Warsaw, Poland | AFP | In her elegant evening dress and perfectly styled hair and make-up, Maria Diaz looks like any beauty pageant contestant — except for the wheelchair she has been confined to since being shot by a stranger ten years ago. Maria is one of 24 young women …
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Tunis, Tunisia | AFP | Tunisia’s health minister died of a heart attack on Sunday after taking part in a charity marathon to help battle cancer, officials said. Slim Chaker, 56, fell ill after running some 500 metres (yards) and then making a speech at the start of a race in …
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Paris, France | AFP | People, it seems, have never been so afraid of their food -– and, say some experts, an obsession with healthy eating may paradoxically be endangering lives. Twenty-nine-year-old Frenchwoman Sabrina Debusquat recounts how, over 18 months, she became a vegetarian, then a vegan — eschewing eggs, dairy …
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Antananarivo, Madagascar | AFP | Authorities in Madagascar Friday announced a ban on prison visits to prevent the spread of a plague epidemic that has killed 36 people in the Indian Ocean island. “In order to protect prisoners from the plague that is spreading outside the prison, we have decided to …
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Brussels, Belgium | AFP | A US firm pursuing a lawsuit against Monsanto is urging the European Parliament to examine its claims that the agro giant has hidden the dangers of its weedkiller, according to a letter obtained by AFP on Thursday. The letter from the Los Angeles-based firm comes amid …
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Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh | AFP | Relief agencies on Tuesday fought to contain a diarrhoea outbreak around camps in Bangladesh where more than 500,000 Rohingya have taken shelter in the past five weeks. The United Nations said meanwhile it would seek $430 million to increase operations in the camps along the …
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Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The World Health Organization said Tuesday there was a “moderate risk” that a plague outbreak in Madagascar would spread to other countries in the region, but advised against travel restrictions. The outbreak of both bubonic plague, which is spread by infected rats via flea bites, and …
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Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has been discharged from a South African hospital were he had been receiving medical treatment, his spokesman said Tuesday. “He was discharged last week (on) Monday. He is now fine, he is out of danger,” Luke Tamborinyoka told AFP. Tamborinyoka …
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Kasese, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A cholera outbreak has hit Kasese district in the past week and has so far killed three people in Nyakiyumba subcounty. The Ministry of Health has confirmed that up to 73 suspected cases have been handled so far by local health officials, with 53 of …
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Antananarivo, Madagascar | AFP | The World Health Organisation said Sunday it was boosting its response to a plague outbreak in Madagascar that has killed 24 people, as the government banned public meetings to reduce infections. In a televised address Saturday, Prime Minister Olivier Mahafaly Solonandrasana said no public meetings or …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price