Syria: Obama authorizes boots on ground to fight ISIS - CNNPolitics.com

Syria: Obama authorizes boots on ground to fight ISIS - CNNPolitics.com: "The United States is set to deploy troops on the ground in Syria for the first time to advise and assist rebel forces combating ISIS, the White House said Friday.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that the U.S. would be deploying "less than 50" Special Operations forces, who will be sent to Kurdish-controlled territory in northern Syria. The American troops will help local Kurdish and Arab forces fighting ISIS with logistics and are planning to bolster their efforts.

The deployment of U.S. Special Operations forces is the most significant escalation of the American military campaign against ISIS to date."



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English Lessons for Free as Malaysia Tackles Drop in Proficiency - Bloomberg Business

English Lessons for Free as Malaysia Tackles Drop in Proficiency - Bloomberg Business: "Malaysia is encouraging schools to teach more classes in English and will offer free lessons to the masses as manufacturers and company chiefs say a deteriorating command of the language is hurting the country’s competitiveness.
Over 90 percent of the 190,000 respondents in an online poll this month said there should be an option to take more subjects in the language, Idris Jala, head of the government’s Performance Management and Delivery Unit, said in an interview on Monday. Prime Minister Najib Razak introduced a dual-language program during his budget speech last week, and the New Straits Times said Thursday the government will organize English communication lessons at no charge from next year."



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National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau axed, anti-poverty schemes starved - The Hindu

National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau axed, anti-poverty schemes starved - The Hindu: "The bureau, under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), had been critical in informing the government’s poverty alleviation interventions with periodic assessments of nutrient deficiency among tribal communities, pregnant women, adolescents and “at-risk” elderly population in India.

“The problem was that the bureau was running in a project mode. Government programmes that run in a project mode for this long are not sustainable. We have been asked to shut down that particular project,” said Soumya Swaminathan, Director-General, ICMR, and Secretary, Health Research Department.

In countries such as India where nutrition has a cultural significance, such organisations provide a good understanding of what people eat and what, therefore, can be culturally accepted nutritional interventions, said Amit Sengupta, convener of the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, the Indian chapter of the People’s Health Movement."



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Hillary Clinton and the Benghazi Gang - The New York Times

Hillary Clinton and the Benghazi Gang - The New York Times: "The pointless grilling of Mrs. Clinton, who fielded a barrage of questions that have long been answered and settled, served only to embarrass the Republican lawmakers who have spent millions of dollars on a political crusade. In recent days, some prominent Republicans have even admitted as much.

If there was any notion that the Select Committee on Benghazi might be on to something, it was quickly dispelled. In a flailing performance, the committee’s chairman, Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, made it evident that he and his colleagues have squandered more than $4.6 million and countless hours poring over State Department records and Mrs. Clinton’s email. They produced no damning evidence, elicited no confessions and didn’t succeed in getting an angry reaction from Mrs. Clinton."



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Target's Halloween Disability Ad Is A Win For Advocates

Target's Halloween Disability Ad Is A Win For Advocates: "NORMALIZING DISABILITIES IN CHILDREN IS PRICELESS."



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‘Yoga Always Helps’ - NYTimes.com

‘Yoga Always Helps’ - NYTimes.com: "The Times analyzed key moments live from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s testimony on Thursday to a House committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya."



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Joe Biden Announces He Is Not Running For President - BuzzFeed News

Joe Biden Announces He Is Not Running For President - BuzzFeed News: "After months of speculation, Vice President Joe Biden announced he will not run for president.
Biden announced the news from the White House Rose Garden. He said on Wednesday that, as he had said before, that he knew the grieving process over the death of his son might continue past the point that he could realistically launch a bid for the presidency.
“I’ve said all along what I’ve said time and again to others: that it may very well be that that process, by the time we get through it, closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president,” Biden said."



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UN chief regrets 'root causes' of refugee crisis were unaddressed - Yahoo News

UN chief regrets 'root causes' of refugee crisis were unaddressed - Yahoo News: ""We should have addressed this issue at the origin," the UN chief told reporters in the Slovak capital Bratislava before visiting a nearby refugee centre."



