Free Republic

Uganda's anti-gay bill causes Commonwealth uproar Proposed law that would impose life imprisonment on homosexuals has the potential to divide leaders at summit Geoffrey York Johannesburg — From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Published on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009 3:13AM EST Last updated on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009 4:02AM EST The Commonwealth convenes for a summit this week amid growing furor over a proposed law that would impose life imprisonment on homosexuals in Uganda, whose President is chairing the gathering. The law, proceeding through Uganda's Parliament and supported by some of its top leaders, would imprison anyone who knows of the...

The Commonwealth convenes for a summit this week amid growing furor over a proposed law that would impose life imprisonment on homosexuals in Uganda, whose President is chairing the gathering. The law, proceeding through Uganda's Parliament and supported by some of its top leaders, would imprison anyone who knows of the existence of a gay or lesbian and fails to inform the police within 24 hours. It requires the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” – defined as any sexual act between gays or lesbians in which one person has the HIV virus. The controversy is growing because Ugandan President Yoweri...

The Grassroots Fight Against Terrorism Sarah Carlsruh, November 19, 2009 Are we winning the war on terror? The Cultural Strategies Institute hosted a panel addressing this question at the National Press Club on October 11th. Host Lowell Christy said that the military is over-professionalized, and thus the only real solution is concrete actions focusing on the “invisible dynamics” of terrorism. Panelist Dr. Dominick Donald, who works with the Aegis U.S. Liaison Teams in Iraq to “establish ground truth,” discussed the work being done by the Department of Defense to understand and maintain order at a grassroots level in conflict zones....

Muslim Extremists Attack Worship Service in Uganda Christians examine damage to their church outside of Kampala, Uganda. Church member taking photos beaten, building damaged. NAIROBI, Kenya, November 11 (CDN) — About 40 Muslim extremists with machetes and clubs tried to break into a Sunday worship service outside Uganda’s capital city of Kampala on Nov. 1, leaving a member of the congregation with several injuries and damaging the church building. Eyewitnesses said the extremist mob tried to storm into World Possessor’s Church International in Namasuba at 11 a.m. as the church worshipped. “The church members were taken by a big surprise,...

"Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen vow they will deflect the fighting to Kampala and Bujumbura" Shabelle: SOMALIA SNIPPET: "MOGADISHU (Sh.M. Network) – the Islamist officials of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen have Friday talked about yesterday’s shelling in Somali capital Mogadishu and said that they will deflect the fighting in Mogadishu Kampala and Bujumbura." SNIPPET: "The official of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen had threatened to the African Union troops reiterating that they will replace the fighting continuing in Mogadishu to the capital cities of Uganda and Burundi."

KASESE, Uganda (Oct. 20) — For years, Charles Wesley Mumbere worked as a nurse's aide in Maryland and Pennsylvania, caring for the elderly and sick. No one there suspected that he had inherited a royal title in his African homeland when he was just 13. On Monday, after years of political upheaval and financial struggle, Mumbere, 56, was finally crowned king of his people to the sound of drumbeats and thousands of cheering supporters wearing cloth printed with his portraits.

Focusing on the needs in Uganda the International Mission Board, the sending arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, sends missionaries for two years through their Journeyman Program. The Journeyman, such as Chris Bosson, shadow a church and primarily start new churches and equip them with everything from food, medical care, to Bible resources. Chris Bosson's time was spent ministering to the youth in villages by showing the Jesus Film, leading youth Bible conferences, and teaching a weekly youth Bible Study out of his home. This weekly Bible Study-Crossover continues today under Pastor Enoch Kategaya's oversight.

As Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, the leader of Libya, hosted an African Union summit last week, his name was romantically linked in a court case with the queen mother of an ancestral Ugandan kingdom. Two editors of a Ugandan daily newspaper are being prosecuted for alleging that he is having an affair with her. The Libyan ambassador, who initially brought the case seeking £245m in damages, said in his affidavit that the editors had launched an almost daily campaign to defame Gadaffi. The Ugandan director of public prosecutions, which has taken over the case, accused the editors of defaming a foreign...

