kenya's leader agrees to appear at the international criminal court. the first sitting president to do so. ♪ ♪ i am david foster. morning to you. in the next 30 minutes african union forces make their biggest gains yet in the fight against al-shabab. the russian ruble runs in to trouble as western sanctions bite. plus. >> reporter: at the old city in occupied east jerusalem where for the first time in years palestinians from gaza have been given permission to visit a

mosque. ♪ ♪ the kenyan president will become the first sitting president to appear before the international criminal court in the netherlands. he will travel to the haige on tuesday where he will face charges of organizing ethnic massacres that led to the deaths of 1200 people after the 2007 kenyan election. he addressed special sitting of parliament a short while ago. he announced then that he will be delegating authority, temporarily at least. >> to protect the sovereignty of the kenyan remember i now take the extraordinary and unprecedented step of invoking article 43 of the constitutionality and shortly issue the legal notice necessary to appoint honorable william ru t.o. the deputy president as

acting president while i attend the status conference at the haige in the netherlands. >> i had a chance to talk to malcolm web webb our man in nigh robe i he tells us what world happened if he chose not to return to the haige. >> reporter: he could have been served with an international arrest warrant that means other countries that are members of the criminal court would have been oblige today arrest him if i visited. as it is he is continues being to comply with the courts so there are no arrest warrants and there is it is a pretrial hearing and he won't be detained at this stage. it's taken time for the international criminal court firstly to take on the case. originally the kenyan investigation not alleged atrocities then got handed over to the international criminal court. they then took time, years to build their cases since then the

trial has stalled. some of the other styles stalled as well. but in the case of kenyatta1, they have complained that witnesses have been withdrawing their statements, key witnesses have withdrawn their statements and said this is because the witneswitness bribery, intimidan this is something that kenyatta's lawyers deny, they are saying the problems face having a lack of evidence is simply because he is innocent. >> african union and somali government troops have made their biggest gained yet in the battle against al-shabab. they are retaking control of the port town. the border being the main entry point for fighters and arms getting in to al-shabab's hands. and capturing the you wan town t of a larger strategy. it's hope to strangle al-shabab's supply chain. katherine is there and has seen the new regime taking over.

she reports on how residents are react to this change of commands. >> reporter: make getting their way carefully in to the town. ground troops of the african union and the somali army secure the roads. firing warning shots as they take control of the city. most of al sho al-shabab's fighd senior command left long ago but we are told that are chances of namers and hidden explosives. >> the resistence hasn't been as heavy. but as we are coming down, they kept probing us. but we continued moving. so the shots kept reducing and little do we know they are actually retreating back to the ocean, to the coastline and jumping in boats. >> reporter: this is the town square, the same one that al-shabab used for executions as recently as a few weeks ago. now members of a new town administration meet a few people who live here. there is still a lot of anxiety. these people have not seen any

government presence since the collapse of somalia in 1991. and this is their governor, who they have not seen since 2008. here he keeps his promise to publicly cut off his hair if this day ever came. >> clearly it is a great day. because it was the center of al qaeda, for foreign fighters even. >> reporter: this man gives us a glimpse of what life was like under al-shabab. >> translator: they used to kill people by shooting them. even now, you'll still find some blood at the spot where they did it. >> reporter: the offensive is part of an operation aimed at cutting off al-shabab's supply routes from the sea. the soldiers have been getting tactical support from the u.s., the e.u. and private military contractors. the special forces are now securing the city. moving from building to building, trying to look for al-shabab elements.

this is a place where al-shabab leaders held many of their meetings. at the town square o'malley soldiers celebrate their victory but also know that al-shabab could come back. al jazerra, southern somalia. this is al jazerra america, live from new york city. i am tony harris. and we are standing by now just moments away from the start of a news conference out of omaha, nebraska, that's where an american man is being treated for ebola. he is a 33-year-old free-lance cameraman working for nbc at the time that he was stricken. and he was covering the out break of ebola in west africa. he is the fifth american with ebola to return to the united states for treatment. we are expecting to hear from dr. brad the dean of college of medicine at the university of

nebraska medical center. let's take you there live now and pick this up where we are. >> many are fearful about the spread of this disease. indeed it was last thursday that we first became aware and through some ongoing communication thursday and friday the decision was made late friday and transportation occurred over the weekend. we are proud to offer our assistance to work closely with the national, the state, the regional public health leaders to assist in the care, both within our country and through telecommunications around the world. the nebraska medical center bio containment unit is one of the safest places in the world for for him to be. but towels one of the safest places in the world for our team of highly trained professionals caring for him, for his family and for the general public. as with our last patient, we can