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Peace Corps smashes application record again, but what does it mean for volunteers? | Devex

Peace Corps smashes application record again, but what does it mean for volunteers? | Devex: "Peace Corps broke a new record for the number of applications received for two-year volunteer opportunities in the 2015 fiscal year. The agency received nearly 23,000 applications, marking a 32 percent increase over the number of applications received in 2014 — and the highest application number since 1975."



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Four killed in protest over plan to extend Congo Republic president's rule | Reuters

Four killed in protest over plan to extend Congo Republic president's rule | Reuters: "At least four people demonstrating against plans to lift presidential term limits in Congo Republic were killed when police opened fire when the crowd refused to disperse, protesters said.

Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets against Sunday's planned referendum on removing constitutional term limits for President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who has ruled the oil producer for all but five years since 1979."



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Phoenix Africa: A boxer, a grandee and an ex-soldier seek $27m for rice-producing business in Sierra Leone | Business News | News | The Independent

Phoenix Africa: A boxer, a grandee and an ex-soldier seek $27m for rice-producing business in Sierra Leone | Business News | News | The Independent: "An Oxford University boxing blue, a former Shell chairman, and an ex-SAS commanding officer are looking to raise $26.6m (£17.8m) to build the biggest food company in Ebola-scarred Sierra Leone.

Phoenix Africa focuses on African countries that are recovering from conflicts, such as Sierra Leone’s long civil war, and are therefore neglected by many investors. With just $250,000, it launched a rice-producing business, Lion Mountains, in the Bo District to the south of Sierra Leone at the height of the Ebola crisis last year."



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General John Holmes' battle to rebuild Sierra Leone 15 years after a daring rescue | Africa | News | The Independent

General John Holmes' battle to rebuild Sierra Leone 15 years after a daring rescue | Africa | News | The Independent: "Fifteen years ago John Holmes led a daring mission in Sierra Leone, helping defeat murderous rebels who were threatening to over-run the country. Now he is back, with an even bigger goal. Peter Oborne reports"



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Parents Advised To Introduce Peanuts, Other Allergenic Foods Early To Prevent Serious Allergy : LIFE : Tech Times

Parents Advised To Introduce Peanuts, Other Allergenic Foods Early To Prevent Serious Allergy : LIFE : Tech Times: "In a review of related evidence published in the Canadian Medical Association journal (CMAJ), findings showed that introducing children to foods that typically cause allergic reactions like eggs and peanuts when they are four to six months old give them higher chances of avoiding a food allergy later in life.

This advice, authors noted, is contrary to the decades old belief of immunologists who advised parents to not include these foods in their children's diet until they are older.

"If parents ask how to prevent allergy in their children, our current advice is to introduce the allergenic foods at four to six months of age," the authors wrote in their study, citing that early and regular exposure to these allergens are important in building tolerance for them.

One of the researches to challenge conventional wisdom when it came to allergies was the Learning Early About Peanut (LEAP) study. Researchers of the LEAP study found that introducing peanuts early to children reduced chances of having allergy to the nuts by about 80 percent."



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Korean families divided by war reunite in the North - BBC News

Korean families divided by war reunite in the North - BBC News: "Hundreds of South Koreans have begun meeting family members in the North in a rare reunion event for families separated by the Korean War.
The reunion, comprising a series of meetings over a week, is being held at a Mount Kumgang resort, at the border.
Thousands of families have been apart with little or no contact since the war ended in 1953.
Reunions have been held sporadically since 1988 and depend on the state of relations between the two countries.
The last reunion was held in February 2014.
This year's meeting comes after an agreement in August that de-escalated tensions sparked by a border explosion that injured South Korean soldiers."



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Canada election: Liberals sweep to power - BBC News

Canada election: Liberals sweep to power - BBC News: "The centrist Liberals, led by Justin Trudeau, started the campaign in third place but in a stunning turnaround now command a majority.
Mr Trudeau, the 43-year-old son of late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, said Canadians had voted for real change.
Incumbent Conservative PM Stephen Harper accepted defeat and his party said he will step down as leader."



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In post-Ebola Sierra Leone, aid is needed, but not all is helpful

We have a big problem now with aid,” Nyuma Tommy, Kpondu’s chief, told me. International NGOs, he said, were now visiting the village regularly, “bringing assistance to orphans and survivors, and nothing to all the rest.” Every month, he said, villagers watched as SUVs rumbled in to deposit food parcels at the homes of these chosen few. Were those who had cared for the dying or lost their closest friends not just as deserving? Had everyone here not suffered enough to merit assistance?

