http://www.IRINnews.org Updated every day en-gb Sun, 14 Mar 2010 07:57:00 GMT United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks, http://www.IRINnews.org JOHANNESBURG, 12 March 2010 (IRIN) - As the level of carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere, we will probably see fewer but more intense storms, a group of the world's top experts on tropical cyclones and climate change have concluded. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88415 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88415 DAKAR, 12 March 2010 (IRIN) - This year there are less than half the reported meningitis infections than in the same period in 2009, but more patients are dying - 13 percent in 2010 versus 8 percent in 2009 - according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Multi-Disease Surveillance Centre in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, which tracks 14 countries prone to meningitis outbreaks between Senegal and Ethiopia. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88414 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88414 JOHANNESBURG, 12 March 2010 (IRIN) - The executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Michel Kazatchkine, sat down with IRIN/PlusNews at the launch of the organization's 2010 report, where he answered some hard questions on what may be a turning point in HIV/AIDS funding. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88413 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88413 NAIROBI, 12 March 2010 (IRIN) - Government troops - the FARDC - in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are to blame for much of the epidemic of sexual violence in the east of the country, according to US and UN reports detailing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by various groups there. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88410 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88410 BOSASSO, 12 March 2010 (IRIN) - In an attempt to deal with a growing influx of migrants, authorities in Somalia's autonomous region of Puntland are adopting new measures to stop people from undertaking the hazardous journey to Yemen, officials said. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88405 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88405 ADDIS ABABA, 12 March 2010 (IRIN) - On stage in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Mestihet Temane, 27, enacts the story of how, after the death of her parents, a young woman winds up alone on the streets with no money, no confidence and no support. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88404 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88404 PORT-AU-PRINCE, 12 March 2010 (IRIN) - Elderly people need more attention in the response to January's earthquake in Haiti and more appreciation of the role they can play in the relief effort, say aid workers. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88403 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88403 NIAMEY/ZINDER, 11 March 2010 (IRIN) - A severe food and malnutrition crisis is looming in Niger, according to aid agencies. More than 20,000 under-five children are being treated for malnutrition nationwide and at least another 200,000 are at risk of severe malnutrition, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88402 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88402 JOHANNESBURG, 11 March 2010 (IRIN) - Most food crop cultivation in Africa is rain-fed, but climate change is affecting vital rainfall patterns and pushing up temperatures, diminishing yields that could halve in some countries by 2020. This warning has been widely quoted since it first appeared in a synthesis report for policy-makers in 2007 by the authoritative UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88400 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88400 JOHANNESBURG, 11 March 2010 (IRIN) - Rivers throughout central and northern Mozambique are swollen above flood alert level and thousands of people have been relocated to higher ground, but national disaster management authorities and aid agencies in Mozambique say "the situation is under control". http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88399 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88399 NEW YORK, 11 March 2010 (IRIN) - Haiti's economy depends on the estimated US$1.5 billion a year in remittances sent home by its million-strong diaspora. Dilip Ratha, lead economist at the World Bank, said the figure could be even higher, accounting for perhaps half the national income. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88397 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88397 KYAKA II REFUGEE CAMP, 11 March 2010 (IRIN) - Inadequate healthcare is just one of many challenges facing the 16,200 refugees in this sprawling camp in western Uganda, which is served by a single doctor. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88396 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88396 CIANJUR, 11 March 2010 (IRIN) - Young unemployed men are finding opportunities in a project that also aims to introduce sustainable farming methods to Indonesia's agricultural sector. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88395 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88395 COLOMBO, 11 March 2010 (IRIN) - The spread of Dengue fever has eased in Sri Lanka's conflict-affected north, but health officials warn continued vigilance is necessary. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88394 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88394 LUSAKA, 11 March 2010 (IRIN) - Parity Zulu, 17, constantly recited a Biblical verse asking God for protection from her persecutors while her mother ferried her to hospital following complications from the teenager's illegal abortion. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88393 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88393 NAIROBI, 11 March 2010 (IRIN) - Rwanda's upcoming presidential election has cast a spotlight on its democratic credentials, with observers warning that allegations of intimidation of opposition leaders could mar the process. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88392 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88392 KABUL, 11 March 2010 (IRIN) - The insurgents in Afghanistan have shown interest in negotiating with the UN and aid agencies on humanitarian access and aid distributions, according to a purported Taliban spokesman. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88390 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88390 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. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88386 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88386 TANOUT, 10 March 2010 (IRIN) - "Empty" increasingly describes villages around the southern Niger town of Tanout in Zinder Region: Water wells and pastures, fields and food banks - and slowly - entire villages, are emptying. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88385 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88385 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. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88384 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88384 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. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88383 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88383 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). http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88382 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88382 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). http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88381 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88381 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. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88380 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88380 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". http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88379 http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88379