In Malawi, a report by the office of the public protector, or Ombudsman, has shown that poor conditions in public hospitals are resulting in many expectant mothers having their uteruses removed during child birth. The report faulted the Ministry of Health for failing to provide sufficient staff for Obstetrics and Gynecology departments. But health authorities say efforts are being made to address the matter.   The report, Woes of the Womb, released last week, says more than 100 expectant mothers received care in the country’s referral hospitals and had their uteruses removed during a six-month period last year.“Between January and July 2018, 160 uteruses were removed in the Central hospitals only.  There are some patients who we picked up because they could substantiate their cases. We will refer them to legal aid actual claim for compensation,” said Martha Chizuma, the country’s ombudswoman.The 37-page report follows a news article published by …

A team of veterinarians in Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy is trying to save the Northern White Rhino from extinction by using in vitro fertilization, or IVF.  The last two known Northern White Rhinos on Earth are living at the conservancy, but since they are both females they cannot procreate.  Vets have succeeded in extracting ova from both females and hope to fertilize them using Northern White Rhino sperm collected earlier to produce viable embryos. Ruud Elmendorp reports from Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. …

One hundred teenage girls from high schools in Malawi recently attended a “Girls in Science” camp at the Malawi University of Science and Technology, known as MUST. The yearly camp, which has taken place since 2016, aims to develop their interest in fields long considered male-dominated.The nine-day camp is part of the country’s initiative to nurture and encourage future female scientists.Davies Mweta chairs the committee which organized this year’s camp. “The science camp has been organized in the background that in Malawi we have a lot of girls. Actually when we go to the population, 52 percent of Malawi population is female, but when we go through the landscape of science and technologies and innovation, you find that the number of females is lower,” Mweta said.During this period, female science students and other role models at the university shared their experiences with the campers.Rachael Nyanda is an engineering student at the …

An Oklahoma state judge has ordered U.S. drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million in damages to the state for fueling its opioid crisis.Addiction and overdoses of the synthetic painkillers have killed more than 10,000 Oklahoma residents since 2000, lawyers argued, asking for a record $17 billion in damages.”The opioid crisis has ravaged the state of Oklahoma. It must be abated immediately,” Judge Thad Balkman said before announcing his verdict.Johnson & Johnson is the first company to be put on trial for what the state said was a “cynical, deceitful multibillion-dollar brainwashing campaign.” The state said J&J marketed opioids as a “magic drug” to doctors, caregivers and other prescribers.Attorneys cited Oklahoma’s “public nuisance” law, which is intended to protect the public from people and companies looking to harm others.J&J’s lawyers argued the company’s claims about its painkillers are backed by science. They pointed out that J&J’s products make …

For more than a century, countries have raced to build the world’s tallest buildings with concrete and steel. Now, a quiet contest in constructing tall wooden buildings, from Amsterdam to Tokyo, underlines growing environmental concerns over concrete.With rapid advances in engineered wood, and authorities relaxing building codes, wooden structures are sprouting across Europe, Canada, the United States, and in the Asia Pacific region.At 73 meters (240 ft), Amsterdam’s Haut building is said to be the world’s tallest wooden residential tower.Vancouver plans a 40-storey building it says will be the world’s tallest, a title also claimed by Sumitomo Forestry’s 350-meter (11,150 ft) skyscraper in Tokyo.”The interest is definitely being driven by environmental concerns — the amount of damage we’re doing with concrete is unbelievable,” said John Hardy, a sustainability expert in Bali, Indonesia.”Bamboo and wood are carbon sequestering materials. So the other advantage of building with them is that you will …

Immigrant advocates in Boston say federal authorities are unfairly ordering foreign-born children granted special immigration status for medical treatment to return to their countries. The Irish International Immigrant Center says it’s aware of at least five local families who have received notices this month to leave the U.S. within 33 days.The families have “medical deferred action” that enables them to receive government-funded health care and work legally while their children receive treatment. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says in letters sent to the families that the agency is no longer accepting deferred action requests. The exception is for certain military members and their families approved by the Department of Homeland Security.An email seeking comment was sent to the immigration agency.Advocates say similar notices have been recently issued in California, North Carolina and elsewhere.   …

The Justice Department is moving forward to expand the number of marijuana growers for federally-authorized cannabis research.   Uttam Dhillon, the acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, says Monday’s move would give researchers a wider variety of cannabis to study. He says the DEA supports additional marijuana research.   The DEA says the number of people registered to conduct research with marijuana and extracts has jumped more than 40 percent in the last two years. The agency is also planning to propose new regulations to govern the marijuana growers’ program.   Researchers at federally-funded entities have faced legal barriers in recent years because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, even as a growing number of states have legalized medical and so-called recreational marijuana. …

