Featured Topic - Crisis in Somalia

11.06.09, Financial Times
Islamists attacked over attempt to overthrow Somali government
Militant Islamists reasserting themselves as the biggest obstacle to peace in Somalia were yesterday condemned by foreign powers for attempting to "overthrow the legal, legitimate and internationally recognised" government.

02.06.09, BBC News
Somalia crisis 'Africa's worst'
The "very dire" humanitarian crisis in Somalia is the worst in Africa for many years, says Oxfam's co-ordinator for the failed Horn of Africa state.

27.05.09, AFP
Somali leader accuses Eritrea of arming insurgents
Somalia's beleaguered President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on Wednesday accused Eritrea of arming Islamic insurgents trying to topple his transitional government.

27.05.09, BBC News
Somali radical takes over militia

23.05.09, Xinhuan
Eritrea rejects Security Council accusations of destabilizing Somalia

23.05.09, International Herald Tribune
For Somalia, Chaos Breeds Religious War
by Jeffrey Gettleman

20.05.09, European Voice
France asks for help to train security force for Somalia
by Toby Vogel

20.05.09, BBC News
Call to blockade Somali Islamists
Somalia's neighbours have called for the UN to impose a blockade on air strips and sea ports to prevent Islamists getting weapons and fighters.

20.05.09, IRIN
Somalia: Al-Shabab's pyrrhic victory?

19.05.09, BBC News
Ethiopia troops 'back in Somalia'

18.05.09, EUObserver
EU could send police mission in Somalia
by Valentina Pop

18.05.09, The Times
Thousands of civilians flee as Islamists prepare to seize the capital
By Tristan Mc Connell

15.05.09, The Guardian
Foreign fighters ‘driving Somali violence’
by Associated Press

15.05.09, Awdal news
Scared Somalis running out of food as battles rage
By Mohamed Olad Hassan

22.04.09, BBC News
EU pledges Somali security boost

18.04.09, The New York Times
Somalia adopts Islamic law to deter insurgency by Mohammed Ibrahim

19.12.08, European Voice
Blowing the Horn of Africa

Links

BBC Country Profile

BBC timeline

International crisis group

Somalia Online

IRIN Somalia

Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report

Daily global health news summaries provided by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

3 Feb - 'Humanosphere' Blog Examines Roles Of Former President Carter, Researcher Foege In Fighting NTDs
This post in KPLU 88.5's "Humanosphere" blog examines how former President Jimmy Carter gave the fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) "a good first shove nearly 30 years ago," writing, "Neglected diseases like river blindness, Guinea worm, parasitic (lymphatic) elephantiasis and schistosomiasis have been in Carter's cross hairs since the mid-1980s." The blog adds, "Few would argue that it has been primarily the work of the Carter Center, carrying on the work of the CDC and others, that has brought the horrible parasitic disease Guinea worm so close to eradication today -- from millions of cases in the 1980s down to a little more than a 1,000 last year." The blog also discusses how William Foege, a former CDC official who is responsible for the smallpox vaccination strategy that helped wipe out the disease, was instrumental in bringing Carter and the Gates family into global health (Paulson, 2/1).
3 Feb - Republican Win In 2012 Election Could Spell End Of International Family Planning Programs
"If a Republican becomes president, ... say goodbye to international programs providing birth control to women in desperately poor countries such as Liberia," senior contributing writer Michelle Goldberg writes in this Daily Beast opinion piece. Goldberg notes that birth control has become a "significant issue in the U.S. presidential campaign," writing, "All of the Republican candidates have slammed the administration's refusal to give religious institutions a broad exemption from the mandate that insurance cover family planning."
3 Feb - Global Malaria Deaths Twice As High As Previously Estimated, IHME Study Suggests
"Malaria is killing more people worldwide than previously thought, but the number of deaths has fallen rapidly as efforts to combat the disease have ramped up, according to new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington" published in the Lancet on Thursday, an IHME press release reports. "More than 1.2 million people died from malaria worldwide in 2010, nearly twice the number found in the most recent comprehensive study of the disease," the press release states (2/2). The study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, "used new data and new computer modeling to build a historical database for malaria between 1980 and 2010," BBC News notes (Bowdler, 2/2).
3 Feb - WHO Finds Very High Levels Of Drug-Resistant TB In Russia, Moldova
"[T]he highest levels ever of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) have been found in Russia and Moldova," the WHO reports in research published in the February edition of the WHO Bulletin, but "the agency didn't have data from most of Africa and India, where tuberculosis rates are much higher," the Associated Press/USA Today's "Your Life" reports. According to the AP, the "experts reported that about 29 percent of new TB patients in parts of Russia were drug-resistant" and that "65 percent of previously treated patients in Moldova had resistance problems." The news service notes, "Normally, less than five percent of TB cases are drug-resistant" (2/2).
3 Feb - DRC Facing Decline In Donor Funding, HIV Treatment Shortage
"The lives of thousands of HIV-positive people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are at risk as the country faces declining donor funding and a severe shortage of HIV treatment, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)," PlusNews reports. "'The problem is quite old in the DRC; the country has always been minimized by donors who have not seen it as a priority, mainly because HIV prevalence is relatively low at between three and four percent,' Thierry Dethier, advocacy manager for MSF Belgium in the DRC, told IRIN/PlusNews," and he added, "But look at the indicators: more than one million people are living with HIV, 350,000 of whom qualify for [antiretrovirals (ARVs)] but only 44,000 -- or 15 percent -- are on ARVs," the news service writes.

