French authorities are finally making good on a long standing threat. “Clashes have broken out in Calais between migrants and riot police after authorities began to dismantle parts of the sprawling refugee camp known as the Jungle. A British refugee aid group said it believed the homes of up to 200 people of the approximately 3,500 living in the camp had been demolished so far, and that a number of other makeshift shelters were burning. Some homes appeared to have been set alight by the heat of teargas canisters fired at crowds by riot police, said a spokeswoman for the British volunteer group Help Refugees, while some residents seem to have set others on fire in protest. ‘Police are still periodically firing teargas to keep back the crowds,’ she said. ‘We can see six homes on fire now.’” (Guardian http://bit.ly/1SdEdB7)
Farther east, more teargas…”Macedonian police fired teargas to disperse hundreds of migrants who stormed the border from Greece on Monday as a deeply divided Europe traded barbs over the biggest humanitarian crisis in decades.” (Reuters http://reut.rs/1SdEyUH)
A Headline that’s all Too Rare: The WFP Get’s all the Money It Needs for Syrian Refugees...The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced today that new funding pledged during a conference in London earlier this month will enable the agency to fully reinstate its food assistance to Syrians. The record pledge of $675 million made during the ‘Supporting Syria and the Region Conference’ will support a “comprehensive restoration” of food assistance for refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt from March until the end of the year, WFP said in a press release today.” (UN News Center http://bit.ly/1QHkpRf)
Is the Syria Cessation of Hostilities Holding?
On the one hand…”U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that despite “some incidents” the cessation of hostilities in Syria is largely holding on its third day.” (VOA http://bit.ly/21wq87S) On the other hand…”An international attempt to halt nearly five years of fighting was in danger of total collapse because of attacks by government forces. The cessation of hostilities drawn up by Washington and Moscow faced “complete nullification” because Syrian government attacks were violating the agreement, the official of the Saudi-backed opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said.” (Reuters http://reut.rs/1SdDy2C)
Carbon for sale…The World Bank will hold a $20 million auction for carbon credits from projects designed to cut methane emissions, offering up to 10 times the current market value, the bank said on Monday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Uukg9O)
Africa
Suspected Ugandan rebels used machetes to kill at least 12 civilians on Monday in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, authorities and a local human rights group said, the latest in a series of targeted attacks over the last 18 months. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1Uuk9v0)
Malawi will import 50,000 tonnes of the staple maize from Tanzania to avert hunger after a drought that affected 2.8 million people in the southern African nation, state officials said on Monday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Qgrs6o)
Patchy rains fell last week in most of Ivory Coast’s main cocoa regions, offering some relief after a persistent drought and hot weather had risked damaging the mid crop, farmers said on Monday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1nc2jPU)
South Africa’s weather will remain drier and warmer than usual until the autumn season which begins in April, the South African Weather Service said on Monday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1Uukain)
Six cases of the mutilation and murder of children as “good luck” sacrifices were reported during the recent Ugandan elections, a children’s charity said. (TRF http://yhoo.it/1QgrkE4)
An acute shortage of malaria drugs hit Uganda’s Gulu District following an increase in cases of malaria reported according to records from the district health department. (The Monitor http://bit.ly/1Qgq83l)
Omnipresent on the chaotic streets of Mumbai, Jakarta and Bangkok, Asia’s three-wheeled “tuk-tuk” has now come to Africa — and with a two-fold bonus: providing much-needed jobs and slashing accidents. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Uuird2)
MENA
Allies of President Hassan Rouhani have won all 30 seats for the capital Tehran in Iran’s parliamentary elections, final results announced on Monday showed. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1QgrviF)
In Iraq, the death toll from devastating back-to-back market bombings carried out by the Islamic State group the previous day in eastern Baghdad climbed to 73 on Monday, officials said. (AP http://yhoo.it/1QnqtCK)
In Syria’s second city Aleppo, rescue workers have been taking advantage of the quiet due to the ceasefire to play football outside. For the first time in years, they have no one to save. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1UuipSs)
More than 150,000 Syrian babies have been born in Turkey since Syria’s crisis began, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Lutfi Elvan said Monday, underscoring the humanitarian burden incurred by Ankara during the conflict. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1UukaPs)