It was a complaint I heard again and again across Sierra Leone: international aid organizations, attempting to ease the burden of those who had suffered most from Ebola, were actually making recovery more difficult, breeding suspicion, distrust, and jealousy in tight-knit villages where communal support offered the best chance for physical and psychological recovery from the disease’s traumas.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2015/1012/In-post-Ebola-Sierra-Leone-aid-is-needed-but-not-all-is-helpful?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoks6%2FLce%2FhmjTEU5z17%2BwlUaG2i4kz2EFye%2BLIHETpodcMTctrMrvYDBceEJhqyQJxPr3DJNUN0ddxRhbkDQ%3D%3D

Nothing less than a seed revolution for smallholder farmers

The challenge, however, is to ensure that improved seed reaches smallholder farmers  — including those at the “last mile” — through sound investment in seed systems.

Farmers typically use two types of seed systems — formal and informal. The first offers modern crop varieties in the form of high-quality “certified” seed, which is generally made available through research organizations, private seed companies, and sometimes emergency relief agencies. Informal or traditional systems move a range of varieties — both local and modern, and of variable quality — through local markets, social networks, and farmers’ own seed stocks.

For decades, nearly all investment in seed systems has focused on supporting the formal model (both public and private). Yet, farmers continue to source the lion’s share of the seed they sow from informal channels. Recent large-scale studies involving 40 crops and 10,000 or more observations (mostly from Africa but also Haiti) document this puzzling conundrum with precision. Farmers were found to obtain 90.2 percent of their seed from informal systems, including 50.9 percent from local markets. Meanwhile, formal sector agro dealers supplied only 2.4 percent of the seed — and most of that was just maize and hybrid vegetable seed. The figures for grain legumes are even more striking: 98 percent from the informal sector and 64.4 percent from markets.

https://www.devex.com/news/nothing-less-than-a-seed-revolution-for-smallholder-farmers-87099

Syria: Whose war is better? | Reinventing Peace

Syria: Whose war is better? | Reinventing Peace: "For the pundits and critics of the Russians, these arguments are easy to produce, because they draw on glaring facts. But Putin’s critique of the policies of the US and its allies is just as valid. We have also played to win a war rather than negotiate a peace, starting with the unbendable line that Asad must go, a factor that may have had a significant influence limiting Asad’s supporters from being able to back negotiations, even if they had wanted to. We have played the same game for years—seeking military defeat—but have done it with less material commitment than the Russians.



 The turn from nonviolent protest to war was enabled by rapid infusion of weaponry to opposition groups (see here, here and here); despite the fact that non-violent change has a stronger proven record. Asad’s crackdown against protesters was overwhelming, but that does not translate into carte blanche for regime change by military force. It is a fallacy to limit civilian protection to toppling governments. The arming of ‘vetted’ rebels has proven to be a ludicrous policy—arms ‘flow’ by nature, particularly in a complex war like this. What is more, you cannot blame rebels for seeking to build what we might term unsavory alliances (also here), with groups that are affiliated with al Qaeda and hardcore Islamists; they are fighting for their lives and would be stupid to use our criteria for picking favorites. So ‘we’ end up now with radical Islamist allies and yet think the vetted insurgents can still pull off a victory. What is more, this scenario envisions winning two wars against all odds: a defeat of Asad and a conflict to consolidate a post-Asad Syria. Should the first war be won, a distant prospect, the second war has a serious chance of looking like the 12 years of violence in post-Hussein Iraq or the mess of Libya rather than anything verging on a pluralistic, western-leaning, minority protecting democracy."



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Polls open in Guinea election amid tight security | Top News | Reuters

Polls open in Guinea election amid tight security | Top News | Reuters: "CONAKRY (Reuters) - Long lines formed in front of guarded polling booths across Guinea on Sunday as the West African country voted in its second free election in nearly 60 years since independence.

Guinea -- Africa's leading producer of bauxite, the raw material for aluminium -- has a history of election violence linked to ethnic tensions, including in a 2010 vote that brought President Alpha Conde to power."



