Scientists criticise use of unproven Covid-19 drugs in India
In India, which has the world’s second-largest Covid-19 outbreak, there is a desperate need for effective treatments. But researchers are concerned about how the country’s drug regulator is handling potential therapies.The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved several repurposed drugs for ‘restricted emergency use’ for treating the disease,...
New NBA season set for December 22
The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association have set the date for the start of the 2020-2021 season.The two bodies have reached agreement in principle on the start of the new season as well as adjustments to some provisions of the current collective bargaining agreement as...
Fund launches business competition in refugee hosting areas
The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) and its partners International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, the United Nations High Commission for Refugee (UNHCR) and the Turkana County government have launched a global competition for private sector and social enterprise projects to support investment, development and...
Environment: Lives of activists in South Africa under serious threat
While environmental activists in South Africa are hunted and killed like common thieves, the government remains tight-lipped, timid not to dabble with the wealth that is scooped out of the bowels of the harmless earth.As mining companies decimate the environment, in the process the lives of indigenous people, in the...
BEAC must rethink its new forex regulation to save jobs in Central Africa
On March 1, 2019, a new Foreign Exchange Currency Regulation was adopted by the members of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa states – CEMAC.These member states – Gabon, Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and Chad) – essentially mandated their Central Bank...
Kenya: Kakamega on cusp of commercial fish farming as arable land shrinks
Endowed with rainfall all-year-round and a population big enough to constitute a huge market for fish, Kakamega county has for generations looked to Lake Victoria for this important food resource rich in protein.Things are changing fast, and as the world explores ways and means of scaling up supply, Kakamega county...
Cheap and rapid coronavirus testing to be available soon
The imminent large-scale rollout of rapid coronavirus tests promises to aid public health responses to Covid-19 — but a rapid home test remains elusive.New SARS-CoV-2 rapid tests, which can deliver results in a matter of minutes in the field rather than taking days in clinical diagnostic laboratories, are starting to...
China set to retrieve first Moon rocks in 40 years
Later this November, a Chinese spacecraft will travel to the Moon to scoop up lunar rocks for the first time in more than 40 years. The mission, named Chang’e-5, is the latest in a series of increasingly complex trips to the lunar surface led by the China National Space Administration...
Need to redesign open science for Asia, Africa and Latin America
Last year, my colleagues and I organised a webinar on open science with a focus on Indonesia. One participating university experienced blackouts owing to a faulty electricity grid. At another, a generator exploded. At a third, political riots had damaged buildings.Perhaps most people reading this article would find such constraints...
Reports: Realign eastern Africa without Kenyan leadership
Forever in a state political flux, Kenya risks being isolated unless its leadership finds a way of accommodating all shades of opinion.As the critical phase of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) gets underway, the determined isolation of Deputy President William Ruto has brought to the fore the undercurrents that preceded...
