Bureaucratic backlog holding up humanitarian aid to Nepal

Needed emergency supplies for the relief effort in Nepal sit at the airport and warehouses due to the slow process of customs in the country. “The bottleneck was the fact that the bureaucratic procedures were just so heavy,” Jamie McGoldrick, the United Nations resident coordinator, said in an interview. “So many layers of government and so many departments involved, so many different line ministries involved. We don’t need goods sitting in Kathmandu warehouses. We don’t need goods sitting at the airport. We need them up in the affected areas.” (NY Times http://nyti.ms/1IDSO3n)

Protests turn violent in Israel…Stun grenades and water cannons were used to break up protests in Tel Aviv on Sunday. Thousands of ethnic Ethiopian Jewish citizens demonstrated in the wake of a video showing policeman striking a black soldier. “I’ve had enough of this behaviour by the police, I just don’t trust them any more … when I see the police I spit on the ground,” one female demonstrator who was not identified told Channel 2 before police on horseback had charged. Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Jerusalem, said the Israeli Red Cross said at least 40 people, including 23 police officers, were injured in the protest. (Al Jazeera http://bit.ly/1KFttoU)

Number of the Weekend: Another 5,800 migrants desperate to reach Europe were rescued this weekend as they tried to cross the Mediterranean on rickety boats, more than 2,150 of them on Sunday, the Italian coastguard said. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1AzdsLc)

Africa

Hundreds of traumatised Nigerian women and children rescued from Boko Haram Islamists have been released into the care of authorities at a refugee camp in the eastern town of Yola, an army spokesman said. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1IDC6RU)

Dozens of Burundian journalists gathered in the capital, Bujumbura, calling for the government to give the media space to operate freely, the call coming days after the government shut down privately owned radio and blocked some social media sites. (VOA http://bit.ly/1R3c1iL)

Burundi protest organisers on Saturday called a two-day pause in demonstrations against the president’s move to seek a third term, which they says violates the constitution and endangers the peace deal that ended civil war in 2005. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1Jj547z)

More than two years of sectarian violence have decimated already fragile health systems in Central African Republic, leading to a rise in preventable diseases like malaria among families still hiding from armed groups in the bush, according to the head of Doctors Without Borders. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1JKoVjE)

France’s defence minister has urged soldiers “to give themselves up” if they are guilty of sexually assaulting hungry Central African kids, as questions remain on why the probe into the alleged crimes is taking so long. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1I62ovy)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Kenya on Sunday to offer help in countering Somali al Shabaab militants who have staged deadly attacks there and elsewhere in East Africa. (Reutershttp://bit.ly/1Jj4ZAT)

Nigeria’s military is confident it has Boko Haram cornered, but a final push to clear the Islamist militants from their forest hideouts is being hampered by landmines, it said on Saturday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1Jj53AB)

Togo’s constitutional court on Sunday confirmed the victory of incumbent president Faure Gnassingbe in last week’s election, declaring he had beaten rival Jean-Pierre Fabre with just over 58 percent of the vote. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1GJdHpl)

MENA

The Saudi-led coalition bombing rebels in Yemen has been using US-supplied cluster munitions in its air campaign, Human Rights Watch said Sunday, warning of the long-term dangers to civilians. (AFPhttp://yhoo.it/1I61Rd2)

The UN’s cultural body on Sunday awarded its annual press freedom prize to Mazen Darwish, a Syrian journalist and rights activist who has been jailed by the regime for more than three years. (AFPhttp://yhoo.it/1JKoF41)

Egyptian authorities are using the courts to stifle journalism, Amnesty International said on Sunday in a report that listed 18 reporters and media workers jailed and dozens more facing criminal investigations. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1Jj53k6)

Asia

Rescuers have pulled a 101-year-old man alive from his ruined home a week after Nepal’s earthquake claimed at least 7,200 lives, as the government warned Sunday the death toll will climb “much higher.” (AFP http://yhoo.it/1AzelUa)

More than a week after Nepal’s devastating earthquake, large swathes of the Himalayan nation have yet to receive any outside help as aid workers battle landslides, avalanches and a helicopter shortage to reach communities in some of the world’s remotest terrain. (AFP http://bit.ly/1R3bZHz)

The Americas

Costa Rica has declared an emergency zone along about 60 miles of the country’s Pacific coastline, after a ship full of toxic chemicals sank. The vessel went down in heavy seas off the tourist town of Puntarenas. (BBC http://bbc.in/1JKoPZe)

…and the rest

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has urged national and regional Olympic bodies to lobby their governments to back his plan to have sport included in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. (AP http://yhoo.it/1I61YVL)

Austria wants a refugee quota for every country in the European Union to help absorb hundreds of migrants arriving every day by boat in southern Europe, Chancellor Werner Faymann said in a newspaper interview. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1Jj52Ne)

Opinion/Blogs

What Happens To A Country When An Outbreak Of Ebola Ends? (Goats and Soda http://n.pr/1Jj547F)

Great Gut Extinction: Has modern life destroyed our health? (BBC http://bbc.in/1GJdUZD)

Will one in three women in SA be raped? Blow the Whistle wrong again (Africa Check http://bit.ly/1R3cbqb)

China’s AIIB bank set to become major player while new BRICS bank lags behind (ODIhttp://bit.ly/1EPoZLM)

To Realize the QDDR’s Early-Warning Goal, Invest in Data-Making (Dart-Throwing Chimphttp://bit.ly/1EPp7uQ)

Meet the local volunteers behind Nepal’s aid effort (IRIN http://bit.ly/1K4Acrz)

Why Disease Epidemics Need Input From Anthropology (SciDevNet http://bit.ly/1R3bKMK)

Behavioural economics meets development economics (Development Drums podcasthttp://bit.ly/1DNisfv)

Developmental revolution or Bretton Woods revisited? (ODI http://bit.ly/1EPm6ut)

The readers’ editor on… the pluses and perils of journalistic partnerships (Guardianhttp://bit.ly/1JKpdHb)