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Why is Singapore covered in smoke, and what can be done about it? (+video) - CSMonitor.com

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2015/1008/Why-is-Singapore-covered-in-smoke-and-what-can-be-done-about-it-video

Environmental and public-health advocates from Singapore, Malaysia, and around the world have been sternly calling on the Indonesian government to strengthen its policies on forest fires, pressuring it in September to ratify a 13-year-old regional agreement on cross-border haze, reported the Guardian.

"Indonesia has already carried out operations for the prevention, mitigation of forest fires and haze, and recovery activities, at the national level," the country's parliament said in a statement, according to the Guardian. "But, to handle cross-border pollution, Indonesia and other Asian nations recognize that prevention and mitigation need to be done together," it said.

The "together" part might be key, as Greenpeace points out that companies that own plantations on Indonesian islands are not necessarily Indonesian.

"Of course all the fires are coming from Indonesia, but Singapore is enjoying the 'deforestation economy' of Indonesia as a financial center," Bustar Maitar, head of Indonesia Forest Campaign at Greenpeace International told the Times. "And there are many Malaysian palm oil companies operating in Indonesia, and Singaporean companies are there as well," he pointed out.

A fish called development

http://www.policyinnovations.org/ideas/commentary/data/00386?utm_content=buffer9363e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

In fact, whether the SDGs succeed will depend to a significant degree on how they influence other international negotiations, particularly the most complex and contentious ones. And an early test concerns a goal for which the Global Ocean Commission actively campaigned: to "conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development."

When political leaders meet at the 10th World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Nairobi in December, they will have an opportunity to move toward meeting one of that goal's most important targets: prohibition of subsidies that contribute to overfishing and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing by no later than 2020.

This is not a new ambition; it has been on the World Trade Organization's (WTO) agenda for many years, and it has been included in other international sustainable development declarations. But, even today, countries spend $30 billion a year on fisheries subsidies, 60 percent of which directly encourages unsustainable, destructive, or even illegal practices. The resulting market distortion is a major factor behind the chronic mismanagement of the world's fisheries, which the World Bank calculates to have cost the global economy $83 billion in 2012.

How common is sexual violence in the humanitarian aid community? | New Scientist

How common is sexual violence in the humanitarian aid community? | New Scientist: "Jones gave a talk last month at the Sexual Violence Management Conference for the Humanitarian sector in London, where she outlined some initial findings from surveys of aid workers that the Headington Institute has conducted over the past five years.

Some 10 per cent of the 1439 aid workers that the Headington Institute surveyed reported being forced into unwanted sexual contact. Three-quarters of those reporting an incident were female. When the Headington researchers examined a sub-set of 1108 aid workers from 37 countries, they found that four in 10 had experienced two or more unwanted incidents."



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Understanding hunger | Devex

Understanding hunger | Devex: "“Now we’re looking at loss of life and loss of potential caused by unseen deficiencies — deficiencies taken for granted in so much of the developed world where people don’t need to know their foods are fortified with nutrients in order to be saved by them,” he said.



 Food fortification has long benefited from a lack of awareness, Lomborg explained. People don’t need to know why — or by whom — their flour is enriched with folic acid and vitamin A in order to see neural tube defects in newborns reduced by 30 percent over a single generation. Likewise, in only a few decades, 91 million children were protected against iodine deficiency, and not because consumers changed their habits, according to a study by UNICEF. Meanwhile, the fortification of cooking oil with vitamin A, which became mandatory in Indonesia in March, reduced vitamin A deficiency in infants and breast-feeding mothers without increasing the amount of cooking oil consumed.



 When governments make fortification mandatory, as they have in one form or another in 84 countries across the globe, advertising and awareness campaigns become less necessary — saving time and budgets, as well as lives."



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Why Obama's legacy trade agreement matters for development | Devex

Why Obama's legacy trade agreement matters for development | Devex: "While negotiations between the 12 countries have wrapped up, the text of the agreement itself will likely not be made public for another few weeks — or perhaps months. Importantly, that final text will ultimately contain the key details of how TPP countries will implement and enforce the accord. What is available so far is the 30-chapter summary of the agreement.