assure you that every possible measure will be taken to insure that he receives the very best care and treatment that modern medicine has to offer. along with a signature dose of nebraska an niceness and hospitality for him and his family. joining us today on the panel, dr. ali kahn to my far left. dr. kahn is the dean of the college of public health at unmc and also also has extensive experience working with the cdc in treating ebola in africa. seated next to dr. kahn is dr. bradley britcan. dean of the college of medicine at unmc president of the member medical center and also a disease expert and specialist. in the middle is miss rosanna morris our chief operating officer at the nebraska medical

center. and seated closest to me, i would like to extend a very warm and personal nebraska welcome to dr. mitchell levy, ask & diana mukpo. parents of our patient. so with that, ladies and gentlemen, he would like to open this to your questions. we will take questions live and over the telephone as well. who would like to start? >> do do we know an exact incidents when mr. mukpo came in contact with someone with with he bowl bola or is it too hard to tell? >> i asked him about that a lot. but he's not certain. he was around the clinic and filming inside the clinic so he had an opportunity to be exposed. he does remember one incidents where he was helping spray wash a vehicle with chlorine and thinks he might have been splashed but is not certain.

>> how high are his spirits right now? >> he's enormously relieved to be here. of course it's still quite frightening, but he's hanging in and he sounds very strong. and i think he shares in the relief with the rest of his family that he's been able to come back for good medical treatment here. >> he looks strong. he walked off the plain gingerly waved to us as we saw him from a distance wheeled in to the room and, you know, he's tentative and frightened, but i think he's strong and his symptoms are not more advanced than when i talked to him before he left, which is a real relief to us. [ inaudible ] -- >> he was on i.v. fluids before he left. >> there are reports of 40 physicians and staff working on mr. mukpo, but we have room for 10 patients. if it got to a point where we

had 10, you know, we were at capacity. what type of a staff would be needed to take care of something like that? >> the team of 40 and growing, because we have had many individuals from physicians, nurses, technicians, other support staff who continue to want to volunteer and participate as parts of the care delivery team, really is set up so that we can create a 24/7 presence and the necessary resources for this patient. we have discussed our ability to assume more patients over the course of time and we would evaluate the needs of those patients and what we would need to do to supplement the team further. but at this point in time, he is receiving very good attention and we would reevaluate that option if it were to appear. [ inaudible ] are you considering experimental

treatments? >> i ask you to pull the microphones just a little bit closer. there are some having trouble hearing. >> so, i mean, with each one of these patients, therapy needs to be individualized. so we certainly are really considering all treatment options and obviously will need to be discussed with him. because ultimately if there are experimental therapies involved he has to be willing to and understand the risks and benefits of those. >> the idea of a blood serum from someone who has survived the illness? >> again, all things are being considered. >> do you think the way that mr. mukpo might be treated this time, of course it's still too early to say, would be similar to dr. sak r.a. in the sense that we all three different components to that treatment? it isn't just one drug or one serum or --

>> it will be difficult to predict that. the standards of managing the fluids and all of the other changes that go on in terms of the blood, electrolytes as they are called is going to be standards. the other forms of therapy is that -- will be considered again are going to be individualized to him. >> what did you guys think when your son first went over to liberia, knowing the risks? >> well, i think we both had similar reactions. our son is very strong willed and determined and has always lived by his integrity. and he made a strong connection for the two years that he lived with there with the liberian people and their culture and he felt compelled to go back. when he told me, i asked him if he was crazy. and obviously did everything i could and i know diana as well, to dissuade him. and at the same time, he made it clear that he felt like this was

what he was trained for and he really had to do it. e like he understood the risks and he was is putting himself in harm's way but that's how he wants to live his life. i still think -- [speaking at the same time] >> i am sorry? >> when did he go over? >> i think he went back over -- >> the 4th of september. >> he had been there before? >> yeah, he had come home just in may from being there, working with an ng o-for two years. >> what did you say to try to dissuade him? >> i told him i thought he was craze. >> i i begged him from a mother's perspective. i said please don't go, but there was nothing to do. he was determined. >> i told him about the risks what i knew about ebola why i thought it wasn't a good kwr-fpld the difficult of getting treatment once to get there, if he did get stick, all of the things that any of us would tell our friends or patients orloved ones. and none of it worked obviously.

