Chapala Slams Yemen

One in four Yemenis are already in need of some form of humanitarian assistance, thanks to seven months of war. Now, the humanitarian response will be made even more difficult by the ongoing conflict “The coast of Yemen, an area unaccustomed to dealing with the devastation of tropical systems, has taken a direct hit from the powerful and dangerous Cyclone Chapala. As Chapala made landfall Tuesday, it dumped enormous amounts of rainfall on the arid coast – as much as a decade’s worth, according to some forecasts. This caused major flooding and swamped entire towns…In the coastal town of Mukalla, currently under al Qaeda control, thousands fled their homes, fearing rockslides and flooding, Reuters reported.” (Weather Channel http://wxch.nl/1NbTWdf)

What’s 66 Years Between Bitter Enemies? The leaders of China and Taiwan will meet on Saturday for the first time since the governments split in 1949 after the Communist takeover on the mainland, Taiwan’s official government news agency said. If the meeting does occur, it would be the clearest signal yet of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitions to reunify the democratic island, and of Beijing’s concerns about elections there in January. The news agency said Mr. Xi would meet Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou in Singapore.” (WSJ http://on.wsj.com/1NbRIKR)

Stat of the day: A stateless child is born every 10 minutes, the United Nations said, warning that the problem has intensified as the conflict in Syria has sparked a global migrant and refugee crisis. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1XMDyay)

Quote of the day: “To achieve the sustainable development agenda, we must end corruption and bribery”, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at one of the world’s largest anti-corruption conferences in St. Petersburg, Russia. (IPS http://bit.ly/1SlHfRy)

#LongRead of the day: The African migrants stuck in Northern Africa can’t reach Europe and can’t go home. (WSJ http://on.wsj.com/1NbRYtb)

Africa

Fourteen aid workers kidnapped two days ago by unidentified assailants in the eastern Rutshuru region of Democratic Republic of Congo have been released, the United Nations said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1WwRaEh)

Nine people in Burundi have been killed in gunfights with security forces since Saturday, a police spokesman said, continuing a wave of violence in this central African nation. (AP http://yhoo.it/1XMEADx)

Oil giant Shell is “blatantly false” when it claims it is cleaning up spills that continue to destroy the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Nigerians, Amnesty International said Tuesday. (AP http://yhoo.it/1XMEXOd)

Three journalists from a state-run weekly newspaper in Zimbabwe will be charged with slander for a front-page story that implicated an unnamed top police officer and other officials in fatal cyanide poisonings of more than 60 elephants by poachers, police said Tuesday. (AP http://yhoo.it/1XMETya)

President Pierre Nkurunziza set a Nov. 7 deadline on Monday for Burundians to hand over illegal firearms or risk being “dealt with as enemies of the nation”, after months of protests over his re-election in July and a failed coup. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1XMxQWj)

Sierra Leone is expected to be declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organisation on Saturday, when it will have gone 42 days without any fresh case of the virus. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1XMx2R7)

Residents of a South African coastal town say their drinking water “tastes like the sea” as a worsening drought affects freshwater sources, according to a local newspaper. (AP http://yhoo.it/1XMEADn)

The poor transport infrastructure in Nigeria is one of the major obstacles in the way of President Muhammadu Buhari’s aim of boosting agriculture and reducing the reliance on oil exports at a time of low crude prices. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1OlLwWB)

Donors are not responding fast enough to urgent calls for more aid to drought-stricken Ethiopia where record-breaking numbers of children are suffering malnutrition, the United Nations said on Monday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1WwRaUN)

Uganda’s electoral commission approved on Tuesday veteran leader Yoweri Museveni’s bid to extend his three decades in office, kicking off campaigning for the presidential election due in early 2016. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1WwR5QZ)

Groups of reformed youths who once sold drugs and stole from their neighbours are helping protect trees in rural central Kenya from illegal loggers. (TRF http://bit.ly/1OlLxK8)

MENA

 

After weeks of sharp disputes between its leaders, Tunisia’s ruling party is on the verge of breaking up, which could allow Islamist rivals to usurp it as the biggest bloc in parliament. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1WwR5Az)