The TPP agreement summary contains an entire chapter specifically on development and it is believed to be a first time that such a multinational trade deal includes a specific focus on the topic. It mentions three areas “to be considered for collaborative work” once TPP enters force — broad-based economic growth, women’s empowerment and education, science and technology. But it remains unclear exactly how a specific development focus will be woven into the contours of the agreement. And the language around it appears vague, for example, calling for the establishment of a TPP Development Committee that will “meet regularly to promote voluntary cooperative work in these areas and new opportunities as they arise.”"



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No Country Is As Deadly For Aid Workers As Afghanistan

No Country Is As Deadly For Aid Workers As Afghanistan: "A recent deadly U.S. airstrike against a hospital in northern Afghanistan was only the latest attack amid the myriad dangers humanitarian workers face in the war-riven country. From 1997 to the end of 2014, more than 450 aid workers were killed, assaulted, or kidnapped in Afghanistan, making it the most dangerous country in the world for doctors, relief workers, and other humanitarians, according to data from the Aid Worker Security Database."



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Where the 'magic happens' for innovation | Devex

Where the 'magic happens' for innovation | Devex: "Innovation can be a real challenge for nongovernmental organizations because of funding constraints and restrictions.

“I think it’s actually really hard for NGOs to innovate,” Ann Mei Chang, executive director of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s U.S. Global Development Lab, said at the Social Capital Markets conference in San Francisco Wednesday. “And I think one of the biggest problems is folks like USAID.”

But USAID has recognized that major funders and old systems are part of the problem and the agency is working to address the issue by providing flexible funding models, she added.

Chang’s comments drew laughs from a crowd of social business enthusiasts, and probably some appreciation from her colleagues from UNICEF, Habitat for Humanity and World Vision International at the SOCAP Conference Wednesday. Devex caught up with Chang for a video interview to hear more about the challenges of scaling innovations at NGOs and her plans for the lab.

“SOCAP really works at the intersection of the private sector, the public sector and NGOs,” said Chang, who spent most of her career in Silicon Valley before joining USAID. The former senior engineering director at Google is now tasked with driving science, technology and innovation through a government agency."

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Protesting group agrees to talks with Nepal government - Yahoo News

Protesting group agrees to talks with Nepal government - Yahoo News: "KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — The main group protesting against a new constitution in Nepal has agreed to sit down for talks with the government in the first step toward easing the lingering crisis in the Himalayan nation."



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Ivory Coast seeks to save forests from illegal cocoa boom | Top News | Reuters

Ivory Coast seeks to save forests from illegal cocoa boom | Top News | Reuters: "With the years of turmoil over, the government of President Alassane Ouattara is preparing to re-exert state authority by expelling tens of thousands of farmers from parks and reserves in an attempt to save the dwindling forests.

Mont Peko, with an illegal population of around 28,000, will prove the first test of the government's new policy. Evictions are slated for December and similar operations will follow in Ivory Coast's more than 200 parks and reserves.

"The role of a national park is not to produce cocoa," said Adama Tondossama, director of the OIPR, one of the government agencies charged with managing protected land. "Those people who are there are there illegally and we'll fight to get them out."

But as it works to roll back decades of environmental destruction, the government faces a dilemma: can it foster conservation while avoiding social unrest and preserving the country's position as the world's top cocoa grower?"



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Beating parasites wins three scientists Nobel prize for medicine | Top News | Reuters

Beating parasites wins three scientists Nobel prize for medicine | Top News | Reuters: "STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Reuters) - Three scientists from Japan, China and Ireland whose discoveries led to the development of potent new drugs against parasitic diseases including malaria and elephantiasis won the Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday.

Irish-born William Campbell and Japan's Satoshi Omura won half of the prize for discovering avermectin, a derivative of which has been used to treat hundreds of millions of people with river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis.

China's Youyou Tu was awarded the other half of the prize for discovering artemisinin, a drug that has slashed malaria deaths and has become the mainstay of fighting the mosquito-borne disease. She is China's first Nobel laureate in medicine.

Some 3.4 billion people, most of them living in poor countries, are at risk of contracting the three parasitic diseases."



