India-Pakistan |
Pakistan among four countries making up half of global maternal deaths: UN report |
2025-04-10 |
[GEO.TV] Pakistain is ranked among four countries — together with Nigeria, India and the Democratic Republic of the Congo![]() Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... (DRC) — that accounted for nearly half of the estimated 260,000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2023, according to UN data released on Monday that has prompted stark warnings about the impact of cuts to aid funding by the US and the UK. Maternal deaths include those related to complications during childbirth or pregnancy, three UN agencies said in a joint report. The trends in maternal mortality report was published by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organisation ...Kind of like the Center for Disease Control only run by the UN, with about the results you'd expectt...> (WHO) and UN sexual and reproductive health agency UNFPA, in observance of World Health Day on April 7. The report showed that Nigeria had the highest number of maternal deaths and accounted for more than a quarter (28.7%) of all estimated global maternal deaths in 2023, with approximately 75,000 deaths. Only three other countries had more than 10,000 maternal deaths in 2023 — India and DRC tied at 19,000, with Pakistain totaling 11,000. India and DRC accounted for 7.2% each, while Pakistain accounted for 4.1% of global maternal deaths. Together, these four countries accounted for almost half (47%) of all maternal deaths globally in 2023, according to the report. The report warned that unprecedented aid cuts are putting global progress to end maternal deaths at risk and called for greater investment in midwives and other health workers. It shows that maternal deaths declined by 40% between 2000 and 2023, largely due to improved access to essential health services. |
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India-Pakistan |
US actions may set polio eradication back, says WHO |
2025-03-04 |
[GEO.TV] The eradication of polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain... as a global health threat may be delayed unless US funding cuts — potentially totaling hundreds of millions of dollars over several years — are reversed, a senior World Health Organisation ...Kind of like the Center for Disease Control only run by the UN, with about the results you'd expectt...> (WHO) official has warned. "Give us money!" The WHO works with groups such as UNICEF and the Gates Foundation to end polio. The planned withdrawal of the United States from WHO has impacted efforts, including stopping collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last week, UNICEF's polio grant was terminated as the State Department cut 90% of USAID's grants worldwide to align aid with President Donald Trump ...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!... 's "America First" policy. In total, the partnership is missing $133 million from the US that was expected this year, said Hamid Jafari, director of the polio eradication programme for the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean region. The area includes two countries where a wild form of polio is spreading: Afghanistan and Pakistain. ''If the funding shortfall continues, it may potentially delay eradication, it may lead to more children getting paralysed,'' he said, adding that the longer it took to end polio, the more expensive it would be. He said the partners were working out ways to cope with the funding shortage, which will largely impact personnel and surveillance, but hoped the US would return to funding the fight against polio. ''We are looking at other funding sources [...] to sustain both the priority staff and priority activities,'' he said. He said vaccination campaigns in both Afghanistan and Pakistain would be protected. UNICEF did not respond to requests for comment, and a spokesperson for the Gates Foundation reiterated that no foundation could fill the gap left by the US Saudi Arabia ![]() gave $500 million to polio eradication last week. The partnership already faces a $2.4 billion shortfall to 2029, as it accepted last year that it would take longer, and cost more, to eradicate the disease than hoped. Related: World Health Organisation: 2025-01-25 Davos elite nod along as Trump delivers ultimatum World Health Organisation: 2024-08-30 Fighting rages in Gaza as Palestinians hope for a pause for polio vaccinations World Health Organisation: 2024-05-23 Israel besieges last two functioning hospitals in north Gaza Related: UNICEF: 2025-03-01 US aid cuts force UNICEF to scale back Lebanon nutrition programs, official says UNICEF: 2025-02-22 Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: February 21, 2025 UNICEF: 2025-02-11 USAID packages found among Hezbollah weapons cache in Lebanon Related: Gates Foundation: 2025-02-28 First fatality in years: Measles outbreak claims life of Texas child Gates Foundation: 2024-07-14 Microsoft cutting crucial link to Gaza, Palestinians say Gates Foundation: 2024-05-29 Melinda Gates pens scorching op-ed about why she's leaving Bill Gates Foundation as she announces... |
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International-UN-NGOs |
Davos elite nod along as Trump delivers ultimatum |
2025-01-25 |
