Rockefeller Foundation Chief Judith Rodin and Liberia’s health minister Bernice Dahn publish a must-read op-ed. “Liberia faces new threats in Ebola’s aftermath, including a rise in malnutrition and outbreaks of highly contagious yet preventable diseases, such as whooping cough and measles. It would be easy to slip back into old patterns and treat these challenges as individual problems. But with its ambitious Post-Ebola Health Investment Plan, the Liberian government is focusing on recruiting and training health workers, particularly at the local level; building up infrastructure; and investing in labs needed to quickly detect and identify dangerous diseases as soon as they emerge…One lesson from Ebola is clear: in a resilient health system, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Liberia not only reminds us of the necessity to create such a system, but also can help to show the path forward.” (NYThttp://nyti.ms/1APUvEq
Can This Yemen Ceasefire Hold? “Yemeni Houthi rebels and their allies yesterday agreed to a five-day humanitarian ceasefire beginning tomorrow as Saudi military aircraft intensified strikes on Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. The residence of ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has sided with the Houthis in the ongoing battle, was demolished in the strikes. Saleh reportedly survived the bombing, which damaged nearby homes and shocked the populace.” (Irish Times http://bit.ly/1APUEHS)
A Milestone of Note…South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, has elected Mmusi Maimane as its first black leader, a major step in its efforts to challenge the ruling African National Congress. (BBC http://bbc.in/1APUSyM )
Quote of the Day: Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, the top UN Human Rights Official on France’s apparently slow investigation into its soldiers who are accused of child rape in CAR. “How is it that nobody knew about these abuses between December and May? If you have a fever for five months, you don’t need a doctor to come in at the fifth month to tell you you’re not well,” he added. (NYT http://nyti.ms/1cG7lja)
Africa
Burundi’s security forces removed barricades in the capital Bujumbura on Sunday following a government order for an immediate end to protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s controversial bid for a third term. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1E1e9Nx)
East African leaders will hold a summit in Tanzania on May 13 aimed at breaking the political deadlock in Burundi and ensuring the country holds peaceful elections, Tanzania’s presidency said. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1E1ea46)
Rival armed groups in Central African Republic agreed on Sunday to a peace accord requiring them to disarm and potentially face justice for war crimes committed during two years of conflict. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1E1e64r)
Outgoing Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said Sunday that some of his friends deserted him shortly after he conceded defeat to his rival General Muhammadu Buhari in the March election. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Rt4mdN)
MENA
Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday that its new monarch, King Salman, would not be attending meetings at the White House with President Obama or a summit gathering at Camp David this week, in an apparent signal of its continued displeasure with the administration over United States relations with Iran, its rising regional adversary. (NYT http://nyti.ms/1APUhNr)
The United States is giving Jordan about $25 million worth of wheat for resale, with the money to be used for improving agricultural productivity. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Rt4jyr)
UNICEF warned that tens of thousands of children in Yemen could die if import restrictions on fuel are not lifted, as the severe shortage is hampering the delivery of essential aid and keeping health clinics from operating. (VOA http://bit.ly/1Rt4nOO)
The question of Israel’s iron grip on all planning matters in what is known as “Area C” — which covers more than 60 percent of the occupied West Bank — is now being debated by the Israeli Supreme Court. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1GYgElO)
Asia
Boats carrying nearly 600 Bangladeshis and long-persecuted Rohingya Muslims from Myanmarblanded in western Indonesia on Sunday, with some migrants needing medical care, officials and a nonprofit organization said. Thousands more are believed to be stranded at sea. (AP http://yhoo.it/1E1e9NK)
The search for missing trekkers, guides and residents feared buried in Nepal village by a massive landslide and avalanche triggered by last month’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake has been suspended due to bad weather, officials said on Sunday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1IsqyCc)
International organizations and non-government groups in Nepal are warning the devastation caused by the April 25 earthquake has left thousands of girls and young women vulnerable to human traffickers. (AP http://bit.ly/1E1eikc)
Nearly 600 migrants thought to be Rohingya refugees from Burma were rescued from two wooden boats stranded off the coast of Indonesia’s northern Aceh province, authorities said on Sunday. (Telegraph http://bit.ly/1cG6qPP )
Maoist rebels in India have released at least 250 villagers unharmed, who they were holding to stop the construction of a bridge in central India, a top police official has said. (Al Jazeera http://bit.ly/1cG6K16)
Maoist rebels killed one villager and released around 250 others they had held for a day to stop the construction of a bridge in central India, police said Sunday. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Rt4oCe)
The Americas
Ten suspected gang members were killed in eastern El Salvador in two incidents apparently perpetrated by other gang members, police said on Sunday, the latest in a surge of violence in the Central American country. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1E1e78l)
Police in Paraguay say they have arrested the fugitive stepfather of a pregnant 10-year-old girl who has been denied an abortion by the government. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Rt4pGs)
Peru’s government has dispatched troops to a violence-wracked southern coastal valley where protests against a copper mining project have claimed the lives of two civilians and a police officer. (APhttp://yhoo.it/1Rt4l9z
Wiretappings in a Guatemalan tax corruption case indicate that a judge-bribing scheme to free some of the accused from jail may have reached the country’s supreme court. (AP http://yhoo.it/1E1e7p1)
Opinion/Blogs
Who is the ‘Gayle-force wind’ picked by Obama to lead USAID? (Guardian http://bit.ly/1cG6Upf\)
PATH on a ‘new’ campaign for global health equity (Humanosphere http://bit.ly/1F84pX3)
Corruption and Punishment (An Africanist Perspective http://bit.ly/1QzSPrK)
Trans-Pacific Partnership will lead to a global race to the bottom (Guardian http://bit.ly/1QzT7Pm)
Why is support for gender equality mainly growing in urban areas? (From Poverty to Powerhttp://bit.ly/1QzTidj)
Executions haven’t changed opinions on Indonesia aid: poll (Dev Policy http://bit.ly/1F84z0y)
Obama at Nike headquarters: why push trade deal at an outsourcing giant? (Guardianhttp://bit.ly/1F84nOW)
Measuring Opportunities for Digital Payments: The Global Findex 2014 (Development Channelhttp://on.cfr.org/1QzTolk)
Jeffrey Sachs-The Strange Case of Dr Shock and Mr Aid (book review) (Aidnographyhttp://bit.ly/1QzT7ik)