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My journey from Doctors Without Borders aid worker to Syrian refugee | Global Development Professionals Network | The Guardian

My journey from Doctors Without Borders aid worker to Syrian refugee | Global Development Professionals Network | The Guardian: "I got on a small, seven-metre long boat with 52 other people. Small children sat around me. The driver of the boat was one of us, a refugee, who had never driven a boat before. It was only an hour at sea to reach one of the Greek islands but the engine was too small to carry the weight. When the fuel ran out some of us had to get in the water to drag and push the boat. We were exhausted when we reached land seven hours later. But we had made it.



 My journey started in Syria, where I have seen the situation in my country get worse and worse, with no end in sight. Several rebel groups, most notably what’s called the Islamic State (IS), have now taken over large parts of the country, including my hometown of Raqqa in northern Syria.



 I joined Médecins Sans Frontières‎ (MSF) in 2014, first working as an administrative assistant in Raqqa, later as assistant project coordinator, helping to set up a new project in Tal Abyad. Providing aid, though, became increasingly difficult as the war dragged on and IS started controlling more areas. It was strange, even shocking, to see people I knew joining IS. One of the leaders in the area was a former neighbour of my family. We had lived next to each other for 20 years; now we had to negotiate with him to be able to provide aid."



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Why the World Bank is changing the definition of the word "poor" - Vox

Why the World Bank is changing the definition of the word "poor" - Vox: "At the United Nations' big gathering in late September, world leaders signed on to an ambitious pledge: "By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day." But just 10 days later, the goalposts shifted. The World Bank – which is in charge of setting the global poverty line — announced it was raising the line from $1.25 to $1.90 a day.

What gives? The cynical explanation is that the World Bank wants to make it harder to eradicate poverty by widening the definition; the fewer poor people there are, after all, the less there is for the World Bank to do.

The real answer is less alarming: The bank is just trying to make sure poverty data stays consistent over time. But the sudden, jarring change is an important reminder that you can’t capture the actual condition of the world’s poor in just one simple number."



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Big palm oil's pledge to preserve forests vexes Indonesia - Yahoo News

Big palm oil's pledge to preserve forests vexes Indonesia - Yahoo News: "JAKARTA (Reuters) - The Indonesian government is asking major palm oil companies to row back on the historic “no deforestation” pledges they made at last year’s United Nations climate change summit, officials and company sources say.

Major palm oil companies were invited to a series of meetings at the economics ministry last week, where officials expressed concern the pledges the plantation companies made are causing big problems for smaller palm oil firms in their supply chain, the sources told Reuters.

The government has asked palm oil firms who signed the Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge (IPOP) to exempt smallholders because they are not yet ready to practice the same level of sustainable forest practices as the big players, said Musdhalifah Machmud, deputy minister for food and agriculture at the coordinating ministry for economic affairs."



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Hillary Clinton comes out against Obama’s Pacific trade deal - The Washington Post

Hillary Clinton comes out against Obama’s Pacific trade deal - The Washington Post: "Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Wednesday that she opposes an expansive 12-nation Pacific Rim free-trade accord finalized by the Obama administration this week, breaking sharply with the president over a deal she had championed while serving as secretary of state.

Clinton said in an interview with PBS that she would not support the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) based on what she knows of the deal. The 30-chapter text of the agreement, which negotiators concluded Monday, has not been made public.

"As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it," Clinton said in the interview. "I have said from the very beginning that we had to have a trade agreement that would create good American jobs, raise wages and advance our national security. I still believe that's the high bar we have to meet. I've been trying to learn as much as I can about the agreement, but I'm worried.""



'via Blog this'

Suspected poachers kill 14 elephants with cyanide, says Zimbabwe | Top News | Reuters

Suspected poachers kill 14 elephants with cyanide, says Zimbabwe | Top News | Reuters: "Suspected poachers used cyanide to kill 14 elephants in Zimbabwe's western Hwange national park and in the north since Sept. 26, the national wildlife agency said on Tuesday"



'via Blog this'

Clooney's South Sudan coffee reaches Europe despite war - Yahoo News

Clooney's South Sudan coffee reaches Europe despite war - Yahoo News: "But coffee company Nespresso is bringing South Sudanese espresso to the international market for the first time as part of a long-term plan to revive the coffee industry in the poor, war-wracked East African country.

Hollywood actor George Clooney –- an advocate for South Sudan and the public face of the Nespresso brand -– launched the initiative two years ago. "There is a real opportunity here," Clooney said in July 2013."