[BBC] World leaders, the bosses of the world's biggest companies and a sprinkling of celebrities gathered in the small Swiss mountain town of Davos for the annual World Economic Forum this week. On the other side of the Atlantic, President Donald Trump was starting his political comeback as the new US president. "Nothing will stand in our way", he declared, as he vowed to end America's "decline". Towards the end of the gathering, President Trump was beamed in straight from the White House webcam to deliver his message of world domination directly to the global elite. While he charmed, almost seduced the audience with a credible picture of a booming US economy about to scale new technological heights, he simultaneously menaced with threats of tariffs to those who did not choose to shift their factories into the US. Trillions of dollars of tariffs for the US Treasury for those businesses exporting into the US market from foreign factories. "Your prerogative" he said, with a smile not out of place in a Godfather movie. And then for one of his own, the Bank of America chief Brian Moynihan, a remarkable public lashing accusing the lending giant of "debanking" many of his conservative supporters. He awkwardly mumbled about sponsoring the World Cup. In this first week of his second term, most people at Davos were nodding along, as they cannot think what else to do, just yet. Two worlds colliding, as the 'America First' President was beamed in like a 30-foot interplanetary emperor, into the beating heart of the rules-based international economic order. It is one thing suggesting that trade deficits are a problem with your domestic electorate. It is quite another to suggest at an internationalist forum that a G7 ally, Canada, become a state of your nation, eliciting gasps in the audience, and not just from Canadians. The address was, by design, charming and offensive. There was carrot and stick for the rest of the world. As delegates absorbed the mix of threats, invites and on occasion, praise, many appeared to be trying to decide just how much Trump might damage the global trading system, whilst assessing just how far ahead his America is getting in this tech driven AI boom. Davos has been for this first week the alternative pole of the Trump second term. There was a coherence to his agenda to use every means to drive down energy prices including by pressurising the Saudis on oil. This he said would not just help to lower inflation, but also drain Russia's war coffers of oil dollars to help end the Ukraine war, by economic means. The ceasefire in the Middle East has already bought Trump some geopolitical credibility in these circles. Christine Lagarde, David Miliband, and John Kerry shuffled into the hall. Various bank chiefs assembled on stage to praise and then lightly question the President. The bottom line was this: Is president Trump serious about what sounded like campaign trail threats to the world economic system? The answer will reverberate for the next four years and beyond. The answer sounded like a most definitely, yes. However, this does not mean it is going to work. Some leading US CEOs told me that they were preparing for tit-for-tat retaliatory tariffs to be applied to their exports. Their assumption was that the President's love of a rising stock market would restrict his deployment of tariffs. But no one really knows. In any event, much is up for grabs. He has already withdrawn from the World Health Organisation. In the promenades the whisper was of his Project 2025 allies suggesting US withdrawal from the IMF and the World Bank too. The rest of the world does have some counter leverage, once it decides to get back up after the Trump whirlwind. The Canadians are now briefing on their retaliatory tariffs. In conversations with both the British business secretary and EU trade minister, Jonathan Reynolds and European Union trade chief, Maros Sefcovic, I detected a desire for calm dialogue. Both are making similar arguments to try to dissuade Trump from wider tariffs. Mr Reynolds told me that as the US does not have a goods trade deficit with the UK, there is no need for tariffs. Mr Sefcovic said that the US should really think about its services surplus too. But do they not consider the threats to G7 and Nato allies Canada and Denmark (over Greenland) to be straightforwardly unacceptable and as absurd as France claiming back Louisiana? Sefcovic did not want to whip anything up. Diplomats are making lists of US goods that Europe can now purchase to demonstrate "wins" for President Trump, from arms to gas to the magnets in wind turbines. It might make some sense for the rest of the G7 to work in unison on retaliation against the tariffs, in order to concentrate the minds of Congress, and the competing factions inside the court of Trump. There is no sign of that happening. The US tech supremacy story epitomised by the broligarchy – including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, Apple leader Tim Cook, and Google chief Sundar Pichar - had top seats at the inauguration this week. While the US is streets ahead of Europe, its standing against China is more uncertain. One of the talks of Davos was DeepSeek's high performing, much cheaper AI model, made in China. The prediction that the tech bros would be tearing strips out of each other in the court of Trump began to come true within hours, rather than months. Meanwhile, while most, though not all, here in Davos sounded rather seduced by Trump's tech-fuelled optimism, some in Europe also see a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attract top researchers who may be rather less than enamoured with the direction of US politics. It was openly suggested by the European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde. Others sought solace in the fact that Europe no longer has to face Biden's massive green subsidies, creating a more level playing field again for Europe. President Trump is changing the terms of world trade. The response of the rest of the world to this is as important as what the Trump administration itself decides. |
