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The USA is going to set up an ebola field hospital, but turn it over to Liberians to run. In the meantime, the WHO says the outbreak will get exponentially worse in Liberia. “The Pentagon will send a 25-bed field hospital to Liberia to help provide medical care for health workers trying to contain the fast spreading Ebola virus that has killed 2,100 people in West Africa. The Pentagon said the $22 million hospital was being provided at the request of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is coordinating the U.S. response to the Ebola outbreak first identified in Guinea in March.” (Reuters http://reut.rs/WBarMk)
Flooding in Politically Volatile Kashmir…”Relief operations struggled on Monday in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir and in parts of Pakistan where six days of rain and flooding have left hundreds of people dead. On the Pakistan side of the border, Ahmed Kamal, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority, said more than 190 people had been killed — more than 60 in the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir and about 130 in Punjab Province.” (NYT http://nyti.ms/WBbnR6)
Speaking with a Civil Rights Icon…Mark interviews former UN Ambassador and Andrew Young. Young discusses growing up in a diverse New Orleans neighborhood in a middle class family, how he became a close friend and confident of Martin Luther King, Jr, witnessing his friend’s assassination, and his enduring commitment to non-violence. (Global Dispatches Podcast: http://bit.ly/1lNmNND)
Ebola
Liberia’s Defense Minister Brownie Samukai has welcomed President Barack Obama’s announcement that the US military will help in the fight against the Ebola virus. (VOA http://bit.ly/1lRg3OZ)
US President Barack Obama said the international community needs to respond to the Ebola crisis in West Africa, where he said a lack of public health infrastructure has led to the spread of a “containable problem.” (VOA http://bit.ly/1lRg5pZ)
Britain will send military and humanitarian experts to Sierra Leone to set up a medical treatment centre to care for victims of the Ebola outbreak there, the British High Commission said on its Twitter feed on Monday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1lRgrNw)
The WHO says one of its doctors has been infected with Ebola while working at a treatment center in Sierra Leone. (AP http://yhoo.it/WH0kGh)
African Union members said travel bans imposed to stem the deadly Ebola epidemic should be lifted to ensure the economic impact of the restrictions do not add to continent’s woes. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1tn5nGl)
Oxford University scientists have developed a map of areas where animals are likely to be infected with the Ebola virus. They say it’s a first step toward predicting where future outbreaks might occur. (VOA http://bit.ly/1lRglWc)
Africa
Methane gas from a lake in Rwanda may soon become a major supply of electricity. Millions of people in that central African country could use the energy. An American company and the Rwandan government signed the power agreement in early August at the U.S.-Africa Summit in Washington. (VOA http://bit.ly/1lRfZyH)
The 2014-2015 academic year began in Cameroon with thousands of students and teachers deserting schools in towns along the border with Nigeria’s Borno state, which is home to the Boko Haram terrorist group. With some schools either destroyed or occupied by the militants, Cameroon officials said they will relocate populations to more secure areas. (VOA http://bit.ly/WGJAir)
African Union peacekeepers in Somalia rape women seeking medicine on their bases and routinely pay teenage girls for sex, Human Rights Watch said on Monday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1lRgA3i)
South Africa’s dependence on coal to generate 85 percent of its electricity is taking a substantial toll on human health. A recent report from Greenpeace estimates that up to 2,700 premature deaths are caused every year by air pollution emissions from the country’s 16 coal-fired power plants. (IRIN http://bit.ly/WGVb0W)
MENA
The fight against Islamic State militants could at last win Syria’s Kurds the Western help they have sought, but they must first clarify their relationship to President Bashar al-Assad and reassure Turkey that they won’t cause trouble on its border. (VOA http://bit.ly/WGJtmU)
Egypt will hold a conference in February to attract investment in an economy battered by years of political turmoil, the minister of planning said on Monday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1lRgsRB)
The conditions of the thousands of refugees who have lost their homes has placed the new Palestinian government before an enormous challenge and a huge responsibility to provide these refugee families with care and a secure environment, as well take on the responsibility of implementing the reconstruction programmes financially aided by the European Union and donor states in accordance with ceasefire agreement brokered in Cairo between Israel and Hamas, especially in terms of the reconstruction of Gaza. (IPS http://bit.ly/1lRjMfB)
A UN envoy says up to 700 children have been killed or maimed in Iraq since the beginning of the year, “including in summary executions.” (AP http://yhoo.it/1lRm6TR)
Asia
Myanmar’s Union Election Commission said Sunday that it was canceling by-elections planned for later this year to fill 35 empty parliamentary seats. (ABC http://abcn.ws/WBbTyw)
An Australian teacher is accused of luring beggar children as young as five from the Phnom Penh riverfront to his rented apartment, where they have told police they were sexually abused. (SMH http://bit.ly/WBcmAH)
The Americas
Police in Chile clash with hooded protesters following a largely peaceful march to remember those who disappeared until military rule. (BBC http://bbc.in/1lRkmd4)
One day after President Barack Obama announced that he is delaying executive action on immigration to the US, top lawmakers urged the President to ditch his plans for an executive action altogether and work with Congress. (CNN http://cnn.it/WGY1CY)
A $350 million gift pledged to Harvard University’s School of Public Health will help bolster research in several key areas including global pandemics, officials said. (AP http://n.pr/1lRl1v3)
Haiti’s education department is starting to require all teachers to pass a test and become certified if they want to remain in the classroom, one of several efforts to improve education in a country with dire rates of illiteracy and drop outs. (AP http://yhoo.it/1lRmd1J)
Opinion/Blogs
A Global Carbon Tax or Cap-and-Trade? Part 1: The Economic Arguments (CGD http://bit.ly/1lRjS6L)
When vulture funds circle, who will make debt repayments fairer? (Guardian http://bit.ly/WGVclE)
Service Delivery Protests and the Media (Daily Maverick http://bit.ly/1tn6ZQn)