'via Blog this'

UN: No new Ebola cases reported last week - The Washington Post

UN: No new Ebola cases reported last week - The Washington Post: "LONDON — The World Health Organization says there were no Ebola cases reported last week — the first time an entire week has passed without any new confirmed patients since the devastating outbreak began last March.

The U.N. health agency said in a report issued Wednesday that all contacts of Ebola cases in Sierra Leone have now been followed for 21 days without falling sick, suggesting the country might soon be free of the disease."



'via Blog this'

Baby, maternal deaths soar in Sierra Leone on Ebola fear: researchers | Top News | Reuters

Baby, maternal deaths soar in Sierra Leone on Ebola fear: researchers | Top News | Reuters: "DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Maternal and newborn deaths in Sierra Leone have soared since the Ebola outbreak in West Africa as fear of being infected and mistrust of health workers deter pregnant women from giving birth in health facilities, researchers said on Tuesday.

Deaths of women during or just after childbirth rose by almost a third and those of newborns by a quarter between May 2014 and April 2015 compared with the previous year, a study by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) found.

The number of women giving birth at health centres fell by 11 percent, and those receiving care before or after birth fell by around a fifth, despite most facilities across Sierra Leone being functional and adequately staffed, the study said."



'via Blog this'

Doctors Without Borders airstrike: US alters story for fourth time in four days | World news | The Guardian

Doctors Without Borders airstrike: US alters story for fourth time in four days | World news | The Guardian: "US special operations forces – not their Afghan allies – called in the deadly airstrike on the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, the US commander has conceded.



 Shortly before General John Campbell, the commander of the US and Nato war in Afghanistan, testified to a Senate panel, the president of Doctors Without Borders – also known as Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) – said the US and Afghanistan had made an “admission of a war crime”.



Shifting the US account of the Saturday morning airstrike for the fourth time in as many days, Campbell reiterated that Afghan forces had requested US air cover after being engaged in a “tenacious fight” to retake the northern city of Kunduz from the Taliban. But, modifying the account he gave at a press conference on Monday, Campbell said those Afghan forces had not directly communicated with the US pilots of an AC-130 gunship overhead."



'via Blog this'

Former U.N. President and Chinese Billionaire Are Accused in Graft Scheme - The New York Times

Former U.N. President and Chinese Billionaire Are Accused in Graft Scheme - The New York Times: "A former top United Nations official and a billionaire real estate developer from the Chinese territory of Macau were accused on Tuesday of engaging in a broad corruption scheme, according to federal prosecutors in Manhattan.



 The former president of the United Nations General Assembly, John W. Ashe, a diplomat from Antigua, was one of six people identified in a criminal complaint outlining a bribery scheme that involved more than $1 million in payments from sources in China for assistance in real estate deals and other business interests.

Continue reading the main story



 The case is highly embarrassing to the United Nations, which had vowed to act with greater transparency and accountability after past scandals. Mr. Ashe is the most senior diplomat to be accused of such graft, and it remains unclear whether the case will prompt the organization to review how it elects leaders of the General Assembly. It is different from the oil-for-food program scandal in Iraq a decade ago, when an independent commission found widespread abuse."



'via Blog this'

ADB to lend Bangladesh $45 million for water resource project - Yahoo News

ADB to lend Bangladesh $45 million for water resource project - Yahoo News: "DHAKA (Reuters) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is part-funding expansion of a water resources project in southwest Bangladesh that has sharply increased agriculture production and benefited nearly 200,000 people, it said on Tuesday.

ADB is providing a $45 million loan and the government of the Netherlands is expected to give a grant of $7 million. Both provided initial funding for the scheme, which was approved in 2005."



'via Blog this'

No Aid Drove Yemeni Man to Self-immolation, Friends Say

No Aid Drove Yemeni Man to Self-immolation, Friends Say: "WASHINGTON—
The friends of a Yemeni man who set himself ablaze Monday say he took the action because he did not receive support promised to him by the U.N. refugee agency.

Jehad Mohamed, 25, set himself on fire using gasoline and a match outside the UNHCR office in Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland.  Security guards and other refugees put out the flames and Mohamed was rushed to a local hospital."



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