When Israeli commandos stormed the airport terminal in Entebbe, Uganda, on July 4, 1976, they and the 260 passengers of the hijacked aircraft were probably unaware that a small Ugandan Jewish community had gathered in their village 175 miles away to pray for the safety of their brethren. In fact, the Ugandan Jewish community was unknown to most of the world until after the fall of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in 1979. Though the community is small in number, its unique history and recent revitalization are remarkable. If their rabbi, Gershom Sizomu, and Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue) — a...

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Uganda's coffee exports and output have been unaffected by the global economic downturn and prices are expected to remain stable in the short term, its agriculture minister said on Monday. Uganda is Africa's second biggest coffee grower after Ethiopia, and exports its coffee beans mainly to Europe. "There has been no impact that we have seen from the drop in the global economy ... we forecast that prices will be stable in the short term," Aggrey Bagiire told Reuters on the sidelines of an agribusiness conference in Cape Town. The east African country earned $35.6 million...

BANGKOK, Thailand - A Russian dubbed the "Merchant of Death" for allegedly supplying weapons to Africa's bloody conflicts over power and diamonds was arrested Thursday in Thailand on suspicion of conspiring to smuggle guns to Colombia's leftist rebels. Viktor Bout, 41, whose dealings reportedly inspired a 2005 movie about the illicit arms trade, was arrested at U.S. request in his hotel room in Bangkok, said police Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan. Bout had eluded arrest for years and was finally seized after a four-month sting organized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In New York, federal authorities unsealed a criminal complaint...

BANGKOK, Thailand — A Russian arms dealer accused of breaking U.N. arms embargoes by supplying weapons to African war zones was arrested Thursday in Bangkok, Thai police said. Viktor Bout was arrested in the heart of the capital city on a warrant issued by a Thai court, said Police Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan, head of the Crime Suppression Bureau. The warrant stemmed from an earlier one issued by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, he said. A U.S. Embassy spokesman "congratulated" Thai police for the arrest but could not provide details about the role U.S. officials played in it. Details of...

Kampala - Uganda's oil reserves could be as much as that of the Gulf countries, a senior official at the US Department of Energy has said. Based on the test flow results encountered at the wells so far drilled and other oil numbers, Ms. Sally Kornfeld, a senior analyst in the office of fossil energy went ahead to talk about Uganda's oil reservoirs in the same sentence as Saudi Arabia. "You are blessed with amazing reservoirs. Your reservoirs are incredible. I am amazed by what I have seen, you might rival Saudi Arabia," Kornfeld told a visiting delegation from Uganda...

ENTEBBE, Uganda (AFP) - Africans must travel to the moon to investigate what developed nations have been doing in outer space, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Saturday. "The Americans have gone to the moon. And the Russians. The Chinese and Indians will go there soon. Africans are the only ones who are stuck here," Museveni said, addressing a meeting of the Uganda Law Society in Entebbe. "We must also go there and say: 'What are you people doing up here?'."

The UN children’s agency, Unicef, and human rights watchdog Amnesty International are among the organisations promoting homosexuality in Uganda, the Government said yesterday. Ethics and integrity minister Dr. James Nsaba Buturo, in a hard-hitting statement to Parliament, also implicated Human Rights Watch, Frontline Human Rights Defenders and East Horn of Africa Human Rights in the “racket”. The organisations, Buturo said, were working with local groups which depend on them for funding, to spread homosexuality in the local population. “Those behind this abnormal, unhealthy, unnatural as well as illegal lifestyle have argued that legalising homosexuality would be a human right and...

Dr. Filippo Ciantia (left) talks with First Lady Janet Museveni Kampala, Uganda, Apr 1, 2009 / 02:48 pm (CNA).- Each day more scientists, researchers and doctors are voicing their support for Pope Benedict XVI’s statement that condoms are not decreasing the spread of AIDS in Africa. Dr. Filippo Ciantia, a Ugandan doctor who specializes in tropical medicine, told CNA that, “In every African country where there has been HIV prevalence decline, this has been preceded by decline in casual and multi-partner sex.” Ciantia worked in Northern Uganda from 1980-1989, the critical years where an unidentified virus, now known to...

