Maizbhandar, Bangladesh (AFP): Many families in Bangladesh come to seek blessings from an elderly Bangladeshi mystic, considering themselves affected by “evil spirits” and “black magic.” Syed Emdadul Hoque conducts exorcisms but at the same time is helping to shatter taboos around mental health treatment in the South As...
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – At least 73 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody due to medical negligence since 1967, a local NGO said on Saturday. In a statement, the Palestinian Prisoner Society said the latest victim was Palestinian female Sa’diya Farajallah, who died in Israeli custody in June. “Israel is still holding the bodies of...
JOHANNESBURG (AA) – At least 730 children have died in nutrition centers across Somalia this year, the UN Children’s Fund said on Tuesday, warning of a famine in the coming months. “Malnutrition has reached crisis levels – 1.5 million children, nearly half of the under-five population, are likely to have acute malnutrition,’’...
Nablus, Palestinian Territories (AFP): Doctors in the occupied West Bank are struggling to save Palestinians from permanent disability after having been being shot in an upsurge of violence resulting from incessant Israeli raids targeting Palestinians. At Rafidia Surgical Hospital in Nablus in the northern West Bank, a teenager with bandaged l...
ABUJA, Nigeria (AA) – Some 22,500 children died from air pollution in Nigeria’s most populous southwestern state of Lagos in 2021, according to environmental authorities. The figures were revealed by Dolapo Fasawe, head of the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), on the sidelines of the opening ceremony for the ...
KHAIRPUR, Pakistan (AA) – Thousands of Pakistanis displaced by unprecedented floods are now facing an even worse ordeal: the outbreak of waterborne and other diseases. The Sindh Health Department confirmed in a statement that over 170,000 people, including 52,000 suffering from diarrhea, have been recorded from flood-affected areas of the prov...
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Bangladesh has started vaccination for schoolchildren aged between 5 and 11 with pediatric Pfizer jabs. The first dose of pediatric Pfizer vaccines received from the COVAX facility will be given to children in 21 centers in the capital Dhaka starting from August 25. However, all the children aged 5-11 years across [&he...
Bamako, Mali (AFP): An unexpected ban on hookah smoking in Mali’s capital Bamako has stirred surprise as well as division. The government’s sudden decision on August 15 to ban shishas took many by surprise — the ruling junta, in power since 2020, had not been particularly known for its concerns about tobacco. In Mali, where [...
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Cases of dengue fever, a virus spread by mosquitos, are on the rise in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh’s southeastern coastal district. Bangladesh is currently hosting about 1.2 million Rohingya, the majority of whom fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in Augu...
Senate Republicans on Sunday successfully stripped a proposed $35 per month cap on out-of-pocket spending on insulin for patients enrolled in private insurance from the tax and climate bill making its way through the Senate. The Senate parliamentarian had earlier ruled that the provision, sponsored by Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock...
