22 November 2013 Last updated at 08:02 GMT
Polio is making a comeback in a decimated part of Syria, but the delicate politics of the war are making vaccination campaigns difficult. As an epidemic looms over the region, anger over the World Health Organization's inaction is growing.
This is the same United Nations organization that has waged an extremely successful campaign against infantile paralysis, or poliomyelitis, since 1988. In that time, cases of polio have been reduced by 99 percent and the number of affected countries has declined from 125 to half a dozen.
Latvia store collapse: Deaths rise as rescue continues
At least 21 people have died and more are feared missing after the roof of a supermarket in the Latvian capital Riga collapsed.
Rescue efforts continued through the night and police have launched a criminal investigation.
Three of those killed were emergency workers who were helping people trapped when more of the roof came down.
The cause of the collapse is unclear although reports say a garden was being constructed on the roof at the time.
The supermarket, which opened in 2011, is part of the Maxima retail chain.
"The police have started the investigation already," said Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis after visiting the scene.
Russian threats block Ukraine-EU trade deal
Ukraine and the EU were set to sign a key agreement that would strengthen ties between Kyiv and Brussels. But Ukrainian leaders and lawmakers, under pressure from Moscow, appear to have turned away from the deal.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych informed EU Expansion Commissioner Stefan Füle of Kyiv's intention not to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union on Wednesday (20.11.2013) - a day before he made his country's plan public, according to EU diplomats. Ukraine, the government announced after a cabinet meeting on Thursday, will put off talks on the Association Agreement indefinitely, and instead pursue trilateral trade negotiations with the 28-member bloc and Russia.
A European Commission spokesman told DW in Brussels that Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle has canceled his planned mediation trip to Kyiv. Füle had planned to meet again with Yanukovych on Friday to explore how the association agreement might still be saved. EU diplomats greeted the reason Ukraine gave for ending the talks, namely "national security," with disbelief.
An Apolitical Virus: Strife Fuels Polio's Return to Middle East
Polio is making a comeback in a decimated part of Syria, but the delicate politics of the war are making vaccination campaigns difficult. As an epidemic looms over the region, anger over the World Health Organization's inaction is growing.
Dr. Khalid Milaji, a Syrian doctor, is very angry with the World Health Organization (WHO). "They knew it!" he says. "We have been warning them for more than a month that polio is spreading, but they refuse to send the vaccine!" Milaji is part of the Polio Control Task Force, a group trying to rein in a new polio epidemic in Syria with Western assistance, and he is furious that the organization has been resisting their calls for help.
China's high court pushes for legal reform
November 22, 2013 - 1:19PMChris Buckley
China's highest court issued demands that judges bar confessions obtained through torture and avoid applying the death penalty when the evidence is shaky. The directive was unlikely on its own to curb such abuses but reflected a growing official recognition of the need to stop gross injustices, experts said.
The Supreme People's Court of China published the "opinion" on Thursday, seeking to curtail abuses a week after China's Communist Party leadership published a set of proposed reforms, including a commitment to end "re-education through labour," a form of imprisonment without trial or effective judicial overview.
So, arrest us
Ministers in the security cluster have warned the media and the public that it is illegal to publish pictures of President Jacob Zuma's palatial Nkandla private residence.
The warning - which the SA National Editors' Forum vowed to defy - came as five ministers dodged probing questions on the ''security'' upgrade to the Nkandla estate, which official figures show has cost taxpayers R206-million.
State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said in Pretoria yesterday that the media were breaching the National Key Points Act by continuing to publish pictures of Zuma's estate.
"No one, including those in the media, is allowed to take images and publicise images even pointing where the possible security features are, it is not right," said Cwele.
Posthumous pardon in 1931 Alabama rape case |
The Scottsboro Boys receive official pardons more than 80 years after being wrongly convicted by all-white juries.
Last updated: 22 Nov 2013 09:09
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Three black men falsely accused and convicted of raping two white women in Alabama have received posthumous pardons, more than 80 years after their arrests.
Haywood Patterson, Charles Weems and Andy Wright were among nine teenagers, dubbed The Scottsboro Boys, who were convicted by all-white juries in 1931, in a case which came to symbolise racial injustice in the US.
All but one were sentenced to death.
"Today, the Scottsboro Boys have finally received justice," Robert Bentley, governor of Alabama, said.
Five of the men's convictions were overturned in 1937 after one of the alleged victims recanted her story.
One defendant, Clarence Norris, received a pardon before his death in 1976. State law at the time did not permit posthumous pardons - a situation which lasted until April 2013, when Republican state Senator Arthur Orr spearheaded a change in the law.
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