The Last King of Scotland is a 2006 British drama film based on Giles Foden's novel of the same name. The Last King of Scotland tells the fictional story of a young Scottish doctor who travels to Uganda and becomes the personal physician to the dictator Idi Amin. The movie is based on factual events of Amin's rule. The film opens in Scotland in 1970 as Garrigan graduates from medical school. He journeys to rural Uganda to work in a missionary clinic. Impressed by Amin's charisma and by his vision of an egalitarian golden age for Uganda, Garrigan accepts the...

Over the past few years I have had the privilege to have known a native Ugandan missionary named Mike Wangolo. He is the leader of a team of Africans called Afri-Tendo (http://www.thrustministries.org/) who make periodic trips to the United States to witness to Americans through native songs and dances. During his travels he has become a close and valued friend to many of my friends and family. Through his story and example many people have developed a heart of love and compassion for the Ugandan people. One of the people influenced by Mike Wangolo through his trips to the United...

The story arc of every papal trip is the same. First, journalists try to invent a controversy that they find more interesting than the true purpose of the trip. Then, the Pope wins people over in ways no one expected. Finally, surprised journalists file stories about how the Pope isn’t such a bad guy after all.In the story of Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to Africa — a trip that is ongoing as we go to press — that story is playing itself out. This time, the controversy is over the Holy Father’s remarks about condoms and AIDS.Pope Benedict addressed the...

AN alien weed that harms human beings, kills livestock and chokes crops has invaded Uganda. Congress weed, scientifically known as Parthenium hysterophorus, has been seen rapidly multiplying in several spots especially along the highway across Uganda from Busia and to Kabale. Dr. Gad Gumisiriza, head of the invasive species project in the agriculture ministry, said the weed has so far been detected in at least 12 districts. “This is a very aggressive weed which requires quick response. If you delay it can grow and get out of hand.” The most affected areas are Busiu along the Tororo-Mbale highway and Busia...

Ugandan Christians will use the 40 days of Lent beginning Wednesday to pray for an end to the practice of human sacrifice which continues to spread shock and fear throughout the East African country. From mid-2007, children have been kidnapped and murdered in what police and state officials say are bizarre rituals to attain wealth. There have been similar murders targeting albinos in neighbouring Tanzania. In the latest incident, the body of a 16-year-old girl was discovered in Kibaale District on Saturday, four days after she disappeared from home. Her private parts and fingers were missing and the head was...

After 19 years on the run, German police arrest members of RZ group, which was involved in hijacking Air France plane with dozens of Israelis on board in 1976 Two suspected members of a German left-wing terror group which took part in some of the most notorious hostage dramas of the 1970s have surrendered to authorities after 19 years on the run. Federal state prosecutors in Karlsruhe said on Sunday that the two suspected members of the "Revolutionaere Zellen" (RZ), or Revolutionary Cells, had given themselves up in December. RZ members helped Carlos the Jackal take ministers hostage at an...

The first known case of Marburg hemorrhagic fever in the United States was treated at Lutheran Medical Center in January 2008, it was announced Friday. The disease, which is caused by a virus indigenous to Africa, is transmitted by contact with infected animals or the bodily fluids of infected humans. The patient, who was not identified, had apparently contracted the virus when he visited Uganda. While in that country, he had visited a python cave in Maramagambo Forest in Queen Elizabeth Park, where he came into contact with fruit bats, which are capable of harboring the Marburg virus. The CDC...

UN appalled by Ugandan rebel militia’s trail of devastation in DR Congo 16 January 2009 – The Ugandan rebel militia terrorizing villagers in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has killed over 500 people and forced some 115,000 to flee their homes since September, the United Nations refugee agency reported today, adding it was “shocked” by the state of survivors remaining in the area. The attacks have prompted condemnation from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council, which today voiced its grave concern at the scale of the atrocities and emphasized that those responsible must be brought to justice....

