent Gbagbo and wheat

Trial of Gbagbo and Wheat: The defense of Laurent Gbagbo filed his observations after the Bensouda brief, and awaits the response of the Chamber

The Hague Friday, May 4, 2018 - Me Emmanuel Altit, lead counsel for President Laurent Gbagbo, filed the defense's observations before the judges after the brief of the prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, in accordance with the recommendations of the court's Trial Chamber International Criminal Court, according to a source close to the International Criminal Court. 
In these remarks, President Laurent Gbagbo's lawyer addresses the issue of "no case to answer" and bases on which the trial in the case of Laurent Gbagbo and Blé Goudé against the prosecutor will continue.
"Only when the Defense is aware of the position of the Chamber as to the substance of the charges it will have to answer and when it has conducted the necessary inquiries, based on the decision of the Chamber, that it will be able to specify the modalities of presentation of its case ", specifies me Altit. 
The defense also indicates the various steps that it plans to follow in order to provide an optimal presentation of its thesis. 
These include: 
- the ability to examine the Prosecutor's evidence as a whole, and above all to be sure that no new evidence will be added by the prosecution; 
- the possibility for the defense to file a motion to exclude all or part of the charges ("no case to answer");
- to be able to present his case (whether he has lodged a "no case to answer" request or not, that the Judges have refused in whole or in part), that he should be given all the information available to the Prosecutor and that he may have kept by him, which has the obligation to disclose them to the Defense under Rule 77. 
We will come back to this.

Michèle Laffont 
Permanent Correspondent in the Netherlands