Mary Banda – not her real name – is a 35-year-old HIV positive sex worker from neighboring Zambia who cannot afford life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs.Like many sex workers living with HIV in Botswana, she also cannot afford to travel back home to receive free treatment.That is why Banda welcomes legislation before the Botswana cabinet that, if passed, would provide free ARVs to HIV positive foreigners. “If they do that it will be a good idea because some of us are dying here,” she said.  “Maybe someone will be getting (the) tablets back home, and when they get finished, they don’t have money to go back and take the tablets.”   Banda says a number of sex workers she knew in Botswana have died from AIDS-related illnesses due to lack of treatment.   Immigrants and sex workers in Botswana afflicted with the HIV virus that causes AIDS could get a lifeline as the …

Immigrants, including sex workers, in Botswana could get a lifeline as the southern African country’s cabinet is due to decide on offering free Anti-Retroviral (ARV) treatment to foreigners. An estimated 30,000 migrants in the diamond rich country are HIV positive. Mqondisi Dube has more from Gaborone. …

It might not be obvious at the supermarket, but the banana industry is fighting to protect the most popular variety of the fruit from a destructive fungus.A disease that ravages banana crops has made its long-dreaded arrival in Latin America, the biggest exporter of the crop. That’s reigniting worries about the global market’s dependence on a single type of banana, the Cavendish, which is known for its durability in shipping.For years, scientists have said big banana companies like Chiquita and Dole would eventually need to find new banana varieties as the disease spread in countries in Asia and elsewhere. Then this month, the fungus was confirmed in Colombia, one of the top exporters in Latin America, prompting officials in the country to declare a state of emergency.Banana industry watchers say it’s more proof the Cavendish’s days are numbered, but that there’s still plenty of time to find alternatives.”I don’t think it’s going to impact the availability of the Cavenidsh in supermarkets …

When starlight from billions of years ago zips across the universe and finally comes into focus on Earth, astronomers want their telescopes to be in the best locations possible to see what’s out there.Despite years of legal battles and months of protests by Native Hawaiian opponents, the international coalition that wants to build the world’s largest telescope in Hawaii insists that the islands’ highest peak — Mauna Kea — is the best place for their $1.4 billion instrument.But just barely.Thirty Meter Telescope officials acknowledge that their backup site atop a peak on the Spanish Canary island of La Palma is a comparable observatory location, and that it wouldn’t cost more money or take extra time to build it there.There’s also no significant opposition to putting the telescope on La Palma like there is in Hawaii, where some Native Hawaiians consider the mountain sacred and have blocked trucks from hauling construction …

When a “Himalayan tsunami” roars down from the rooftop of the world, water from an overflowing glacial lake obeys gravity. Obliterating everything in its path, a burst is predictable only in its destructiveness.    “There was no meaning in it,” one person who withstood the waters in India’s Himalayas told a Public Radio International reporter. “It didn’t give anyone a chance to survive.”     Christian Huggel, a professor at the University of Zurich in Switzerland who specializes in glaciology and geomorphodynamics (the study of changing forms of geologic surfaces), said thousands of cubic meters of water moving down a mountain “is really quite destructive and it can happen suddenly.”    That water comes from glacial lake outburst floods, or GLOFs, which are increasing in frequency as climate change increases the rate of glacial melting. This catastrophic lake drainage occurs wherever there are glaciers in places such as Peru and Alaska.     The most …

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft failed to dock with the International Space Station Saturday. The craft was carrying a humanoid robot that was scheduled to conduct a mission on the station with the cosmonauts who are there.  NASA said on its blog that the docking system of the Soyuz spacecraft failed to properly lock onto its target on the ISS. The Soyuz has backed away from the ISS while the cosmonauts work on the station’s docking system. Officials say the Soyuz will attempt another ISS docking Monday.   …

The Rolling Stones have rocked stages around the world in their more than 50-year career. But now their influence has gone into space after NASA’s Mars InSight Mission named a rock on the planet after the band.Slightly larger than a golf ball, the “Rolling Stones Rock” is said to have rolled about 3 feet (1 meter), spurred by the InSight spacecraft’s thrusters during touchdown on Mars in November, NASA said.“In images taken by InSight the next day, several divots in the orange-red soil can be seen trailing Rolling Stones Rock,” it said. “It’s the farthest NASA has seen a rock roll while landing a spacecraft on another planet.”Hollywood actor Robert Downey Jr. announced the name as Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts were about to perform Thursday night at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl Stadium, close to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.The Rolling Stones, known for hits such as “Sympathy …

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that it had identified 193 potential cases of severe lung illness tied to vaping in 22 states as of Aug. 22, including one adult in Illinois who died after being hospitalized. The CDC has been investigating a “cluster” of lung illnesses that it believes may be linked to e-cigarette use, although it has not yet been able to establish whether they were in fact caused by vaping. E-cigarettes are generally thought to be safer than traditional cigarettes, which kill up to half of all lifetime users, according to the World Health Organization. But the long-term health effects of vaping are largely unknown. No link to specific productIn a briefing with reporters, representatives from health agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said they have not linked the illnesses to any specific product and that some patients had reporting vaping with cannabis liquids. Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said the agency was analyzing …

