Government warplanes dropped suspected chlorine bombs Tuesday on a crowded neighborhood, injuring dozens. The report could not be independently verified and it was not clear how it was determined that chlorine gas was released. Accusations involving use of chlorine and other poisonous gases are not uncommon in Syria’s civil war, and both sides have denied using them while blaming the other for using it as a weapon of war. Last month, there were at least two reports of suspected chlorine attacks in Aleppo also, while the Syrian government also blamed the opposition for using the gas. (AP http://yhoo.it/2cEGGbv)
You Get a 4G! You Get a 4G! You Get a 4G! “India’s richest man is rolling out a $20 billion mobile network that could bring lightning-fast Internet to hundreds of millions of people. Indian consumers are already celebrating the arrival of Mukesh Ambani’s new Reliance Jio service, seizing on the billionaire’s promise to deliver rock bottom prices and download speeds that will enable streaming video. The 4G network, which reaches more than 80% of the country, officially went live Monday with a set of generous introductory offers. Indians will be able to use Jio for free until the end of 2016, and pay as little as 149 rupees ($2.25) a month for data after that.” (CNN http://cnnmon.ie/2chP677)
Stat of the day: From a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation on US global health spending. “In FY 2015, 773 organizations received $6.65 billion to implement global health programs in 90 countries around the world…While most implementing organizations were based outside the U.S. (55%), most funding was provided to U.S.-based organizations (62%); non-U.S.-based organizations, including local NGOs, received just 9% of funding.” (KFF http://kaiserf.am/2chQ3vW)
Meet the new head of the Center for Global Development…The premier global development thinktank in the US is coming under new management ”Masood Ahmed is to become its new president, succeeding founding president Nancy Birdsall, who is stepping down after 15 years. Ahmed will join CGD in early 2017, after leaving his current position as Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the IMF. The Fund’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde has described him as a “visionary leader” in his role overseeing its work in the region. In a career spanning 35 years, he has also led the IMF’s External Relations Department, and held senior leadership positions at DFID and the World Bank, driving international economic policy relating to debt, aid effectiveness, trade, and global economic prospects.” (CGDEV http://bit.ly/2chQzKz)
Africa
A European Union mission to observe Gabon’s election said on Tuesday it had found anomalies in results from the southeast region of Haut-Ogooue where President Ali Bongo won 95.46 percent of the votes cast. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2c5FFUV)
The leader of Ghana’s main opposition party, Nana Akufo-Addo, climbed from his car, picked up a microphone and made a bold election promise to give every constituency the equivalent of $1 million a year if his party wins power. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2cEIrWm)
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud says he wants more young Somalis from abroad to return and help rebuild the country, even as al-Shabab militants continue to mount deadly attacks. (VOA http://bit.ly/2bWzu7O)
A court ruling opens a path for citizenship for stateless children in South Africa. (News 24 http://bit.ly/2chQ6rD)
MENA
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Tuesday there was a possibility of reaching an agreement on a ceasefire in Syria within 24 hours. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2cEHqxo)
A Yemeni minister with the internationally recognized government on Tuesday accused the country’s Shiite rebels of forcing children to fight in Yemen’s civil war, saying the rebels have recruited as many as 4,800 boys over the past six months. (AP http://yhoo.it/2cEFoND)
Egypt will host an international conference in March to coordinate humanitarian aid for Yemen, which has been devastated by a civil war, a minister in Yemen’s Saudi-backed government said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2c5wqn8)
The UN said Tuesday it has delivered food supplies to more than 30,000 residents of Qayyarah for the first time in two years after Iraqi forces expelled jihadists from the northern town. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2c5EswP)
The U.N.’s development agency estimates the Palestinian economy could be twice as large as it is now if it were freed from Israeli control. (AP http://yhoo.it/2bWAtoC)
UN investigators on Tuesday said aerial bombardment by Syrian forces and their ally Russia were mostly to blame for swelling numbers of civilian casualties in Syria’s devastating conflict. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2cEH5dZ)
Asia
The United States announced on Tuesday it would provide an additional $90 million over the next three years to help Laos, heavily bombed during the Vietnam War, clear unexploded ordnance that has killed or injured more than 20,000 people. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2bRqwWd)
