And the Best and Worst Country to be a Woman Is..

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Iceland and Yemen, respectively. That’s according to the latest Global Gender Gap Index, out by the World Economic Forum. (AP http://yhoo.it/1rxGS6Q)

Hopeful news on the ebola front: The Red Cross said Tuesday the weekly total of Ebola victims collected by its body disposal teams around the Liberian capital is falling dramatically, indicating a sharp drop in the spread of the epidemic.The aid group announced its workers were now picking up little over a third of the late September peak of more than 300 bodies a week in and around Monrovia — an indication, it said, that the outbreak was retreating.  (AFP http://bit.ly/1wIZ59l)

Chart of the Day: How the Great Recession of 2008 affected child poverty levels in rich countries. http://bit.ly/1wDJvu1

Ebola

US health authorities have issued new guidelines for health workers returning from Ebola-hit nations after a firestorm of criticism over state quarantine restrictions, including from the UN chief. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1rxGvJj)

Humanitarian groups in Australia are criticizing the government’s policy to impose a blanket ban on visas for citizens of the three West African nations affected by the Ebola virus outbreak. (VOA http://bit.ly/1wIOLOw)

As the Ebola outbreak rages in three West African countries – and raises fears abroad – some are questioning whether the World Health Organization is being stretched too thin. A proposal for a new global agency to deal strictly with infectious diseases is gaining some support. (VOA http://bit.ly/1xACFnk)

Health workers are monitoring 82 people who had contact with a toddler who died of Ebola in Mali last week, but no new cases of the disease have yet been reported, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1xAFMf8)

In the face of such stigmatization, Ebola survivors are joining an association in Guinea that assists the growing number of people who recover and seeks ways for them to help combat the disease. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1wISWKs)

Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown has tripled the number of safe burials of Ebola victims in the past week and the challenge now is to expand that coordination across the country. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1xAGadA)

The Swiss agency that regulates new drugs said Tuesday it has approved an application for a clinical trial with an experimental Ebola vaccine at the Lausanne University Hospital. (AP http://yhoo.it/1u3KKE9)

Africa

Patients waited in long queues while others were being turned away at state hospitals in Zimbabwe on Tuesday as hundreds of doctors staged a strike to press for higher pay. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1u3KTaJ)

A leading malaria control expert has said efforts to contain the disease may be jeopardised by the Ebola crisis. (BBC http://bbc.in/1szOKEY)

For years, poor Ghanaians have been burning old electronics in the open air to extract precious metals and sell them as scrap. But a new recycling center may mean the end of e-waste burning in Ghana. (VOA http://bit.ly/1xAzLyU)

Amnesty International has issued a new report claiming that the Ethiopian government is systematically repressing the country’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo. (VOA http://bit.ly/1xAAEYv)

Amid conflict and poverty, the Excel Academy in South Sudan is proving to be an unlikely success. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1wIR986)

Hundreds of Kenyans protested on Tuesday against a four-month government curfew imposed on the coastal county of Lamu after gunmen killed about 100 people there this year, authorities and residents said. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1xAFvJc)

AstraZeneca launched Healthy Heart Africa , a new program aimed at tackling the burden of hypertension in Africa. The African continent has the world’s highest prevalence of adults with raised blood pressure. (http://bit.ly/1xAHoFM)

MENA

International humanitarian officials said an immense humanitarian emergency is unfolding Iraq, where international assistance is urgently needed to help 5.2 million Iraqis, including 1.8 million displaced people, survive the coming winter. (VOA http://bit.ly/1wILejh)

Asia

In Afghanistan, a country where girls’ education had seen rapid growth since the fall of the Taliban, there is concern these gains could be reversed as the United States and other countries withdraw their military forces. (VOA http://bit.ly/1xADfBJ)

Myanmar’s unruly hinterlands are in the grips of what may be Asia’s worst heroin epidemic — a scourge widely ignored by the rest of the world. (GlobalPost http://bit.ly/1wIJOVW)

Cambodian anti-sex trafficking activist Somaly Mam has broken her silence to defend herself and her work, saying she didn’t lie about how she became a victim of sex slavery. (VOA http://bit.ly/1xAA0Kv)

Civil society and human rights groups in Myanmar are urging the government to fully investigate the death of a journalist while in military custody. (VOA http://bit.ly/1wIM7IH)

A leading activist for Myanmar’s ethnic Rohingya minority says there is a significant exodus –  on a scale possibly unprecedented – of Rohingya leaving the country. There are concerns about the fate of those who departed about two weeks ago. (VOA http://bit.ly/1xADhcQ)

The Americas

Mexican authorities searching for 43 students who disappeared after clashing with police last month are investigating a suspected mass grave. (BBC http://bbc.in/1xAzAnk)

Opinion/Blogs

Brazil election: Why Rousseff triumphed (CNN http://cnn.it/1wIQiEn)

We don’t need an Ebola czar (CNBC http://cnb.cx/1xAGlpc)

Letter from Liberia: Ebola Is Not a Failure of Aid or Governance (CGD http://bit.ly/1wIKvyC)

Ebola, Human Rights and Poverty – Making the Links (IPS http://bit.ly/1xAEHDY)

How Much Is Actually Being Spent on Ebola? (CGD http://bit.ly/1xAzrQY)

Can Brazil Stay the Course on Reducing Deforestation? (CGD http://bit.ly/1rxGLIv)

Research/Reports

Economic growth combined with equity is key to helping Least Developed Countries address poverty, Gyan Chandra Acharya, United Nations High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States told reporters last week. (IPS http://bit.ly/1wITcZK)

Strengthening social justice to address intersecting inequalities (ODI http://bit.ly/1rxGK7s)

Humanitarianism in the age of cyber-warfare (OCHA http://bit.ly/1wIVIiN)

The pace of population growth is so quick that even draconian restrictions of childbirth, pandemics or a third world war would still leave the world with too many people for the planet to sustain, according to a study. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1wIQqUx)