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Report: Access to Modern Contraceptives Family Is Not Spreading Quickly Enough… “The number of women and girls accessing contraceptives in developing countries rose by 8.4 million last year, but efforts to bring family planning to millions of women who have not been reached are not moving fast enough, according to a report published on Monday. The Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) report, the group’s first set of annual data since its formation two years ago, found that the number of women and girls with access to contraceptives was still below FP2020’s projected benchmark of 9.4 million. However, widening access to family planning services helped avert 125,000 maternal deaths last year, compared with 120,000 in 2012, and avert 24m unsafe abortions, compared with 23m in the previous year. (The Guardian http://bit.ly/10kEJFp)
The Report http://bit.ly/1A84yca
Burkina Faso’s interim military leaders have two weeks to give up power or face sanction from the African Union. A quote from an African Union’s Peace and Security Council: “The African Union is convinced that the change has been against democracy. However, we know that popular pressure led to the resignation of the president. Those circumstances were taken by the armed forces to get into power, but it originated from the people…Having taken note of the origin of the popular revolt which led the military to assume power, we determined a period of two weeks, and after that period we are going to apply sanctions.” (AFP http://yhoo.it/1A86jWT)
Hey Americans: Your Midterm elections are today. Vote Please!
Ebola
A Sierra Leone doctor died on Monday from Ebola, making him the fifth local doctor in the West African state to have succumbed to the disease that has taken a heavy toll on the country’s medical personnel. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1un28nq)
Citizens of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone will need a visa to enter Singapore as part of measures against the spread of Ebola, the city-state’s health ministry said. http://yhoo.it/1wsbxsM
The importance of western aid in helping to build effective health systems in the developing world has been highlighted by a respected international think tank finding that Sierra Leone, an early source of the Ebola outbreak, was the country least likely to be able to deal with the virus. (Guardian http://bit.ly/10kEz0F)
Africa
Burkina Faso’s interim President Isaac Zida said on Monday that the army would cede power to a transition government headed by a consensual leader, in a bid to calm accusations that it had seized power in a military coup. (Reuters http://bit.ly/10fn4P3)
At least eight people have been killed in fighting between South Sudanese refugees at a camp in northern Kenya, according to an aid agency official. (VOA http://bit.ly/1A84kls)
Scientists in Kenya say that next year, a new malaria vaccine will be available that could add an important component to malaria control and potentially eradicate the disease. (VOA http://bit.ly/10ku8KE)
The United Nations and the European Union have warned that a dispute between Somalia’s president and prime minister could inflame tensions and undermine the country’s recovery from more than two decades of conflict. (Reuters http://bit.ly/10fmW24)
Mali’s government has cancelled about a dozen petroleum exploration agreements in its Taoudeni and Nara basins awarded by a previous administration, citing various offences by firms who held the concessions, a cabinet statement said. (Reuters http://bit.ly/10fn0id)
UN peacekeepers and the Congolese authorities must act urgently to protect civilians from a spate of sporadic attacks by armed rebels which has left at least 100 dead in the last month said Amnesty International. http://bit.ly/10kuv89)
Namibia’s Supreme Court on Monday found that HIV-positive women were forcibly sterilised after giving birth — a decision hailed by activists as a victory for women throughout Africa. (AFP http://yhoo.it/10kHsP5)
MENA
An inside look at how ISIS smuggles oil from Syria to Turkey and sells it on the black market. (BuzzFeed http://bzfd.it/1A50LMB)
Rescuers pulled 24 bodies from the sea at the mouth of Istanbul’s Bosphorus strait on Monday and rescued seven people after the sinking of a boat carrying migrants including children, the Turkish Coastguard Command said. (Reuters http://bit.ly/10fn6GC)
Iraq boosted security Monday amid fears of the Islamic State group launching major attacks on Shiite pilgrims flocking to the shrine city of Karbala as further reports emerged of mass killings. (Yahoo http://yhoo.it/10kBhe7)
The Islamic State jihadist group killed at least 36 more people in its execution campaign targeting a tribe that fought against it, an Iraqi tribal leader and an officer said Monday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/10kDgik)
Asia
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh on Monday upheld the death sentence of an Islamist leader for atrocities committed during the war of independence from Pakistan more than four decades ago. (VOA http://bit.ly/1un80Nn)
When early warning systems fail, death comes quickly to unsuspecting victims of natural disasters. It is a reality that millions of Sri Lankans have experienced repeatedly in the last decade, and yet those responsible for preventing human fatalities continue to make the same mistakes. (IPS http://bit.ly/10fmwZv)
Thailand’s military government vowed on Monday to bring peace to the Muslim-dominated south within a year, despite stalled peace talks aimed at ending an insurgency that has cost thousands of lives in the past decade. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/10kvZit
The Americas
The death of 11 babies over three days in October at the Dominican Republic’s Robert Reid Cabral hospital brought what some say is long-overdue attention to one of the country’s most important medical institutions. It also raises questions about overall quality of health care for the poor in the Dominican Republic. (AP http://yhoo.it/1wseObr)
Argentina’s tax office has stripped US multinational company Procter & Gamble of its registration, for alleged fraud, the office announced Sunday. (AFP http://bit.ly/1un6o6k)
Bolivia’s ombudsman says he is alarmed at a rise in sexual violence against young girls, after a four-year-old was raped and murdered. (BBC http://bbc.in/1un7zCK)
Cuba is asking international firms to invest more than $8 billion in the island as it attempts to kick start a centrally planned economy starved for cash and hamstrung by inefficiency. (AP http://yhoo.it/10kHjez)
Opinion/Blogs
Erica Chenoweth is a pioneering academic whose groundbreaking research on the strategic use of non-violence showed that movements that use non-violent tactics when fighting for the overthrow of a regime are twice as likely to succeed as movements that use violence as a tactic. (Global Dispatches Podcast http://bit.ly/1rRPHsb )
Eliminating malaria: how close can we get? (The Guardian http://bit.ly/1un7u23)
Learning by asking: a modest proposal to engage those who did the doing (Innovations for Poverty Action http://bit.ly/1unmP2E)
Meet TB’s new partner in crime: Diabetes (Humanosphere http://bit.ly/1EdzGWn)
Let’s all eat cake: The terrible inefficiency of inequality (From Poverty to Power http://bit.ly/1EdzHcI)
#SwaziJustice: A Tipping Point For Africa’s Most Quietly Repressive Nation (Okayafrica. http://bit.ly/1unjaSz)
Five ways to make labour markets work better for workers (ODI http://bit.ly/1un7IWX)
The Irresistible Attraction of Radical Islam (IPS http://bit.ly/10fkSaj)
Australian aid for the Gavi Vaccine Alliance — additional yes, more no (DevPolicy http://bit.ly/1unjmku)