The Security Council adopted a resolution to strengthen the protection of hospitals and health workers in war zones after Joanne Liu, the president of MSF, delivered these blistering remarks. “I went to Kunduz, Afghanistan, following the U.S. attack on our trauma center on October 3, 2015. One of the survivors, an MSF nurse whose left arm was blown off during the relentless airstrike, told me something that haunts me daily. He said that when fighting erupted in Kunduz, MSF told its staff that its trauma center was a safe place. “We believed you,” he said. “Did you know that we would be bombed?” I told him that until October 3, I truly believed that the hospital was a safe place.I cannot say that anymore about any medical facilities on the frontlines today. In Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen, hospitals are routinely bombed, raided, looted or burned to the ground.” (MSF http://bit.ly/1WGLtqz)
Missive of the Day…150 Syrians working on programs funded by the US State Department, USAID, FCO, DFID, ECHO, EU, Aid Resilience and Stabilization, Danish Foreign Ministry, French Foreign Ministry, German Foreign Ministry, Swedish Foreign Ministry, and Dutch Foreign Ministry write an open letter about the ongoing destruction of Aleppo. (HuffPo http://huff.to/1WGJKS0)
Quote of the Day + Stat of the Day ….“Since the fiscal year began over seven months ago, only 1,736 Syrians have been resettled to the United States — meeting just 17 percent of the Obama administration’s goal to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees by October. At this rate, we won’t even meet half of that goal by the time the fiscal year closes. “ Oxfam USA’s Ray Offenheiser.
Africa
Rescue workers pulled a six-month-old baby girl out of the rubble of a building in Kenya’s capital on Tuesday and reunited her with her father, more than three days after it collapsed following days of heavy rain. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1pYlrC8)
West African pirates have turned to hostage-taking as regional navies grow more effective at responding to their crimes, a report from an anti-piracy group said on Tuesday. (VOA http://bit.ly/1Y5ICpZ)
Liberia’s main opposition party, Congress for Democratic Change, is denying that there is an arrest warrant in the United States for its leader and presumptive candidate for president, George Oppong Weah. (VOA http://bit.ly/1SJR0vh)
Zimbabwe put its wild animals up for sale on Tuesday, saying it needed buyers to step in and save the beasts from a devastating drought. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1SJR3Hj)
MENA
A U.S. Navy SEAL was killed Tuesday in an attack by Islamic State fighters in northern Iraq, highlighting the evolving nature of the Pentagon’s mission in Iraq and how American troops are serving closer than ever to the front lines. (WaPo http://wapo.st/1WGIZbH)
Britain and France are calling on the U.N. Security Council to hold an urgent meeting on Syria’s contested city of Aleppo which has been engulfed in an intense wave of attacks. (WaPo http://wapo.st/1WGJliK)
The ringleader of a group that kidnapped and burned alive a Palestinian teenager two years ago — a revenge killing that shocked many here because of its savagery — was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison plus 20 years. (WaPo http://wapo.st/1WGJsuB)
One out of every three people in the Middle East and North Africa pay bribes to access public services, says Transparency International. (Inter Press Service http://bit.ly/1Y5IIOz)
Ordinary people feel that corruption has worsened in nine Arab countries and territories over the last year, especially crisis-hit Lebanon and war-torn Yemen, a study by graft watchdog Transparency International said Tuesday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1pYlrSE)
Asia
The rape and murder of a teenage girl by 14 men has reignited calls in Indonesia for a sexual violence law that is languishing in Parliament to be enacted. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Y5IxCO)
A fire broke out on Tuesday in a camp for internally displaced Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, destroying shelters where about 2,000 people had lived and injuring about 14 of them, the United Nations said. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1SJQZrd)
A special war crimes court in Bangladesh sentenced four men to death Tuesday for killing, torture, arson and looting during the nation’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971. (AP http://yhoo.it/1SJR4en)
A lawmaker involved in vetting Indonesia’s proposed counter-terrorism law says a contentious provision allowing detention without trial for six months could undermine the fight against Islamic extremism. (AP http://yhoo.it/1pYlqy9)
Bangladeshi blogger and activist Ashif Entaz Rabi is in Washington at the invitation of a human rights group, calling attention to the dozens of writers and bloggers who fear they could be the next victim of a wave of savage attacks on liberals and religious minorities in Bangladesh. (AP http://yhoo.it/1W6ISYv)
China’s ruling Communist Party is not trying to curtail internal debate or even criticism with rules banning “baseless comments” but is simply trying to ensure no one is “singing out of tune”, President Xi Jinping has said. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1rtqlbT)
The Americas
The governor of Puerto Rico says the island is defaulting on a $422 million debt payment due Monday, and he says the U.S. is partly to blame. (VOA http://bit.ly/1SZxqwZ)
Venezuela’s opposition says it has delivered a petition to election authorities calling for a nationwide referendum to remove President Nicolas Maduro from office. (VOA http://bit.ly/1Y5Jye9)
Pakistan angrily criticized Donald Trump, frontrunner for the U.S. Republican presidential nomination, for saying he would force the country to free a jailed Pakistani doctor believed to have helped the CIA hunt down al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Y5Jzyz)
Four people have been arrested in Honduras over the murder of a high-profile indigenous activist earlier this year, officials said. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1W6INUF)
As soya companies appropriate land in Paraguay, many small-scale campesino farmers are forced out to cities. For those who stay to fight for their land, the conflict can turn bloody (Guardian http://bit.ly/1SZxpsW)
A federal prosecutor asked that former Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez and her son be investigated for possible illegal enrichment in connection to two businessmen accused of money laundering and tax evasion. (AP http://yhoo.it/1W6INUV)
…and the rest
Stealing a little food should not be considered a crime if you really need it, Italy’s highest court has ruled. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1SZxigV)
In a blatant slap at the European Union’s authority, Hungary’s Supreme Court on Tuesday paved the way for a referendum defying an E.U. order to resettle tens of thousands of migrants among member states. (WaPo http://wapo.st/1WGJTVA)
Norway’s $872-billion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, said it would press U.S. oil majors ExxonMobil and Chevron to do more to report on the risks of climate change. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1W6HXYi)
Opinion/Blogs
Map of the Day: Where the Press is Not Free (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/1SZzULZ)
Key Findings of Freedom of the Press Report (VOA http://bit.ly/1W6jOkz)
Should The U.S. Reconsider Its Stand On Foreign Aid For Abortion Clinics? (Goats and Soda http://n.pr/1SJVy4B)
Secret aid worker: I regret not speaking out for my LGBT colleagues (Guardian http://bit.ly/1Y5HVgt)
A little less conversation a little more action: How to tackle inequality, for real. (Global Dashboard http://bit.ly/21t2169)
Development done differently: Data innovation and partnerships for better cities (Devex http://bit.ly/1Y5LCm8)
Photojournalist Manu Brabo on Syria: ‘If I take a picture here, am I hurting someone?’ (Guardian http://bit.ly/1Y5LGlX)
These High School Girls Have Something To Cheer About (Goats and Soda http://n.pr/1Y5LJ12)
Scaled down. The last of the aid cuts? (Development Policy http://bit.ly/1Y5LQKg)
One Year After the Nepal Quake and Zero Houses Rebuilt: Why I’m Not Surprised (Aid Works http://bit.ly/1pYnmGQ)
The Intolerable Cruelty of Australia’s Refugee Deterrence Strategy (Foreign Policy http://atfp.co/1Y5NP0X)