Egypt’s civil aviation ministry said on Tuesday there were no facts to substantiate assertions by Russian officials that the Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Saturday broke up in mid-air. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1WwR3c1)

A complicated set of laws has made obtaining legal residency in Lebanon so difficult that an estimated two-thirds of the country’s Syrian refugees now lack the proper papers, putting them at constant risk of arrest. (IRIN http://bit.ly/1P7TAKx)

Lebanon asked the United States for more aid in eliminating landmines planted during the Lebanese civil war and in later conflicts. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Wu2jv5)

Russia has provided Syria with around 100,000 tons of wheat as aid, sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Wu2kiD)

Asia

An Indian court sentenced an Uber driver to life in prison Tuesday for raping a passenger in his vehicle last December, in a case that has triggered widespread protests against sexual violence and demands for more efforts to ensure women’s safety. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Wu2kPA)

A young Afghan woman was stoned to death after being accused of adultery, officials said Tuesday, a medieval punishment apparently recorded in a video that harks back to the dark days of Taliban rule. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1XMDyHt)

The Americas

The ELN rebel group in Colombia has announced that it is planning to free two soldiers it kidnapped last week “in the coming days”. Writing on Twitter, the left-wing guerrilla group said that the soldiers were in good health. (BBC http://bbc.in/1P7QLZU)

Argentina’s health minister on Tuesday denied posting a tweet warning that cancer centers would only remain open if the ruling party kept control of the presidency, unleashing a torrent of claims by the opposition about a dirty campaign that underscored the intensifying rhetoric ahead of a runoff. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Wu2V3K)

Haitians will have to wait longer for official preliminary results from last month’s first-round presidential election. (AP http://yhoo.it/1XMEBXS)

…and the rest

The Austrian cabinet is to introduce a law to make the country less of a magnet for tens of thousands of Afghans fleeing a surge of violence as Taliban insurgents intensify their attacks. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1GJKP6Q)

The Red Cross pledged on Tuesday to boost its aid for thousands of refugees streaming through Greece and said allowing them legal passage across the Aegean would help save lives and stop traffickers profiting from their misery. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1XMEvzM)

British defence officials are under pressure to resolve the status of Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Cyprus after the release of video showing chaotic scenes at a UK military base on the island. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1P7QKFy)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday a bundle of national and European measures were needed to help stem the number of refugees arriving in Germany. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1XMEziO)

A U.N. expert is warning that more extreme weather, higher temperatures, floods, droughts and rising sea levels linked to climate change are threatening people’s access to food over the long term. (AP http://yhoo.it/1XMEAU1)

Opinion/Blogs

Don’t get excited, China is not the new aid superpower (Guardian http://bit.ly/1XMDibv)

Eliminating Malaria in the Americas: An Opportunity We Cannot Afford to Miss (Inter Press Service http://bit.ly/1WwQZci)

This Map Shows How Large Europe’s Refugee Crisis Really Is (TakePart http://bit.ly/1OlKMAL)

UN Frontline Staff Consider Their Options as Pay Cuts Loom (Inter Press Service http://bit.ly/1P7R2Mz)

When will Britain’s grand ambitions on the global goals be put into action? (Guardian http://bit.ly/1Wu26YF)

Beasts of No Nation and the child soldier movie genre (Africa is a Country http://bit.ly/1XMN5ON)

Marginalised youth say ‘Enough!’ Guest post by Alcinda Honwana (From Poverty to Power http://bit.ly/1Wu82Rr)

Helping Others Be Heard, from World Bank to Feedback Labs (Tiny Spark http://bit.ly/1Wu89fU)

Meet The Biracial African Comedian Who Is Not Trevor Noah (Goats and Soda http://n.pr/1P7WZJj)

Addressing gender in impact evaluation – what should be considered? (ODI http://bit.ly/1PjR16O)

Irony Fail: Mugabe Edition (Cherokee Gothic http://bit.ly/1PjR3eP)

What works and what’s missing in the new global goals (Devex http://bit.ly/1P7XyCU)