Eurostep Weekly

IPS News

LDC Watch

CTA News (ACP-EU)

InDepthNews

5 Feb - 'Plug and Play' To Bridge NATO Asymmetries
4 Feb - NATO Helps Clean APM Killers in Tajikistan
3 Feb - India and Norway Resolve Child Care Dispute

Social Watch

Blog Piebalgs

Blog of Commissioner Andris Piebalgs

27 Jan - Trade and Development: friends not foes
Today, for the first time, the European Commission presents a joint vision of how trade, investment and development policies can work hand in hand to help fighting poverty. I am proud of this Communication, which provides a complete, comprehensive and well articulated approach of how best to combine our respective competencies and instruments. Sorry for [...]
25 Jan - Aid has to be modernised; EU is not pulling out from middle income countries (MICs)
The European Union, like many other donors, is currently exploring the best ways to fight against poverty around the world. Faced with differentiation between developing countries, some of which have become aid donors themselves while others suffer from increasing fragility, the EU must ensure the greatest impact and best value for money for its aid. [...]
5 Dec - A View from Busan
I’m just back from the Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, which took place in South Korea last week. It was a busy few days of negotiations, exchanges and discussions, but I’m glad to say that we finally agreed on an outcome which I think we can all be proud of. The Global Partnership [...]

Blog Georgieva

Commissioner Georgieva\'s Blog

5 Feb - The European Parliament as the voice of the citizens – my experience from last week
I have been at the Plenary of the European Parliament a number of times, always a learning experience. Last week was no exception. And it is worth telling my readers about it, since the Parliament discussed a report of direct relevance for my work – a review of humanitarian funds management drafted by MEP [...]
21 Jan - Chad’s silent children – the sad face of malnutrition
In the city of Mao in Kanem province in Chad, there is a hospital we fund where the sound of silence on the children’s ward is chilling. It’s strange to be with children who are so quiet. In the intensive care ward where they are treating babies for severe acute malnutrition there are fifteen mothers with [...]
19 Jan - The mothers of Niger
I met Rahi Harouna when she was making an important life decision – and getting moral support from what many may regard as a surprising source. Rahi, a 38-year-old mother of five children, was at a health centre run by the aid agency Concern and funded by the European Commission in the village of [...]

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