Striking Indian doctors set to resume essential services

Striking Indian doctors set to resume essential services

KOLKATA, INDIA —  Striking junior doctors in India’s West Bengal state agreed to resume essential services, in a partial resumption of medical facilities, but they will continue their strike over the rape and murder of a colleague over a month ago. The rape and murder of the 31-year-old female doctor in West Bengal in August … Read more

Congo struggles to contain mpox; here’s why

Congo struggles to contain mpox; here’s why

KAVUMU, Congo —  Health authorities have struggled to contain outbreaks of mpox in Congo, a huge central African country where a myriad of existing problems makes stemming the spread particularly hard. Last month, the World Health Organization declared the outbreaks in Congo and about a dozen other African countries a global health emergency. And in … Read more

Debt crisis undermines AIDS eradication in Africa

Debt crisis undermines AIDS eradication in Africa

Harare, Zimbabwe —  A new report released by the main United Nations agency for action on AIDS and HIV says growing public debt is choking sub-Saharan African countries, leaving them with little fiscal room to finance critical HIV services. In the report, launched ahead of the 79th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New … Read more

Mpox spreads at alarming rate among children in Burundi

Mpox spreads at alarming rate among children in Burundi

GENEVA —  The United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, warned Friday that children in Burundi are bearing the brunt of the mpox outbreak, with cases of this deadly, infectious disease spreading at an alarming rate among a young population. “Of the nearly 600 reported cases, two-thirds are in children under 19. The situation has escalated … Read more

Submersible’s scientific director says vessel malfunctioned days before fatal dive

Submersible’s scientific director says vessel malfunctioned days before fatal dive

The scientific director for the company that owned the Titan submersible that imploded last year while on its way to the Titanic wreckage testified Thursday that the sub had malfunctioned just prior to the fatal dive. Appearing before a U.S. Coast Guard panel, Steven Ross told the board about a platform issue the experimental submersible … Read more

New analysis of 2019 Wuhan market animals may help find COVID-19 origin

New analysis of 2019 Wuhan market animals may help find COVID-19 origin

LONDON —  Scientists searching for the origins of COVID-19 have zeroed in on a short list of animals that possibly helped spread it to people, an effort they hope could allow them to trace the outbreak back to its source. Researchers analyzed genetic material gathered from the Chinese market where the first outbreak was detected … Read more

Baby hippo Moo Deng becomes internet sensation

Baby hippo Moo Deng becomes internet sensation

CHONBURI, Thailand —  Only a month after Thailand’s adorable baby hippo Moo Deng was unveiled on Facebook, her fame became unstoppable both domestically and internationally. Zookeeper Atthapon Nundee has been posting cute moments of the animals in his care for about five years. He never imagined Khao Kheow Open Zoo’s newborn pygmy hippo would become … Read more

Africa needs its own medical research for its health issues, experts say

Africa needs its own medical research for its health issues, experts say

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia —  One of the hurdles to improving health care systems for African countries is the shortage of scientists and lack of meaningful medical research on the continent, experts say. An organization hopes to change that by enabling researchers and policymakers in three large African countries to develop more extensive and relevant research. … Read more

Climate week talks to include critical minerals and seabed mining debate

Climate week talks to include critical minerals and seabed mining debate

Washington —  When activists, policymakers and representatives from across the globe gather next week in New York to participate in climate week, one pressing issue on the agenda that is less frequently discussed and known will be the environmental impact of seabed mining. As countries look for ways to lower emissions, critical minerals are playing … Read more

Faraway black hole unleashes record-setting energetic jets

Faraway black hole unleashes record-setting energetic jets

washington —  Two mighty beams of energy have been detected shooting in opposite directions from a supermassive black hole inside a distant galaxy — the largest such jets ever spotted, extending about 140 times the diameter of our vast Milky Way galaxy. The black hole resides at the heart of a galaxy about 7.5 billion … Read more