The World Health Organization said Friday that the deadly Ebola virus had spread to new areas in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The number of cases was 2,934, including 1,965 deaths, it said. Since mid-June, the WHO has reported an average of 80 new Ebola cases every week. It said, though, that these numbers have been falling in recent weeks.    Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, said two new health zones, Mwenga in South Kivu and Pinga in North Kivu, had reported cases in the past week, and that the risk of further spread remained high. “The geographic extension of the virus has increased while the intensity of transmission has reduced in that time,” he said. “So we are winning against the virus in the intense transmission areas, but still failing to prevent the further extension of the virus into other areas before the disease is properly extinguished.”     Ryan noted progress in containing …

Brazil’s ultra-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, is accusing his French counterpart of having a “colonialist mentality” for saying the Amazon wildfires should be at the top of the Group of Seven (G-7) summit agenda.”The French president’s suggestion that Amazon issues be discussed at the G-7 without participation by the countries in the region evoke a colonialist mentality that is out of place in the 21st century,” Bolsonaro tweeted Thursday.He said countries that send money to Brazil for the Amazon are not doing it out of charity but “with the aim of interfering with our sovereignty.”Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro speaks at the opening of the Brazilian Steel Congress, in Brasilia, Brazil, Aug. 21, 2019.Thousands of wildfires burning in the Amazon rainforest threaten to wipe out large parts of a vital and irreplaceable ecosystem. “Our house is burning. Literally,” French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted Thursday. “The Amazon rainforest, the lungs which produces 20% of …

Rwanda has introduced the use of electric motorcycles as part of its efforts to protect the environment and cut fuel costs. Passengers and motorcyclists say the electric vehicles could dramatically change how Rwandans do business.James Musisi, 45, is one of 10 motorcyclists who have started to use the motorcycles in what is known as the moto-taxi business — motorcycle taxis. He says the vehicles are quiet, which means passengers are able to make phone calls as they’re taken to their destinations. They’re also relatively cheap. One electric bike costs $1,300 — less expensive than the $1,600 price for fuel motorcycles.Also, Musisi said, “There is no chain, no drum brake, and requires less [maintenance compared to] those that use fuel lubricant every week and have to change the oil.”Currently, there are 10 of the motorcycles running on Kigali’s roads, but more than 600 are being built. Two charging stations exist in Kigali. A moto-taxi driver …

A three-year study by 13 leading malaria and public health experts finds malaria eradication is feasible, but it will take new tools, political commitment, and lots of money to achieve.  The concept of malaria eradication is not new.  It has been around since the mid-1950s, when the World Health Organization launched its first global malaria eradication plan.  Though that and subsequent efforts have failed to rid the world of the debilitating, often deadly, disease, experts say malaria eradication is feasible.  They say there is no biological barrier to its elimination.The director of the WHO’s Global Malaria Program, Pedro Alonso, says achieving that goal would involve improving primary health care and access to services, and better use of data and surveillance systems.  But the key to eradicating malaria, he says, is accelerated research and development of new tools.“We need re-energized research and development efforts to develop the knowledge base, the strategies …

Seven environmental and animal rights groups are suing the Trump administration for its regulations that would make drastic changes to the implementation of the Endangered Species Act.The environmental law group Earthjustice filed the joint suit Wednesday in San Francisco.They charge the administration with breaking the law by announcing changes to the implementation of the landmark act without first analyzing the effects the changes would have.”In the midst of an unprecedented extinction crisis, the Trump administration is eviscerating our most effective wildlife protection law,” the National Resources Defense Council said. “These regulatory changes will place vulnerable species in immediate danger – all to line the pockets of industry. We are counting on the courts to step in before it is too late.”An Interior Department spokesman responded by saying “We will see them in court and we will be steadfast in our implementation of this important act with the unchanging goal of …

Microplastics contained in drinking water pose a “low” risk to human health at current levels, but more research is needed to reassure consumers, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday.Studies over the past year on plastic particles detected in tap and bottled water have sparked public concerns, but the limited data appears reassuring, the U.N. agency said its first report on potential health risks associated with ingestion.Microplastics enter drinking water sources mainly through run-off and wastewater effluent, the WHO said. Evidence shows that microplastics found in some bottled water seem to be at least partly because of the bottling process and/or packaging such as plastic caps, it said.“The headline message is to reassure drinking water consumers around the world, that based on this assessment, our assessment of the risk is that it is low,” Bruce Gordon of the WHO’s department of public health, environmental and social determinants of health, told …