Militants stormed a building housing an international aid organization in Kabul, provoking an overnight firefight with security forces in which three gunmen were killed and six civilians were wounded, Afghan officials said Tuesday. (AP http://yhoo.it/2c5GUmV)
Flooding following heavy rain has killed 60 people and left over 44,000 homeless in North Korea, the United Nations said Tuesday, after the country reported that a northeastern river suffered its worst-ever flood. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2cEGsRC)
More than five times the number of Afghan refugees returned home from Pakistan in August than in July, the United Nations’ refugee office said on Tuesday, seeking to escape harassment in the host nation and stiffer measures on visits home. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2cEGLw6)
India will nearly double the budget and extend the deadline for a program to digitize land records as states struggle to survey land and property, large chunks of which have not been mapped in a century, a senior official said. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2cEHxJh)
Hundreds in Myanmar rallied on Tuesday against an advisory commission led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan to find solutions to the conflict between the country’s Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims, which has cast a pall over democratic reforms. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2cEJ3uT)
China has bought back to the country one-third of those on its top 100 list of most-wanted corruption suspects who have fled overseas, the ruling Communist Party’s top graft buster said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2c8TTqa)
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte defiantly reaffirmed his controversial campaign against drugs Tuesday and called for a redoubling of crime-fighting efforts across Southeast Asia as he prepared to face two prominent critics of his policy: President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. (AP http://yhoo.it/2bS5Wd7)
The Americas
A former Guantanamo inmate who was resettled in Uruguay was hospitalized, suffering from the effects of a prolonged hunger strike, a source said. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2bRpWYL)
Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos says he is certain his government’s peace deal with FARC rebels will be approved in an October 2 referendum because “an imperfect peace is always preferable to a perfect war.” (AFP http://yhoo.it/2cEIgKM)
Hurricane Newton bared down on Mexico’s western coast Tuesday, knocking out power and grounding flights, leaving tourists hunkered down in the upscale resorts and residents prepared for another day of heavy rain and the dangerous floods that might follow. (NBC http://nbcnews.to/2chPEtI)
…and the rest
Paris will open its first refugee camp in mid-October, Mayor Anne Hidalgo said Tuesday, unveiling plans to take hundreds of people off the streets as France struggles to accommodate migrants. (AFP http://yhoo.it/2c5D79a)
World leaders gathered this week at the Group of 20 summit in Hangzhou, China, have set a six-month deadline on formulating a strategy to stop the flow of money that finances terrorist activities. (VOA http://bit.ly/2cEHoFP)
The U.N.’s human rights chief says populist politicians like Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders and U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump are using fear and the promise of a world that has never existed in order to try to gain appeal. (VOA http://bit.ly/2cEHOMf)
The U.N. health agency is changing its advice to travelers returning from areas facing a Zika virus outbreak, saying both men and women should now practice safe sex or abstinence for six months. (AP http://yhoo.it/2c5GuNw)
Prosecutions for domestic abuse, rape and sexual offences against women in England and Wales hit a record high in 2015/2016, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which also reported the first cases of “revenge porn”. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2c5EjJD)
The assembly that awards the Nobel Prize for medicine will demand the resignation of two of its judges as a result of a scandal around a surgeon accused of scientific negligence, local news agency TT said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/2c5EftB)
Opinion/Blogs
Meet America’s Foremost Zika Fighter (Global Dispatches http://buff.ly/2c5IO7i)
Secret aid worker: some human rights lawyers are in it for vanity, not victims (Guardian http://bit.ly/2cEET6o)
Why It’s Hard to Get Rid of a Central Bank Governor (The Conversation http://bit.ly/2c5GyNi)
Global African Investment Summit Should Push for Closer Trade Ties (New Times http://bit.ly/2bS5NX8)
Why 2016 is a big year for Morocco’s startup culture (Devex http://buff.ly/2cEJu8N)
#ThisFlag, technology, social media & agency in Zimbabwe. (Africa is a Country http://buff.ly/2bWDMMo)
Thoughts on Secretary Kerry’s Trip to Nigeria (Sahel Blog http://buff.ly/2bWD7ee)
Evidence and practice in an age of inequality (DevPolicy http://buff.ly/2c5JfOP)
Reinvesting in mining communities seems like a no-brainer. It’s not. (ODI http://buff.ly/2cELtd5)
“Stopping the boats” is a threat to the global protection of refugees (WhyDev Blog http://buff.ly/2bRsvKg)