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
Fighting rages in Gaza as Palestinians hope for a pause for polio vaccinations |
2024-08-30 |
[GEOTV] Palestinians in Gaza were waiting on Thursday to see if there would be a pause in fighting to allow a polio vaccination campaign to begin, as the conflict raged across the besieged enclave, killing at least 20 people. The United Nations is preparing to vaccinate an estimated 640,000 children in Gaza, where the World Health Organisation confirmed on August 23 that at least one baby has been paralysed by the type 2 poliovirus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years. |
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
Israel besieges last two functioning hospitals in north Gaza |
2024-05-23 |
[GEO.TV] Israel has besieged last two functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, said the World Health Organisation. It said that more than 200 patients trapped have been trapped inside al-Awda and Kamal Adwan Hospitals. |
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
Al-Amal Hospital attacked 40 times in one month: WHO chief |
2024-02-28 |
[GEO.TV] In what can be called a war crime, ... and will, you betcha... the Israeli forces attacked al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis as many as 40 times in one month, the World Health Organisation ...Kind of like the Center for Disease Control only run by the UN, with about the results you'd expectt... (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed. As Chairman Mao once said, "Da guerrilla is da fish, da people are da sea! So dere!" Ghebreyesus said that the WHO, UN and Paleostine Red Islamic Thingy (PRCS) transferred 24 patients out of the hospital over the weekend, with the facility reeling under an Israeli siege and constant attacks. "The WHO, UN and PRCS reached besieged al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis, Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppressionand disproportionate response... , over the weekend and transferred 24 patients, including one pregnant woman, one mother and a newborn." "The hospital experienced 40 attacks from 22 January to 22 February, which killed at least 25 and left it incapacitated. 31 patients are still in the hospital." Related: Khan Younis: 2024-02-26 IDF confirms it wrapped up ‘precise and limited operation’ at south Gaza’s Nasser Hospital last week Khan Younis: 2024-02-25 IDF says numerous Gaza gunmen slain in weekend fighting; company commander killed Khan Younis: 2024-02-24 Al-Quds Brigades ambush Zionist forces in central Khan Yunis Related: Al-Amal Hospital: 2024-02-16 PRCS strongly rejects accusations made by Israeli occupation forces claiming they arrested 20 ‘terrorists disguised as medical personnel’ Al-Amal Hospital: 2024-02-12 Israeli soldiers and Gaza medical workers capture 20 Hamas terrorists hiding in hospital Al-Amal Hospital: 2024-02-11 IDF delivers oxygen tanks, medical equipment to Khan Younis hospital used as Hamas ‘operational hideout’ Related: World Health Organisation: 2024-02-13 WHO chief says medical supplies sent to Gaza only drop in ocean of need World Health Organisation: 2023-12-28 'Impossible to walk inside the hospital without stepping over patients': WHO World Health Organisation: 2023-10-16 Egypt: Volunteers collect humanitarian aid to channel to Gaza Related: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: 2024-02-13 WHO chief says medical supplies sent to Gaza only drop in ocean of need Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: 2024-02-06 UNRWA lifesaving assistance is about to end following countries decisions to cut their funding to the Agency Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: 2024-02-04 Not just UNWRA: The Sexual Predators of the WHO |
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International-UN-NGOs |
WHO chief says medical supplies sent to Gaza only drop in ocean of need |
2024-02-13 |
First they complained they had none, now they complain it's only some. When they got lotsa, they'll complain about its second rate quality. [GEO.TV] The World Health Organisation ...Kind of like the Center for Disease Control only run by the UN, with about the results you'd expectt... (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday reiterated calls for a ceasefire in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppressionand disproportionate response... and expressed particular concern at Israeli attacks on Rafah where most of the enclave's inhabitants have fled. Israeli ... KABOOM!... s overnight killed 48 people in Rafah, local health authorities said. Ghebreyesus said only 15 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza were "still partially or minimally functioning" and that aid workers were doing their best in impossible circumstances. Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, he said the WHO, the UN's health agency, continued to call for safe access for humanitarian personnel and supplies, for Hamas ![]() to release hostages, and for a ceasefire. Israel's four-month war in Gaza has killed more than 28,000 people, say health authorities in the enclave. The UN has said more than 85% of Gazooks have been displaced and that Gaza faces famine, with one in five children under five acutely malnourished. Last week, Israel said it planned to assault Rafah, the last relatively safe place in the enclave, to which more than one million displaced people had fled, camping on the street, in empty lots and on the beach. "I am especially concerned by the recent attacks on Rafah where the majority of Gaza's population has fled the destruction," he said. "So far, we have delivered 447 metric tons of medical supplies to Gaza, but it's a drop in the ocean of need, which continues to grow every day," he said. |