Canada has its first mile-high baby: Ottawa has granted citizenship to Sasha, the child born to a Ugandan woman on an international flight over Canada. The four-pound, 13-ounce baby was delivered on a crowded Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Boston on New Year's Eve. The mother, who was 81/2 months pregnant when she boarded, went into labour about six hours into the eight-hour flight and delivered the child as the plane crossed through Canadian airspace.

Rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army have murdered about 500 people in a series of massacres in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The gunmen, who terrorised Northern Uganda for more than 20 years, have a turned a remote area of north-eastern Congo into their new killing ground. An offensive mounted by Uganda’s army appears to have scattered the insurgents, who are now carrying out brutal revenge attacks on innocent villagers. Scores of people were hacked and burned to death in a massacre inside a church on Boxing Day. Since then, mass killings have taken place in the towns of Duru,...

Uganda's army has accused the Lord's Resistance Army rebels of hacking to death 45 civilians in a Catholic church in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Capt Chris Magezi said the scene was "horrendous... dead bodies of mostly women and children cut in pieces". The attack happened on 26 December. A rebel spokesman has denied responsibility for the killings, which follow a collapse in the peace process. The UN says at least 189 people were killed in several attacks last week. Some reports say more than 100 people were killed in the church alone. The armies of Uganda, South Sudan and DR...

Hollywood, Fla., may join Opa-locka, Fla., St. Louis and Masaka, Uganda, in naming streets after President-elect Barack Obama. Thomas and Theresa Smith, activists in Hollywood's predominantly black Washington Park neighborhood, say they've gotten a positive response from city leaders to their request to rename Pembroke Road, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Saturday. He's the first black president of our country; the first! Thomas said. Hollywood has streets named after presidents, but because Pembroke Road is a state road, the renaming ceremony, if it happens, is a way off, say city officials, who need approval from the Florida Legislature. Opa-locka last...

Right Side News previously published a Refugee Resettlement Watch paper exposing the security breach in the P-3 Program which has allowed thousands of illegal aliens from Islamist activist countries like Somalia. Fraud Pervasive in African Refugee Program FairUS.org The State Department has suspended the Africa Priority Three (P-3) Program because of an investigation into the refugee family reunification program that revealed that less than 20% of the African applicants were able to prove familial ties. Since it began in 2003, nearly 36,000 African nationals have come to the United States as P-3 Program refugees. The State Department report also indicates...

KAMPALA (AFP) – Uganda's police warned male bar-goers to keep their noses clean after a probe found a gang of robbers had been using women with chloroform smeared on their chests to knock their victims unconscious. "They apply this chemical to their chest. We have found victims in an unconscious state," Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) spokesman Fred Enanga told AFP. "You find the person stripped totally naked and everything is taken from him," he said. "And the victim doesn't remember anything. He just remembers being in the act of romancing." Enanga, who explained that several types of heavy sedatives had...

In a triumph of the human spirit, it was reported last week that a woman sold into slavery at age 12 in Niger successfully sued the West African country’s government for not protecting her from this barbaric practice. Besides winning her case, the woman, Hadijatou Mani, 24, who was physically and sexually mistreated for years, also experienced the satisfaction of drawing the world’s attention to the obscenity of child slavery in Islamic countries. And perhaps no where is child slavery more prevalent in Africa than in the Sudan. A Ugandan parliamentary committee heard last week that as many as 30,000...

[Pan-Arabism = tyranny - racism] Eritrea Slams... IGAD as Tool of Anti-African Policies Oct 28, 2008 ... IGAD member states include a bunch of derelict or failed states that consist in the epitome of malfunction, ferocity and malignancy. With Eritrea having wisely suspended its participation in this nest of snakes in 2007, IGAD represents the illegal interests of the undemocratic and terrorist governments of Abyssinia, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya and Uganda. The six (6) countries´ names are the most loathed (by the inhabitants of the respective countries) country names throughout the globe. In fact, Abyssinia, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya and...