Aid workers on Monday began carrying out the first delivery of humanitarian assistance to Syrians since a landmark truce came into effect at the weekend, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent said. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Uuk9ev)
Iraq’s Mosul Dam risks “catastrophic failure” and a massive wall of water that would sweep downstream anything in its path, including bodies, buildings, cars, unexploded ordnances and hazardous chemicals, the U.S. is warning. (VOA http://bit.ly/21wq8ot)
Asia
Hong Kong residents voted on Sunday in a legislative council by-election, with a “radical” pro-democracy candidate who was arrested in a recent riot running in what is being seen as a barometer of political tension in the financial hub. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Uuim9j)
Pakistan has executed a man who killed a powerful governor who had opposed the country’s blasphemy laws. (VOA http://bit.ly/1Qgq6IU)
Australia said on Monday it would donate $7.1 million to fund relief efforts in Fiji, where more than 60,000 people are sheltering in evacuation centers more than a week after the Pacific island nation was hit by its worst cyclone. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1RfAYEC)
The Philippines on Monday urged China to respect a forthcoming ruling by an arbitration court in The Hague on a territorial dispute in the South China Sea after Beijing accused Manila of “political provocation”. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1QnqwhM)
The Indian government has pledged to spend nearly $13 billion on rural welfare projects to help millions of farmers who have struggled with monsoons and crop failures for two years in a row. (VOA http://bit.ly/1Uuk7Dl)
China’s coal consumption fell for the second year in a row, government data showed on Monday, as the world’s biggest polluter attempts to tackle chronic pollution that accompanied economic growth. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1QnpD8V)
Being gay or lesbian has never been outlawed in Indonesia, except in the province of Aceh, where sharia, or Islamic law, has been implemented. But recent controversies about gays and lesbians in Indonesia have been surfacing in the public and on social media. It was started by outrage over a counseling brochure distributed by a gay support group. (VOA http://bit.ly/1QnpzGv)
The Americas
Health officials in Honduras say a 29-year-old pregnant woman showing symptoms of the Zika virus has been diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disorder that causes paralysis. (AP http://yhoo.it/1UuimWF)
A new probe is under way of a garbage dump where investigators believe the bodies of 43 missing Mexican students were incinerated, the attorney general’s office said. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1QnquGS)
Brazil’s Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardoso plans to resign by Tuesday, a presidency source told Reuters on Monday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1KYsS6L)
The Zika virus is a health threat not just to Latin America, but also to parts of the U.S. It’s already a problem in Puerto Rico where there are nearly 120 cases so far, including five pregnant women. That’s a concern, because Zika may be involved in causing birth defects. (NPR http://n.pr/1Qgrtr5)
A series of polls in key states by NPR and its partners finds that more than half of adults in the U.S. believe the Affordable Care Act has either helped the people of their state or has had no effect. (NPR http://n.pr/1Qnqu9U)
…and the rest
Clashes with police broke out on Monday as work got underway to clear part of the shanty town outside Calais in northern France where migrants are trying to reach Britain. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1RfDKK2)
Dutch authorities identified about 30 war crimes suspects, a third of them Syrians, among the 59,000 people who applied for asylum last year, the immigration minister said on Monday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1QgruuY)
According to estimates published on Monday by the Fairtrade Foundation, the overall retail value of the UK Fairtrade market, the world’s biggest market, fell to about £1.6bn in 2015, from £1.7bn in 2014, largely due to a decline in the price of sugar. Sales of Fairtrade fruit and nuts, and cotton, also fell. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1Qgqc3j)
Opinion/Blogs
Global Dispatches Podcast: Former USAID Administrator Raj Shah http://bit.ly/1nc4Tp7
New deal, old mess? Making the global goals work for the most fragile countries (Guardian http://bit.ly/1Qgrxaa)
Tackle ‘Hidden Hunger’ by Improving Food Systems (Inter Press Service http://bit.ly/21wq5Jn)
Insecticide-Treated Nets Might Still Prevent Malaria Despite Mosquito Resistance (Malaria Consortium http://bit.ly/1Uuk9Lu)
How Islamic State has duped Western media (The Interpreter http://bit.ly/1VN8tlj)
Assessing the Anti-Atrocity Toolbox (Reinventing Peace http://bit.ly/1KYv2Dk)
The Limits of Transparency: DFID’s Annual Reviews (Aid Leap http://bit.ly/1Qntbbr)
South Africa faces difficult times, but disaster is not inevitable (The Conversation http://bit.ly/1VN8CoX)
New figures show huge majority of EU citizens support development aid (Devex http://bit.ly/1QgvjR1)
2015 was the hottest year on record (World Bank Data Viz http://bit.ly/1nc52c5)
Guatemala sexual slavery verdict shows women’s bodies are not battlefields (Guardian http://bit.ly/21wq4VI)