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
'Impossible to walk inside the hospital without stepping over patients': WHO |
2023-12-28 |
[GEO.TV] The World Health Organisation ...Kind of like the Center for Disease Control only run by the UN, with about the results you'd expectt... (WHO) said its teams visited al-Shifa Hospital in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppressionand disproportionate response... City and al-Amal, the headquarters of the Paleostine Red Islamic Thingy Society, in the south, Al Jazeera reported. "The agency said about 50,000 people are reportedly still sheltering at al-Shifa and 14,000 are believed to be hunkering down at al-Amal," the Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... -based media outlet reported. At al-Amal, WHO staff on Tuesday "saw the aftermath of recent strikes that disabled the hospital’s radio tower and impacted the central ambulance dispatch system for the entire Khan Younis area, affecting more than 1.5 million people", it said. The agency said it is "impossible to walk inside the hospital without stepping over patients and others seeking refuge". Only a few functioning toilets are available in the facility, it added. Related: World Health Organisation: 2023-10-16 Egypt: Volunteers collect humanitarian aid to channel to Gaza World Health Organisation: 2023-08-29 Polio outbreak: International committee warns Pakistan of gaps in efforts World Health Organisation: 2023-07-03 EU secures vaccine deals with Pfizer, and others for future pandemic Related: Al-Shifa Hospital: 2023-11-17 At least 11,000 Palestinians confirmed massacred by Zionist forces in Gaza Al-Shifa Hospital: 2023-11-16 Israeli soldiers prepare to storm Hamas tunnels beneath Gaza to fight through a booby-trapped labyrinth longer than the London Underground Al-Shifa Hospital: 2023-11-12 IDF Kills Hamas Terrorist Who Held 1,000 Palestinians Hostage at Hospital Related: Al-Amal: 2023-07-10 Turkey-related NGOs construct 3 new settlements in Syria’s Afrin Al-Amal: 2023-06-11 Security in Lahj Province deteriorates as Saudi Arabia seeks to remove pro-UAE groups from coastal areas Al-Amal: 2023-05-13 Saudi Arabia calls on Egyptian support as conflict with UAE-backed forces in Aden escalates |
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Africa North |
Egypt: Volunteers collect humanitarian aid to channel to Gaza |
2023-10-16 |
![]() ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppressionand disproportionate response... as an aid convoy is set to head to Rafah on Egypt's eastern border with the Gaza Strip. The World Health Organisation ...Kind of like the Center for Disease Control only run by the UN, with about the results you'd expectt... (WHO) said on Saturday that medical supplies covering the needs of 300,000 people in the Gaza Strip had been delivered to an Egyptian airport near the Paleostinian enclave, pending humanitarian access. According to the WHO, the equipment can be delivered once humanitarian access can be established via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, in the south of the Gaza Strip. A plane carrying 78 m3 of equipment from the UN agency's logistics centre in Dubai landed at Egypt's El-Arich airport, WHO said in a statement. Egypt says its side of the Rafah crossing that connects Sinai with the Gaza Strip remains open, though traffic has been halted for several days because of Israeli bombardments on the Paleostinian side of the border. Egyptian security forces have been reinforcing security on their side of the border, including moving concrete barriers, but reports that they were sealing off the crossing were incorrect, one Egyptian security source said, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... The crossing is the main exit point for the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million residents that is not controlled by Israel. Israel and Egypt have upheld a blockade on the enclave, controlling the movement of goods and people, since Hamas ![]() took control in 2007. There is alarm in Egypt over the prospect that residents in Gaza could be displaced by Israel's siege and bombardment of the territory, launched in retaliation for the devastating incursion by Hamas murderous Moslems. Like other Arab states, it has said that Paleostinians should stay on their lands as the war escalates, and that it is working to secure delivery of aid into the Gaza Strip. |
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India-Pakistan |
Polio outbreak: International committee warns Pakistan of gaps in efforts |
2023-08-29 |
[GEO.TV] The International Health Regulations' (2005) Emergency Committee, responsible for assessing global polio![]() virus spread, has expressed concerns over Pakistain's efforts to reach a large number of children through its polio eradication campaign. In a session convened by the World Health Organisation ...Kind of like the Center for Disease Control only run by the UN, with about the results you'd expectt... (WHO) director general on August 16, 2023, the committee highlighted the gaps in Pakistain and Afghanistan's efforts to eliminate polio. It emphasised that recent favorable environmental samples from Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire... and Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... underscore the persistent risk of a polio outbreak in Pakistain. The committee highlighted that a new case of WPV1 emerged in Pakistain since the last meeting, bringing the 2023 total to two cases. Both instances occurred in the Bannu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. Throughout the year, at least 15 environmental surveillance-positive samples were identified. "Although the action plan in southern KP has resulted in 160,000 more children being vaccinated, the context remains challenging — including political instability, insecurity in some areas with front-line workers requiring police patrols to accompany them and vaccination boycotts, where communities make demands for other services in exchange for allowing polio vaccination," the committee further said. |