A community in eastern Uganda has banned the deeply rooted practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), an official has said. Kapchorwa district chairman Nelson Chelimo said it was "outmoded" and "not useful" for the community's women. The Sabiny are the only group in Uganda that practises FGM, which involves cutting off a young girl's clitoris. Mr Chelimo said the council had submitted legislation to parliament for the ban to become law nationwide. "The community decided that it was not useful, that women were not getting anything out of it, so the district council decided to establish an ordinance banning it,"...

Mini skirts are an indecent way of dressing, according to Uganda’s ethics and integrity minister Nsaba Buturo. Wearing a miniskirt should be regarded as “indecent”, which would be punishable under Ugandan law, Mr Buturo said.

IT comes as a surprise to many Ugandans that our country is a member state of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). With Christians making up 80% of the population and Muslims accounting for only 12 %, it is indeed a surprise that Uganda belongs to a Muslim body. Delegates from the OIC member states met in Kampala from June 16 to June 20 to discuss issues affecting them. How Uganda found herself in the same block with Arab countries can be traced to one ambitious leader. His dream was to be a life president, but it was slipping out...

In addition to drawing crowds of international dignitaries, President Shimon Peres's "Facing Tomorrow" presidential conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday brought together Ugandan President Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and members of the Netanyahu family, whose oldest son, Yoni, was killed in the 1976 Operation Thunderbolt. Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, his brother Ido and his father, Prof. Benzion Netanyahu, met with Museveni in the afternoon at the Knesset. As part of the meeting, Museveni announced that the only remaining structure of the old Entebbe airport, the control tower, would be turned into a museum commemorating the operation later renamed "Operation Yoni." Yoni...

Henry Zakumumpa 'First we were afraid of the wolf, then we wanted to dance with the wolf now we want to be the wolf' a Chinese Central Bank official used this analogy to describe China's world trade rivalry with the United States. Chinese industrialisation is unfolding at an unprecedented speed while driving an enormous demand for raw materials and new markets. China has become the 'factory of the world' for dominating global production of all goods imaginable from safety pins to domestic appliances because of its cheaper prices and low labour costs. Pick up a souvenir from any western capital...

Somalia's foreign minister says his government will ask the U.N. Security Council to send a multi-national force to his country to take over from African Union peacekeepers who are currently trying to help bring stability to Somalia... Ali Ahmed Jama told reporters at the United Nations Tuesday that his government will use this week's two-day meeting at U.N. headquarters of African leaders and Security Council member states to press for an international force to take over security in Somalia... The current African Union force, known as AMISOM, is made up of about 2,300 troops from Uganda and Burundi. Jama said...

Text of unattributed report entitled "Uganda nets 20 over Al-Qa'idah" published on the latest headlines section of Ugandan newspaper The New Vision website on 29 March About 20 people suspected to be linked with Al-Qa'idah have been arrested and interrogated by Ugandan security authorities. Sources say some have been deported after "thorough screening" from a list of the most wanted people who engage in terrorist activities and with Al-Qa'idah links. Source: The New Vision website, Kampala, in English 29 Mar 09

WINDHOEK (Reuters) - North Korea's number two leader ended a trip to Namibia, a leading uranium producer, on Sunday saying he would strengthen ties with the country. North Korea, under pressure to declare its nuclear programmes, and Namibia said they signed a memorandum of understanding on diplomatic consultations. Kim Yong-nam, president of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, started an African tour on Thursday in Namibia, the world's fifth-largest uranium miner. In a joint statement issued by Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba's office, the countries "expressed satisfaction" that their ties have grown. North Korea watchers said the search for business...

I've heard Reverend Wright went to Africa. I found it interesting that there was a big event going on in Uganda over the past week: the Gaddafi National Mosque opened and quite a few tyrants attended the event. There was also an Afro/Arab youth summit taking place at the mosque that gathered over 6,000 delegates from middle eastern nations. Gaddafi gave a few crazy speeches while he was there. I wonder if Wright attended?? Here are a few links describing what went on in Uganda: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7305641.stm http://allafrica.com/stories/200803210005.html http://en.ljbc.net/online/news_details.php?id=2863

“The situation is bad…They are chasing everybody including teachers and fellow pupils, throwing stones, banging doors and windows,” the school’s headmaster Vincent Kitende said.

