Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The World Health Organization on Tuesday urged farmers to stop using antibiotics in healthy animals to help ensure the drugs remain effective in fighting life-threatening diseases in humans. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics in animals and humans is contributing to the growing threat of “superbugs”, …
Read More »Planet-warming methane from livestock underestimated: study
Paris, France | AFP | Emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from livestock are larger than previously thought, posing an additional challenge in the fight to curb global warming, scientists said Friday. Revised calculations of methane produced per head of cattle show that global livestock emissions in 2011 were 11 percent …
Read More »Nigeria warned land wars threaten national security
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria was warned on Tuesday that clashes between herders and farmers threatened the country’s national security, after such conflict claimed more lives last year than the Boko Haram insurgency. The International Crisis Group said some 2,500 people were killed in 2016 and tens of thousands …
Read More »In inflation-hit Egypt, Eid sacrifices are a luxury
Menufia, Egypt | AFP | The cattle traders in the Ashmun market, north of the capital Cairo, jostled to lure customers into buying a buffalo or a sheep for Eid al-Adha, the annual Muslim holiday when custom requires a sacrifice. But this year, with inflation in Egypt hitting record highs, customers …
Read More »Police smash Europe-wide horsemeat racket
Madrid, Spain | AFP | A Spanish-led European police investigation has broken up an organised crime group that allegedly sold horsemeat across Europe that was “not suitable” for human consumption, officials said Sunday. Police in Spain arrested 65 people suspected of crimes including animal abuse, document forgery, public health violations, money …
Read More »Moo-gabe’s gift: Zimbabwe leader sells cows to fund AU
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | As the African Union struggles to get members to pay dues, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe took the bull by the horns and sold his own cattle for a sizeable donation to the body. Mugabe handed over $1 million (880,000 euros) at the start of …
Read More »Drought shatters Turkana’s dreams of a better future
Lokamarinyang, Kenya | AFP | In just a few years water, oil and money would flow. Roads, schools and hospitals would follow. Turkana’s generations of poverty and neglect in Kenya’s arid north would end. But it was not to be: five years after the discovery of oil, and four since …
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