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Europe |
EU secures vaccine deals with Pfizer, and others for future pandemic |
2023-07-03 |
![]() The agreement, first reported by Reuters, covers mRNA, vector-based and protein-based vaccines and does not relate to existing COVID-19 vaccine agreements between the EU and vaccine makers including U.S. based Pfizer. The European Commission said Europe needs to be better prepared for future health emergencies. The deal ensures that companies are ready to respond to a crisis by keeping their facilities up to date and monitoring their supply chains, "including stockpiling where necessary", the Commission said in a statement. If a new public health emergency was to be declared, companies would "rapidly start production", it said. But vaccine equity activists said the EU risked a repeat of what the World Health Organization dubbed "vaccine apartheid" during COVID-19. "After a pandemic in which developing countries were sent to the back of the queue for vaccines and treatments, the EU and pharmaceutical companies seem to be planning to do it all over again in the next health crisis," said Mohga Kamal-Yanni, policy co-lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance. The Commission has selected Pfizer's plants in Ireland and Belgium to reserve capacity to produce mRNA vaccines. It selected Spanish companies Reig Jofre (RJFE.MC) and Laboratorios Hipra SA to reserve capacity for protein-based vaccines and Bilthoven Biologicals B.V. of the Netherlands for vector-based vaccines. Pfizer said it "understands the urgent need for better pandemic preparedness and response planning and has taken several key steps towards readiness for potential future global disease outbreaks", without detailing those steps. Reig Jofre said its deal with the EU reserved capacity for four years, with the possibility to extend for a maximum duration of eight years. Neither the companies or the EU disclosed any financial details of the agreement. The World Health Organisation has urged governments and manufacturers to reserve up to 20% of any tests, vaccines or treatments for the global agency to distribute in poorer countries to avoid a repeat of the "catastrophic failure" during the COVID pandemic, according to a draft of a global pandemic agreement currently being discussed. |
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Africa Horn |
Sudan capital rocked by air strikes, looting |
2023-05-11 |
[GOOBJOOG] Residents of Sudan’s capital reported heavy air strikes in central Khartoum on Tuesday amid a surge in looting while Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... said negotiators were working toward a short-term ceasefire. Witnesses said the army unleashed intense air bombardment in the centre of Khartoum and around the presidential palace. The rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary said the palace, which it claims to control, was hit by an air strike and destroyed, but an army source denied the claim. The fighting in Khartoum, which erupted April 15, has prompted hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes and triggered an aid crisis. The number of people internally displaced within Sudan more than doubled in a week to 700,000, the U.N.’s migration agency said. The two forces, which have failed to abide by repeated truce deals, sent representatives to talks in the Saudi port city of Jeddah on Saturday. In the first report on the talks thus far, the Saudi foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the negotiations aimed to reach "an effective short-term ceasefire", Saudi state TV al-Ekhbariya said. Amid warnings that Sudan is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths proposed the warring parties back a declaration guaranteeing safe passage of aid supplies and the proposal has been discussed in Jeddah, a U.N. spokesperson said. Griffiths "hopes the declaration can be endorsed as soon as possible so that the relief operation can scale up swiftly and safely to meet the needs of millions of people in Sudan," Deputy U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq told news hounds. The United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... estimates that 5 million additional people will need emergency assistance inside Sudan while 860,000 are expected to flee to neighbouring states that were already in crisis at a time when rich countries have cut back on aid. The World Health Organisation ...Kind of like the Center for Disease Control only run by the UN, with about the results you'd expectt... on Tuesday raised the confirmed corpse count in the conflict to more than 600, with 5,000 injured, though the true figure is thought to be much higher. Lawlessness has taken hold in Khartoum and the two adjoining cities of Omdurman and Bahri, witnesses said. "The biggest danger is the spread of robbery and looting and the total absence of the police and the law," said Ahmed Saleh, 45, from Bahri. Homes, shops and warehouses have all been targeted, residents said. Sudan’s Banks Union condemned burglary and vandalism at some branches, saying banks were seeking to restore services if conditions allowed. |
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