WHO hopes for Ebola vaccine by January
The World Health Organization is pressing for a vaccine to combat the spread of Ebola, hoping to prepare two versions by January. On the ground in West Africa, Germany's Red Cross has made a desperate call for help.
Tens of thousands of doses of experimental Ebola vaccines could be available for "real-world" testing in West Africa as soon as January as long as they are deemed safe, a top World Health Organization (WHO) official said Tuesday.
Dr. Marie Paule Kieny, an assistant director general for the WHO, said clinical trials either underway or planned in Europe, Africa and the US were expected to produce preliminary safety data on two vaccines by December.
If the vaccines are declared safe, Kieny said they would be used in trials in West Africa beginning in January to test their efficacy among tens of thousands - but not millions - of people.
Which animals are nearly extinct?
While routinely checking on the four northern white rhinos that roam the 90,000 acres at Kenya's Ol Pejeta Conservancy the rangers found that one of their males, Suni, had died of natural causes.
At 34, Suni had managed to reach the same age as his father before him, and it is not considered a particularly premature age to go. But while there was great relief that this "gentle giant" hadn't fallen prey to poachers, news of his death on Friday has catastrophic implications: there are now only six of this particular subspecies of rhino in existence. Even more worryingly, Suni was considered to be the last breeder. The only other male, Sudan, who is also at Ol Pejeta, is too old and weak to mate.
"It came as a huge surprise – we always thought Sudan would be the first one to go. Suni was in really good shape," says Ol Pejeta's Elodie Sampéré, on the phone from Kenya. "It was a big shock to everybody. Suni was very cool, he had a really good personality and was playful. The rangers that looked after him on a day-to-day basis are just distraught. We all are."
Ukrainians tap tradition in training for feared guerrilla war with Russia
Volunteer spirit has spawned would-be partisan cells
On Sunday, Sergey Ignatovsky will vote in Ukraine’s snap general election, and put his faith in pro-western politicians to lead his country to victory in its war with separatist rebels and their Russian backers.
But, like a growing number of his countrymen, the Kiev lawyer is also, as he puts it, “preparing for the very worst”.
“We are getting ready to fight an underground war if necessary,” he says. “For years we didn’t see Russia as a potential enemy and were not ready for aggression from our neighbour. Our defence officials and generals were drinking vodka, selling equipment and making money.”
Why gangs are making sandwiches in New Zealand
The Tribal Huks gang have been making approximately 500 sandwiches daily and dropping them off at New Zealand schools. American gangs have responded similarly in the past.
NORFOLK, VA. — In what some may view as an inadvertent act of parent shaming, gang members in New Zealand have stepped in to make sandwiches for hungry school children whose parents have failed to provide them with lunch.
Yet, those who work with children in American schools say that both “food insecurity” and the help of gangs in caring for needy kids are not unheard of in the US.
Over the past two years the Tribal Huks gang have been making approximately 500 sandwiches every day and dropping them off to Waikato schools before the lunch bell, according to New Zealand news outlet Stuff.com.
On Alcatraz, Ai Weiwei raises a voice on dissent
October 22, 2014 -- Updated 0717 GMT (1517 HKT)
It's no coincidence that Ai Weiwei's latest exhibition is located in Alcatraz, a former jail that sits on an isolated island off the San Francisco coast.
The Chinese artist and activist explores themes of imprisonment, featuring prisoners of conscience from around the world. It's also familiar territory for Ai, who was detained by Chinese authorities for 81 days in 2011 and still cannot travel out of China.
Visitors to Ai's exhibit, called @Large, can sit in a drab, 8x5 feet concrete cell and listen to the works of dissidents, such as anti-Apartheid singers and anti-Soviet musicians whose poems or songs landed them in prison.
Among them is Lolo, a Tibetan singer whose song implores the children of Tibet to "raise the Tibetan flag." Lolo is serving a six-year prison sentence for calling for independence -- a direct challenge to China's rule.
22 October 2014 Last updated at 00:33
Philippines feels force of China travel warning
The beaches and restaurants of Boracay Island are usually bustling with tourists from around the world.
But this year, they are quieter than usual. A travel advisory issued by Beijing has caused a sharp fall in arrivals from China.
"We are worried and we are affected," said Dionisio Salme, president of the Boracay Foundation Inc., the island's resorts' association.
Since the warning was issued on 12 September, Boracay has seen a steep drop in Chinese visitors. Numbers fell from 18,479 in August to less than 7,000 in September.
This trend continued into China's week-long public holiday in the first week of October, normally one of the peak travel seasons for Chinese tour groups.
No comments:
Post a Comment