(2020-03-31). Trump, Erdogan speak by phone, 'stress need' for ceasefires in Syria & Libya. rt.com 
US President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan underlined on Tuesday the need for ceasefires in Syria and Libya during the coronavirus pandemic, the White House said. The two spoke by phone on efforts to "defeat the virus and bolster the global economy," according to its statement. | They "agreed it is more important now than ever for countries in conflict, particularly Syria and Libya, to adhere to ceasefires and work toward resolution," it said. | Syria's government has so far reported only a handful of Covid-19 cases. Health experts warn that the country, torn apart by years of c…
(2020-03-31). Covid-19's attacks on the down-and-out in ultra-unequal South Africa. zcomm.org Lacking linkages to the necessary street-heat that should accompany all the new policy demands, most pro-poor advocacy has been directed at meekly persuading a Presidency, Treasury and Reserve Bank to reverse course…
(2020-03-31). Expanding California African Trade in this New Era. indybay.org California, the fifth largest economy on earth, will embrace a positive new way forward in partnership with the African Continental Free Trade Area…
(2020-03-31). Papua New Guinea: 4,000 nurses to strike over COVID-19 readiness. wsws.org The strike comes as the COVID-19 pandemic escalates across the Pacific with the region's first fatality reported in Guam.
(2020-03-31). EU launches Libya military mission. yenisafak.com EU foreign ministers approved on Tuesday the launch of a new military mission, Operation IRINI, to monitor the UN arms embargo on Libya.The new mission will operate in the air, sea, and through satellites to ensure that all countries respect the ban on providing arms for the parties involved in the Libyan conflict."Even in the time of coronavirus, the EU shows determination to promote peace on our neighborhood," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell pointed out at a press conference on Tuesday.The EU forces will also watch for the illegal oil exports, prevent human trafficking and contribute to the training of th…
(2020-03-31). Trump, Erdogan Stress Need for Ceasefire in Syria, Libya During COVID-19 Pandemic – White House. sputniknews.com In January, an international conference on Libya took place in the German capital, counting Russia, the United States, the European Union, Turkey, and Egypt among its participants. The sides agreed to a ceasefire and for third parties not to be involved in the conflict.
(2020-03-31). World Suffering Less from Coronavirus Crisis & More from an America Crisis. iranian.com In his 1948 classic novel "The Plague," which tells the story of the fictional outbreak of a rat-borne plague in the Algerian port city of Oran under French colonialism, French writer and thinker Albert Camus explores the way the plague and ensuing crisis taps into the very best and worst of the human condition. The current …
(2020-03-30). Africa's confirmed cases of COVID-19 approaching 5,000. wsws.org The need for an internationally coordinated response to stop the spread of the coronavirus on the African continent is urgent.
(2020-03-28). First Person: False promises in Mauritania. news.un.org Women and girls face particular challenges as migrants, whatever their reason for leaving their country of origin. UN agencies are learning more about these difficulties, and how to address them.
(2020-03-28). COVID-19 Prevention Measures Turn Violent in Parts of Africa. telesurenglish.net COVID-19 prevention measures have taken a violent turn in parts of Africa as countries impose lockdowns and curfews or seal off major cities. | RELATED: | Police fired tear gas at a crowd of Kenyan ferry commuters as the country's first day of a coronavirus curfew slid into chaos. At the same time, elsewhere, officers were captured in mobile phone footage whacking people with batons. | Minutes after South Africa's thre…
(2020-03-27). U.S. Is #1 in Pandemic: Rep. Omar Blasts Trump for "Wrong Kind of American Exceptionalism" democracynow.org 
As much of the United States is under lockdown, the House votes today on a $2 trillion emergency relief package to address the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. It will generate payments to most Americans and includes protections for workers, but it is also a massive bailout for a number of industries and corporations, and the vote comes as a record 3.28 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits. We speak with Congressmember Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, the first Somali American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and one of the first Muslim women in Congress, about the bill, Trump's response t…
(2020-03-27). Peacekeeping radio stations provide COVID-19 information to vulnerable communities in conflict-affected countries. news.un.org UN Peacekeeping radio stations have in recent decades helped build support for peace process in a dozen countries around the world including Cambodia, Croatia, Namibia and Timor-Leste.
(2020-03-25). Debt relief milestone in Somalia, as World Bank, IMF, call for global payment suspension in light of COVID-19. news.un.org The top United Nations official in Somalia congratulated the Horn of Africa nation on Wednesday for achieving the benchmark set by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), confirming its eligibility for debt relief.