FOR A FEW FLEETING moments Monday night--what should have been vivid and affecting moments--television coverage of President Bush's final State of the Union address fastened on the image of a mother and daughter from Moshi, Tanzania. They sat, their faces alive with hope, in the first lady's box seats. Viewers were not told, and no one seemed inclined to tell them, that Tatu Msangi and her daughter Faith quite literally owe their lives to the Bush administration. After Msangi became pregnant, she went to a clinic at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center and learned she was HIV-positive. Five years ago...

The first time a knife was put to Anna Alwoch's face, her lips were hacked off by rebels. The next two times, sharp blades were used by surgeons to rebuild her mouth -- and the process is almost done. Alwoch (55) is on a list of candidates for plastic surgery to repair her face, along with other victims who were mutilated by members of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda. The LRA massacred thousands and abducted over 10 000 children to be soldiers and sex slaves during its 20-year rebellion against the central government. More than two...

Why Hillary should go to White House Thursday, 17th January, 2008 Hillary speaks at her New Hampshire presidential primary election rally By Rose Namayanja THE 2008 presidential race in America is a major test for democracy in that country. If he scoops it, Barack Hussein Obama will be the first black president. Likewise, Hillary Rodham Clinton would be the first woman president. Both options are history making. If the mid-term elections where the Democrats attained majority in Congress are to be a precursor to the presidential elections, then Democrats stand a chance to regain the White House. I’m an ardent...

LONDON: A plot by al-Qa'ida operatives to kill the Queen during a state visit to Uganda less than two months ago was foiled by security services. The terrorists had planned to hide inside two broadcast vans owned by the Ugandan Broadcasting Corporation and then set off bombs during the Queen's visit to Kampala last November. London's Sunday Express reported the vans were seized after a tip-off from intelligence agents. As a result, the broadcaster was unable to transmit live pictures of key summit events, including the Queen's historic address to the Ugandan parliament on November 22. The Queen, Prince Philip,...

MBARARA, Uganda — At the AIDS clinic here, the stories are brutal. A young cattle herder, infected with H.I.V. along with his wife, tells me that all four of their children died before turning 3. ... And most patients I meet say they and their families scramble to survive from meal to meal, never far from the edge of starvation. Many say their H.I.V. drugs have drastically increased their appetites and made them crave food even more. ... “Sometimes I am so hungry,” a 44-year-old widow says. “It’s intense. My whole body is shivering from hunger. Even when I have...

A Kampala preacher who allegedly raped and impregnated his 16-year-old daughter says jealous pastors simply want to bring him down. The girl produced a baby boy who made 6 months this week. In a bizarre twist, the mother of his abused girl claims that she herself was forced into sex by the same pastor, resulting in the conception of Lucia (real name withheld). Pastor Herbert Bugembe, 33, of the defunct Great Commission Christian Centre in Bweyogerere, is said to have raped Lucia, now 17, in Nairobi last year. Lucia's mother, Joyce, claims that she conceived her daughter after Bugembe forcibly...

WASHINGTON, December 13, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In what came as a shock to some, US First Lady Laura Bush promoted condom use "every time" in the pages of the Washington Post on December 1st. Writing on World AIDS Day Bush urged: "Practice safe sex," and advocated the "correct and consistent use of condoms" which she said, "means not just occasionally, but every time." Of note, Mrs. Bush suggested her approach was following the example of "our African counterparts". She wrote: "Let's take a cue from our African counterparts and follow the ABC method of prevention: Abstinence, Be Faithful, and the...

KAMPALA, Dec 10, 2007 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Another seven people were killed by the deadly Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Uganda as twelve new cases were reported over the weekend amid an outbreak that has sounded alarm in ten out of 79 districts across the country. A total of 29 people have so far been killed by Ebola out of 113 infections as of Monday morning, Sam Okware, chairperson of the National Task Force for Ebola, told Xinhua by telephone on Monday. He said seven new cases were reported in the western district of Bundibugyo which has been hit hard...