Algeria joins BRICS New Development Bank
Algiers — Algeria has been approved for membership in the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), the country’s finance ministry has announced. The decision was taken on Saturday and announced by NDB chief Dilma Roussef at a meeting in Cape Town,…
UN officials repeat calls for peace as Gaza polio vaccinations gets underway
Hundreds of Gazan families have been queueing to await the turn of their child to receive a polio vaccination since early Sunday morning, in a campaign designed to stop the resurgence of a virus whose re-emergence has been blamed on…
Moscow accuses Kyiv of launching massive drone attack on Russia
Russian officials said Ukraine launched a massive drone attack early Sunday, hitting several regions in Russia, including power and refinery plants in Moscow and the nearby city of Tver. Russia says air defenses intercepted and destroyed 158 Ukrainian drones, including…
Health authorities begin large-scale polio vaccinations in war-ravaged Gaza
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian health authorities and United Nations agencies on Sunday began a large-scale campaign of vaccinations against polio in the Gaza Strip, hoping to prevent an outbreak in the territory that has been ravaged by the…
Rocket scientists build robot probes to gauge melting beneath Antarctic ice shelf
LOS ANGELES — Engineers who specialize in building NASA spacecraft to explore distant worlds are designing a fleet of underwater robot probes to measure how rapidly climate change is melting vast ice sheets around Antarctica and what that means for…
Newborn rattlesnakes at Colorado ‘mega den’ make their live debut
CHEYENNE, Wyoming — A “mega den” of hundreds of rattlesnakes in Colorado is getting even bigger now that late summer is here and babies are being born. Thanks to livestream video, scientists studying the den on a craggy hillside in…
Bird species extinct in Europe returns, and humans must help it migrate
PATERZELL, Germany — How do you teach a bird how, and where, to fly? The distinctive northern bald ibis, hunted essentially to extinction by the 17th century, was revived by breeding and rewilding efforts over the last two decades. But…
Doctor who helped Agent Orange victims wins Magsaysay Award
MANILA, Philippines — A Vietnamese doctor who has helped seek justice for victims of the powerful defoliant dioxin “Agent Orange” used by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War is among this year’s winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards — regarded…
Russia pounds Kharkiv, Donetsk regions
Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Donetsk regions continued to be hit by deadly strikes from Russia on Saturday. Oleh Syniehubov, the governor of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, said on Saturday that a Russian guided bomb attack on a residential building killed two people…
UNICEF issues emergency tender to secure mpox vaccines
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has issued an emergency tender to secure mpox vaccines for crisis-hit countries in collaboration with the Gavi vaccine alliance, Africa CDC, and the World Health Organization, the organizations said in a joint statement Saturday….