>> journalists get asked that question a lot, going in to war zones that sort of thing, have you ever had that sort of conversation before? >> yes. >> sure, when he first went to liberia for work for the ngo, he graduated from the london school of economics and columbia university and he went to work for an ng on. in liberia, i am proud of him, and at the same time i would prefer that he went somewhere safer. others parents. >> what did you do for the ngo? >> writing and field work looking at the relationship between the liberian people and big industry. >> and the conditions of the workers in the mines. >> has he expressed any regrets or second thoughts now since it happened? or as realized as well that i knew what i was getting in to. >> it's both. his first reaction was i am sorry i put myself in this situation for you guys. his first comments were more

concern billion dollar what it would do to us. but of course he's probably of two minds, he has some regrets and at the same time, he's still proud of what he's doing. and i am sure that he will go back to doing things just like this. >> have you talked to. [ inaudible ] reached out to your family? >> we have not spoken to him. >> looking on your son's facebook page, he is passionate about the people of liberia and getting them help and the recognition they need. does that kind of show who your son is? he's just a big-hearted person wanting for make a difference in this world? >> that is him in a nutshell and we are very proud of that. >> i would have strong will today that. >> dr. kahn, the doctor did end up back in the hospital over the weekend, is there any indication, although he was found to be ebola free, is. >> any indication that this virus is mutating in i in any wr changing in some way so that each case is different in the

treatment? >> not at this point. so as you know, the patient who was initially treated here at the university was hospitalized briefly over the weekend but was determined -- it was not associated with his he bowl able following the accident, it's a concurrent sort of illness. but there is no evidence of significant mutation or significant changes in the virus. >> we were here a little over a week ago dr. sac research r.a.e tell tale signs of symptoms some might be hidden but we heard the cdc say the symptoms are the same. have you been able to figure that difference out? he thought maybe they weren't the tell tale signs when he talked to us? >> i don't have the specific details of what dr. sac r.a. may have told you, but with any disease everybody doesn't have the same symptoms or progressi

progression. that's why it makes it difficult to tell. there are characteristic conditions that you know it's likely to be ebola. we know that they have had contact with a patient. they have had a fever, they have headaches. they have muscle aches, stomach aches, vomiting, diarrhea. that progression. five to seven days about half -- and some of them about half will have a rash also. but seven, eight days in to it you expect that they have bleeding at punk true sites and that's how their illness would progress. but, again, it's different for each individual person. >> how much of help will it be treating this case that you have already treated dr. sacra, the experience gained from treat that go? >> it's clear that you can learn a lot about a disease from reading about it in journal articles and textbooks and things, but there are really no

substitute for first hand experience in terms of taking care of those patients. with the caveat as dr. kahn said, you know, every patient is different in terms of the course of their disease, how they respond to different treatments and things, but having experienced this in one case it will be very helpful. >> does your team feel more comfortable because of that experience? >> yes. and certainly ms. morris can probably comment on this as well, we did gain some understanding about some symptoms improvements that we could make that accelerate our ability to get laboratory tests back in a timely fashion and some other things that have been implemented or are now part of the standard procedure in the bio containment unit. >> we have many, many questions on the phone and, so we are going to start to take one or two from the phone and because they are not here in person, when you answer if you don't mind just say hi, i am and who you are. who is the first question from the call?

>> yes, this is katherine welch, rhode island public radio. i was calling first will h firsf they know how to get ebola and secondly what are his symptoms now. >> there is mitchell levy. as we mentioned before, he is not quite certain how he got infected. he thinks it might have been an episode when he was spray washing something. where he might have gotten something straight on him. and his symptoms are the same, fever, little bit of nausea. >> can i and a question? hello? >> please. [ inaudible ] from american at this bet an service. because of his connection with tibetan i am interesting to know more about it and hear from his mother diana about his

condition. and wondering if he's going receive the treatment, the medicine, the experiment medicine that that was recently used. >> we are really happy that his symptoms are not extreme yet. that he's arrived here still in the relatively early phases. he seems to be in good spirits. and we are still in the process of discussing with his physicians and the team who are taking care of him, which medications they are going to give him at this time. >> have you been able to speak with him since he's arrived. [ inaudible ] can you talk about that a little bit. >> yes, we were able to speak with him shortly before we came down here through the video cam and it was an enormous relief to be able to see his face. >> will you be able to continue to? how often will you be able to talk to him? >> as often as he and we want

to. >> yeah, he's tired. and i think he wants to rest. so we talked with him and then we let helen talk with him alone for a while and he called us back in and said he wanted to rest. but it was really wonderful to see his face. >> is there even a chance of ebola occurring -- they tested him in massachusetts for ebola but he was cleared by the cdc last week and why would they test again to see if it was -- >> they probably -- ali kahn, they probably tested against through an abundance of caution. we have significant clinical experience at this points and you seem to be immune at least up to 10 years after you have been infected with ebola. as we have previously said, once you have recovered from ebola, you may still secrete a small amount of virus in see men and breast milk and we tell patients after they recover from ebola to take appropriate precautions to make sure there is no secondary