(2020-03-23). Headlines for March 23, 2020. democracynow.org Global COVID-19 Death Toll Passes 15,000 as Italy Drafts Military to Enforce Lockdown, Angela Merkel to Self-Quarantine After Her Doctor Tests Positive for COVID-19, First COVID-19 Cases Reported in Occupied Gaza, War-Stricken Syria and Afghanistan | , Coronavirus Cases Mount Across Africa, Two Nigerians Overdose Self-Medicating with Chloroquine After Trump Praised Anti-Malaria Drug as Possible COVID-19 Treatment, Coronavirus Leads to Lockdowns, Travel Bans in Latin America, as a Colombian Prison Riot Turns Deadly | , Fate of Tokyo Olympics Still Unknown as Canada, Australia Refuse to Send Athletes | , India Lock…
(2020-03-20). Doctor: As Coronavirus Cases Spike Worldwide, We Need Global Cooperation to Halt Spread. democracynow.org 
As the worldwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has topped 10,000, with over 250,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, we speak with Stanford University's global health expert Dr. Michele Barry, an infectious disease doctor. Italy has surpassed China in coronavirus deaths, and cases are rising in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, as the governor of California has ordered all 40 million residents to shelter in place.
(2020-03-20). Headlines for March 20, 2020. democracynow.org Worldwide COVID-19 Death Toll Tops 10,000 as Italian Nurses "Stop Counting the Dead", Refugee Groups Warn of COVID-19 "Carnage" in Camps Housing Millions, Coronavirus Multiplies Across Australia, Latin America, Africa and Middle East, California Gov. Gavin Newsom Issues Statewide "Stay at Home" Order for 40 Million, New York Mayor Calls on Trump to Mobilize Military to Aid Overwhelmed Hospitals, Georgia State Legislators Urged to Self-Quarantine; Spring Break Revelers Party On in Florida, Demands Grow to Empty ICE Jails as NJ Detention Center Worker Tests Positive, Trump Blasts "Corrupt" Media at Rambling Coronav…
(2020-03-18). [Research Paper] A phase 1b randomized study of the safety and immunological responses to vaccination with H4:IC31, H56:IC31, and BCG revaccination in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-uninfected adolescents in Cape Town, South Africa. thelancet.com BCG revaccination administered as a single dose ID and both H4: IC31 and H56: IC31 administered as 2 doses IM had acceptable safety profiles in healthy, QFT-negative, previously BCG-vaccinated adolescents. Characterization of the assays and the immunogenicity of these vaccines may help to identify valuable markers of protection for upcoming immune correlates analyses of C-040-404 and future TB vaccine efficacy trials.
(2020-03-17). [Comment] COVID-19: towards controlling of a pandemic. thelancet.com During the past 3 weeks, new major epidemic foci of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), some without traceable origin, have been identified and are rapidly expanding in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East, with the first confirmed cases being identified in African and Latin American countries. By March 16, 2020, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China had increased drastically and the number of affected countries, states, or territories reporting infections to WHO was 143.1 On the basis of "alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction", on March 11, 2020, the…
(2020-03-12). The Government Has a Secret Plan to Track Everyone's Faces at Airports. We're Suing. aclu.org U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration are putting us on an extraordinarily dangerous path toward the normalization of face surveillance. But because key facts about this surveillance are still secret, the public lacks the information it needs to hold these agencies to account. We're
(2020-03-04). [Commentary] We all progress through progress towards gender equality. thelancet.com Ubuntu — often translated as "I am because we are" — is an African humanist philosophy asserting that we are all interconnected and derive our humanity from each other [1]. It follows that we progress through the progress of others. Archbishop Desmond Tutu put it this way [2]: "We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."
(2020-03-03). [Research Paper] Violence-related knife injuries in a UK city; epidemiology and impact on secondary care resources. thelancet.com Knife injuries constitute 12 ∑9% of trauma team workload. Violence recidivism and intoxication are common, and females are predominantly injured in a domestic setting, presenting opportunities for targeted violence reduction interventions. 13 ∑9% of injuries involved machetes, with implications for law enforcement strategies.
(2020-02-24). [Articles] Effects of updated demography, disability weights, and cervical cancer burden on estimates of human papillomavirus vaccination impact at the global, regional, and national levels: a PRIME modelling study. thelancet.com HPV vaccination provides greater health benefits and is more cost-effective than was previously estimated. The demography update, which incorporates population aging, has the largest effect on the health impact estimates. The WHO African region is expected to gain the greatest health benefits and should be prioritised for HPV vaccination.
(2020-02-10). [Research Paper] Outcomes of a nine-month regimen for rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis up to 24 months after treatment completion in nine African countries. thelancet.com The close to 80% relapse-free success indicates the good outcome of the regimen in low-and middle-income settings. Results confirm the lesser effectiveness of the regimen in patients with initial resistance to fluoroquinolones and support the use of high-dose isoniazid, but do not support exclusion of patients for resistance to drugs other than fluoroquinolones.