Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Africa

Hard Numbers: Pakistan blast, mRNA Nobel win, Kaiser Permanente strike, escaping Nagorno-Karabakh, flights to Libya, cashing in rupees

Men and paramedic staff help transport a man who was injured in a blast in Mastung to a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan.

Men and paramedic staff help transport a man who was injured in a blast in Mastung to a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan.

REUTERS/Stringer
Make us preferred on Google

59: Fifty-nine people were killed Saturday in a bomb blast at a mosque in Mastung, Pakistan, where people were gathering to mark the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad. Pakistan’s interior ministry accused India’s intelligence service of masterminding the attack, a charge Delhi denies.


2: Two scientists, Professors Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for having developed the technology that led to the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. The same technology is now being tested to help fight other diseases.

75,000: In what would be the largest healthcare strike in US history, 75,000 workers at care provider Kaiser Permanente are threatening a three-day walkout as of Wednesday. While the company said hospitals and ERs would remain open, patients might see longer wait times and delays in lab work.

100,000: Over 100,000 ethnic Armenian refugees have fled to Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan retook control of the territory. The UN has called for international assistance, and Armenia has asked the European Union for shelter assistance and medical supplies.

10: Flights resumed from Libya to Italy after a 10-year hiatus due to a ban imposed by the European Union. Medsky Airways is now offering twice-weekly service from Tunis to Rome, though it is unclear how it is getting around the EU ban that is still in force.

96: India is extending the deadline to Oct. 7 to cash in its 2,000 rupee notes, 96% of which have been returned to the national treasury. The bills, worth an estimated $24, were introduced in 2016 during a campaign to demonetize the economy in which higher-value notes were discontinued.

More For You

Ebola death toll tops 600
Farida Dowidar
The Ebola outbreak reached a grim milestone on Thursday. Six hundred people have died in the Congo, according to the country’s health ministry. At the same time, healthcare workers at the center of the outbreak in the Ituri province are striking to protest delays in their wages and bonuses, risking further setbacks to efforts to contain the deadly [...]
Africa’s fountain of youth
Paige Parsacale
Cape Verde, the second-smallest country ever to qualify for the World Cup, was knocked out this weekend after a stunning match that pushed Lionel Messi and Argentina into extra time. The loss marked the end of a remarkable run for the African archipelago nation, but it also put a spotlight on a part of the world whose demographic star is rising. [...]
People vote in the legislative elections in Algiers, Algeria, on July 2, 2026.

People vote in the legislative elections in Algiers, Algeria, on July 2, 2026. The electorate, including the diaspora, consists of 24,727,041 registered voters. These elections will elect the 407 members of the tenth legislature of the People's National Assembly (APN), with a mandate of five years.

Billel Bensalem/APP/NurPhoto
Algerians are headed to the polls today to elect their next members of parliament. Nearly 25 million people are eligible to vote, selecting from over 1,200 candidates for 407 seats in the lower house. It’s the country’s second parliamentary election since the pro-democracy Hirak movement swept the country in 2019 – the peaceful uprising that [...]
Ebola’s economic side effects
Natalie Johnson
In addition to the health concerns from the Ebola outbreak, the UN is sounding the alarm on a potential development crisis in Africa sparked by the disease. The intergovernmental body warns that it could cost billions of dollars of the continent’s GDP, and that roughly 328,000 jobs stand to be lost if the disease spreads to countries like Rwanda [...]