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Africa lost billions in illicit financial flows including through tax evasion and theft: UN report Tackling illicit flows is a priority for the UN, whose General Assembly adopted a resolution on this in 2018. 29 Sep 2020 Africa has lost nearly $89bn a year in illicit financial flows such as tax evasion and theft, amounting to more than it receives in development aid, a United Nations study has showed. The estimate, in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) 248-page report, is its most comprehensive to date for Africa. It shows an increasing trend over time and is higher than most previous estimates. The report released on Monday calls Africa a “net creditor to the world”, echoing economists’ observations that the aid-reliant continent is actua...

The amoeba kills the majority of people who contract the water-dwelling Naegleria fowleri, though cases are rare. Officials are urging Lake Jackson residents to boil tap water for drinking and cooking [File: Alastair Pike / AFP] 28 Sep 2020 The state of Texas has stepped up efforts to counter the threat posed by a brain-eating amoeba detected in the water supply of a coastal county that led to the death of a six-year-old boy earlier this month. “You don’t hear about this stuff until it happens to you. You don’t think you’ll be that 1 in 72 million until it happens to you,” Maria Castillo, the mother of the boy who died after contracting a brain infection caused by the amoeba, wrote in a recent Facebook post. Governor Greg Abbott on Sunday issued a disaster declaration for B...

Prime minister says India moving ahead with third-phase trial before mass production as country’s cases, deaths surge. Narendra Modi said in August that India was ready to mass-produce COVID-19 vaccines when scientists gave the go-ahead [File: Narendramodi.in via AP] 27 Sep 2020 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged at the United Nations that his country’s vaccine production capacity would be made available globally to fight the coronavirus crisis. “As the largest vaccine-producing country of the world, I want to give one more assurance to the global community today,” Modi said in a prerecorded speech to the UN General Assembly. “India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting this crisis.” Modi made the pledge eve...

Victory in Sabah state is likely to strengthen PM Muhyiddin Yassin’s position as he faces leadership challenge. Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's Perikatan Nasional coalition and its allies won 38 of the 73 seats up for grabs in Saturday's election [File: Lim Huey Teng/Reuters] 26 Sep 2020 Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s ruling coalition has won a key state election, in a vote that was widely seen as a referendum on his seven-month-old administration. The victory in Sabah state in Borneo is likely to strengthen Muhyiddin’s position as he faces a leadership challenge from opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who said this week he had the parliamentary majority needed to overthrow the prime minister. KEEP READING Muhyiddin’s Perikatan Nasional (PN) co...

Opposition leader’s meeting with King Sultan Abdullah cancelled after monarch taken to hospital for observation. Malaysia's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah and Queen Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah attend a welcoming ceremony at Parliament House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on January 31, 2019 [File: Lai Seng Sin/ Reuters] 25 Sep 2020 Malaysia’s King Sultan Abdullah will not be granting an audience to anyone for a week as he is under observation in hospital, a palace official said on Friday, as opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim seeks a meeting with him to form a new government. Anwar said this week he has secured a “strong, formidable” majority from lawmakers in parliament to remove Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. But he has to convince the king that he has the numbers...

(Credit: Alamy) Pink, glitter, ‘mummy wine time’… how the ways marketers sell drinks to women can be patronising – and damaging.T This story is from an episode of Woman’s Hour from the BBC World Service. It was presented by Jenni Murray, produced by Rabeka Nurmahomed, and edited by Sarah Crawley. Adapted for text by Bryan Lufkin. For more from Woman’s Hour, click here. Blue means boy, pink means girl. Gendered signals like these begin the second we’re born and continue through the course of our lives. From childhood to adulthood, marketers use gendered stereotypes and tropes to convince us to buy their products – and it does seem to work. A 2018 study conducted in New York City found women are willing to pay up to 13% more for the same goods as men – ...

Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim says he has enough support from MPs to form a government [Lim Huey Teng/Reuters] 23 Sep 2020 Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday said he had secured a “strong majority” from lawmakers to form a new government, seven months after a power grab within the ruling coalition brought down the administration elected in May 2018. Anwar said he had been “approached by a number of MPs from various parties” who were unhappy with the existing leadership of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. Sitting next to his wife, Anwar told a news conference his support from lawmakers “means that the administration of Muhyiddin has fallen” and insisted that his government had the mandate of the people. He declined to reveal the numbers ...

22 September 2020 Image captionSwitching off the problem television fixed the issue for Aberhosan villagers, Openreach says The mystery of why an entire village lost its broadband every morning at 7am was solved when engineers discovered an old television was to blame. An unnamed householder in Aberhosan, Powys, was unaware the old set would emit a signal which would interfere with the entire village's broadband. After 18 months engineers began an investigation after a cable replacement programme failed to fix the issue. The embarrassed householder promised not to use the television again. The village now has a stable broadband signal. Openreach engineers were baffled by the continuous problem and it wasn't until they used a monitoring device that they found the fault...

Archaeologists have suspected there was more to Tikal, El Zotz and Holmul. But it wasn’t until recently that proof came – in the form of Lidar, a type of remote sensing technology. By Amanda Ruggeri 15 September 2020 There is no path through the jungle. Every step requires navigation: winding around a tree; stepping over a root; ducking under a branch. In front of me, a man swings a machete, trying to cut an easier path. “Don’t touch anything,” my guide, José María Anavisca, warns me. You can’t be sure what snake or spider or other creature might be on a branch or tree. Despite my caution, I soon feel a sensation on my back, somewhere between being pricked and electrified, and wriggle in shock. “An ant,” Anavisca says knowingly. I hope he’s right. Whatever it is, it’s dropped ...

With classrooms closed to curb coronavirus, girls are more at risk of FGM, teenage pregnancy and child marriage.by Andrea Dijkstra18 Sept 2020 Sarah says she was raped by a boy who offered her food in exchange for sex after her school was closed and her parents could not afford to feed her [Jeroen Van Loon/Al Jazeera] Maikona, Marsabit County, Kenya - Thirteen-year-old Gumato* can finally walk again without feeling pain. The hot desert wind blows through her curly hair as she strolls between the portable, dome-shaped huts, made of acacia roots and covered with grass mats, colourful textiles and camel hides. In the near distance, a caravan of more than 50 camels passes by. Gumato is from the Gabra, a nomadic camel-herding tribe that lives in a semi-arid region in northeast...