Latest research findings seem to dash hopes that Covid vaccines in use can repulse Omicron variant
Early lab results suggest existing vaccines could be less effective against the fast-spreading coronavirus variant, but boosters should improve immunity. The fast-spreading Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant is highly likely to compromise some of the protection from vaccines, suggest the first laboratory studies of Omicron’s ability to evade immunity. But the preliminary...
Nairobi’s new infrastructure a classic case of how bad urban plans clash with orderly development
Orbit Chemical Industries bought the site where it located in Nairobi’s Industrial Area in 1987. The firm wanted to build a factory but was unable to, as the land was inhabited. After years of legal wrangling, Orbit Chemical says it decided, in 2008, to try to sell the land off...
Road to link airport to Nairobi’s rich neighbourhoods leaves 40,000 destitute in poor settlements
About 40,000 people have been made homeless by demolition works for a major Chinese-backed toll road in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. Amnesty International Kenya says it believes the roadworks have created a humanitarian crisis, as schools, businesses and 13,000 homes spread across nearly 40 hectares (100 acres) of the Mukuru Kwa...
Extreme sisters: World’s ‘most identical twins’ want to get pregnant at same time with shared fiancé
Identical twins tend to do a lot of things together. But one pair of similar siblings have taken that philosophy to a whole new level. Anna and Lucy DeCinque, 35, say they are the world’s “most identical twins”, and have made a name for themselves by living eerily similar lives...
South African hospitals reporting fewer Omicron variant deaths compared with previous waves
Data accrued by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases show that hospitals in Tswane, South Africa, 80 per cent of Omicron patient admissions are people below 50 years of age, with 28 per cent of admissions being between the ages of 30 and 39. Nineteen per cent of admissions were...
Investigations lay bare how dangerous mining conditions plague Congo – world’s largest supplier of cobalt
A man in a pinstripe suit with a red pocket square walked around the edge of a giant pit one April afternoon where hundreds of workers often toil in flip-flops, burrowing deep into the ground with shovels and pickaxes. His polished leather shoes crunched on dust the miners had spilled...
The Impossible Burger: Inside the strange science of the synthetic meat that ‘bleeds’
The cook, complete with hair net, lays the red patty down on the grill and gives it a press with a spatula. And there, that unmistakable sizzle and smell. She flips the patty and gives it another press, lets it sit, presses it, and pulls it off the grill and...
Rumours of ‘dead’ Taliban cleric appearing in a Quranic school stir excitement in Afghanistan
Whether the elderly cleric, Akhundzada, is alive or dead is something many Afghans are uncertain about, and even the most dedicated analysts have doubts about who is really leading the group. On October 30 – two months after a Taliban spokesman insisted Akhundzada was alive and well in Kandahar –...
Media blackouts: Atrocities in Ethiopia are taking place in the dark because no one can document them
Armed with placards that read “Stop BBC,” “Stop CNN” and “Stop FAKE” news on Ethiopia,” supporters of Ethiopia’s government are protesting in cities across the world. Their demand: an end to what they see as biased coverage of the war in Ethiopia. Many blame international media outlets for what Prime...
How US sanctions compromised Iran’s cyberdefence, touched off hacking spree that spills out into physical world
In April 2020 hackers infiltrated the systems of an Israeli water-pumping station and tampered with equipment. Individual pumps started malfunctioning as officials scrambled to keep water supplies flowing for millions of people. After the incident, which has been linked to Iran, officials said the damage could have been much worse:...
