IRIN
MOZAMBIQUE: Floods force mass evacuation
JOHANNESBURG, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - Mozambique's National Disaster Management Institute (INGC) has raised the flood alert level to "red" and some 130,000 people living along three main rivers in central Mozambique are at risk of possible floods and need to be moved urgently.
NIGER: Southern villages emptying as drought bites
TANOUT, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - "Empty" increasingly describes the southern Niger town of Tanout in Zinder Region: Water wells and pastures, fields and food banks - and slowly - entire villages, are emptying.
KENYA: Thousands hit by flooding
ISIOLO-NAIROBI, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - At least 10,000 people in Kenya have been displaced by flooding, mainly in the north, which has prompted fears of an outbreak of waterborne diseases. Hundreds of heads of livestock have drowned or gone missing and dozens of houses and business stalls are submerged.
MYANMAR: Abortion a leading cause of maternal death
YANGON, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - In Myanmar, where abortions are illegal, complications arising from unsafe terminations are the third leading cause of maternal deaths after post-partum haemorrhage and eclampsia, according to the government's 2006-2011 National Health Plan.
In Brief: Afghan refugees allowed to stay longer in Pakistan
KABUL, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - The refugee cards of about 1.7 million Afghans in Pakistan will be extended until December 2012 and the Afghan government will have to enhance its reintegration services, according to a tripartite meeting of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
CHAD: Wipe out corruption, wipe out polio
DAKAR, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - It costs more to vaccinate a child in Chad against polio - almost 70 US cents per child - than in any other country in the world at risk of polio outbreaks, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
SOMALIA: Abdullahi Aden Ali, "From IDP to city trader"
BOSASSO, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - Abdullahi Aden Ali, 32, arrived in Bosasso, commercial capital of the autonomous region of Puntland, 10 years ago from southern Somalia. His aim, like that of thousands of young Somalis, was to go to Yemen and on to Saudi Arabia. He first fled his home town of Baidao for the capital, Mogadishu, but was again forced out when fighting between warlords intensified.
DRC-UGANDA: Aid workers battle to help "forgotten" refugees
NAKIVALE, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - With at least 67,000 refugees in southwest Uganda, the government and aid workers are still battling inadequate resources in what a UN official described as a "silent emergency".
OPT: Uphill battle to supply prosthetics to Gaza war injured
GAZA CITY, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - A half-finished two-story building in central Gaza City is one of the few places providing support to amputees, most of them civilian victims of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, as they try and come to terms with their injuries.
HAITI: Risk and treatment amid the rubble
JOHANNESBURG, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - In the aftermath of Haiti's 7.0 magnitude quake, one of the Caribbean's largest antiretroviral (ARV) programmes is struggling to resurrect itself from the rubble.
CAMBODIA: War crimes court juggles public demands
PHNOM PENH, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - Competing pressures in Cambodia's Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal could work against the victims it is supposed to represent, human rights groups warn.
UGANDA: Health fears follow deadly mudslides
BUKALASI , 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - Rose Nakhayetse is lucky to be alive, but her ordeal is far from over. Having narrowly escaped last week's deadly landslides in eastern Uganda, she and thousands of others are facing fresh dangers.
KENYA: Hungry and HIV-positive in Nairobi's slums
NAIROBI, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - Violet Tinah, 40, a resident of Korogocho slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, is living with HIV and was recently diagnosed with tuberculosis, but her biggest problem today is not disease - but hunger.
AFGHANISTAN: Driven into the arms of the Taliban
QALA-E-NAW, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - A year after his expulsion from Iran for not having a work permit, Abdul Majid, 26, has found paid employment in Muqor District, Badghis Province, northwestern Afghanistan. But it is not a normal job: My son has joined the Taliban, Majid's father, Bismillah, told IRIN, adding that he had had no contact with his son for over three months.
CHAD: Hungry season sets in early
DAKAR, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - The poorest households in Chad will find themselves with no food reserves in the coming weeks, according to the US famine early warning systems network, FEWSNET.
NIGERIA: Violence delays polio vaccinations
DAKAR, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - A polio vaccination campaign in the violence-wracked central Nigerian city of Jos has been delayed until 13 March due to the violence and a recent health worker strike, aid workers said.
AFRICA: Funding shortfalls foil new treatment guidelines
NAIROBI, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - Global funding shortfalls for fighting AIDS could make it impossible for developing countries to implement new World Health Organization treatment guidelines, activists have said.
SOUTH AFRICA: Rift Valley Fever reported in two provinces
JOHANNESBURG, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - An outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in two South African provinces has killed one person, while five others have tested positive for the disease, which has also caused "extensive livestock deaths", the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), said in a statement on 9 March.
HAITI: Josephine, "I won't leave until I point out the rapists to the police"
PORT-AU-PRINCE, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - Josephine*, 17, was living alone on the streets of Port-au-Prince when the earthquake hit. She lost the few belongings she had - mostly clothes. She now stays at the Jean-Marie Vincent camp for displaced families.
SOMALIA: Too many patients, one mental health facility
BOSASSO, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) - The number of people seeking mental health treatment has increased in Bosasso, the commercial capital of Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, despite the existence of only one small health unit, officials said.