transmission under those circumstances. [ inaudible ] three facilities right now in america are dealing with ebola patients, how closely are you working with each other to learn what you have learned and learn what they have learn? >> extremely closely. our medical team is in constant contact with other colleagues across the united states, and not just across the united states but worldwide. so this is not just an honor to take care of ebola patients but there is an obligation to take the information and share it with the global community so it can be used where the disease is hitting hardest which is in west africa that's where the people need the best lessons to make sure that they can take care of whoever is coming in to their doors. it's not just the medical care, we need to remember the public health components of a good, strong response and how can we take the lessons we are learning here at the university of nebraska medical center on how to protect our employees, protect our patients and protect

our communities and share those lessons back not just in africa, but worldwide. including here in the united states. so we are more than glad and anxious and willing and have been reaching out to -- as others have reached out to us in hospitals across the united states saying how do we protect our patients for us to share our best practices with them. >> dr. kahn, is there anyway that some of your people here at the nebraska medical center could go overseas and help patients there or even give your medical experience to doctors in liberia? >> we have been in -- that's probably a good one for me. we have been in near constant contact with people across the world and particularly in west africa, in texas, et cetera, several times a day. and what we have done is set up some tel telly medicine type linkages that allow us to

connect with medical cam and we are in multiple places simultaneously, we have not ruled out traveling but it seems better to connect electronically worldwide. >> would it almost be like a video conference inside a hospital there? >> that's exactly what's been going on. >> you talked early enter the lessons that you guys have learned about treating ebola and dealing with it. can you expand on that for me? you know, what the hospital has kind of taken away. this is twice now from this earning experience. >> let me give that to our dean of medicine. >> yeah, i mean, i think that in particular the importance of particularly hydration, giving lots of fluids, and monitoring the blood chemistries very, very closely, because they do change,

can change very rapidly, i think has been part of it. symptom control to make the patients comfortable has been another. modifying some of our laboratory procedures to make them more efficient and safe for the individuals carrying out the tests. >> when you say modifying? >> all right, let's with respect this news conference and get the thoughts o on what we have heard here. three-year-old is now in case of the staff in nebraska. mukpo is the fifth american to return to the united states for treatment. during the latest out break in west africa, mukpo was working as a free-lance cameraman in liberia for nbc when he took ill last week. you heard doctors say all treatments are on the table, including experimental treatments. are you crazy was the reaction from his father when told by his

son that he was going back to liberia to cover the out break. and the mom's reaction was please don't go. let's talk to the doctor on the phone. good to talk to you again you were just on the program with us a few hours ago. it's good to have you back. >> good morning. >> it's good to have you back on the air with us. >> hello. >> can you hear me okay? >> yes,. >> good to have you back on the program. it sounds like things are progressing as they should for mr. mukpo. tell us again how you treat this situation? sounds like with a lot of fluids and then we heard something about constantly checking the patient's blood chemistry. >> right. so a lot of patients in liberia are actually dieing from a combination of low blood pressure, which results from dehydration, as well as very low levels of poe tam justice and sodium. and so when you think about it, when you exercise, for example,

you might drinks gatorade to replenish your electrolytes. when people have severe vomiting and diarrhea they are losing massive amounts of fluids as well as electrolytes so those need to be placed they will monitor his blood pressure as well as electrolytes very closely to see what might need to be replace odd avoid problems. the other things that you monitor for in the case of ebola is that the immune system is also weakens, ebola attacks the immune system as part of the way it infects the body. and as a result you are at risk for additional infections. like pneumonia, and other hospital, you know, infections that you can get just from being in an environments with other patients. so they need to monitor carefully to see if he's developing additional inning if hifhe cans that require antibioc treatment. >> what do you think of this facility? it sounds like a facility that

has had recent experience in treating an ebola patients, rick sacra was treated there. it sounds like the facility is up to speed. what do you know about it in terms of its ability to handle this situation? >> they clearly handled one case like this successfully, richard sacra which as a result they developed the infection protocol procedures to make sure infection does not spread to the rest of their staff. they have already had practice with all of that and they have had practice with some of the basics that i already described. monitoring, having a sense for what some of the complications might be. and they also have experience administering experimental medications, mr. sekera, it was not the z-map. >> tkm. tkm ebola, that's the experimental drug you are referring to right now? >> doctor? >> yes, hello, sorry.

i am sort of interruption in the line. >> no, that was me. the experimental druggy think you were referring to was the tkm ebola drug. >> yes. yes. so tkm ebola is another of the experimental. -- another of the experimental drugs for ebola. and it's one of the other promising candidate drugs. it was used in mr. sacra and may well. [ inaudible ] >> dr., good to talk to you again, i want to get to dianeest pwraofbg who idianeestebrook whr us. give us an update on thomas duncan. i understand his condition has taken a bit of a turn for the worse. >> yeah. >> reporter: yeah, tony it hasn't changed much since the weekend, he was downgraded saturday from serious condition to critical condition. he is still in critical condition, we are waiting for another update from the hospital. we'll probably get thater