Month: March 2023

The discovery of major lithium deposits is being seen as a mixed blessing in India's troubled Kashmir region, where hopes for a major economic boost are tempered by fears of human displacement and damage to the territory's fragile ecology. The finding of the lithium, key…

Florida's warm weather attracts millions of visitors, including animals that outstay their welcome. Wildlife brought in from somewhere else has seriously damaged the ecosystem in Florida, home to the most severe invasive animal crisis in the continental United States. VOA's Dora Mekouar has more from…

In marking World TB Day, health officials warn the COVID-19 pandemic and multiple global crises are setting back years of progress in fighting tuberculosis and eventually ending the deadly disease. Tuberculosis, an ancient disease that some say goes back to biblical times, kills more people…

What would turn bird flu – the kind that's killed millions of birds around the world and a few hundred people – into the next deadly pandemic? Scientists want to know so they can get ahead of it. That's why, in 2010, two groups of…

Cameroon and Gabon have stepped up border security after neighboring Equatorial Guinea confirmed a spreading Marburg virus has killed at least nine people. Despite the controls, people are still traveling across the porous borders, raising fears the virus that causes hemorrhagic fever could spread.  At…

Several African and Latin American countries on Thursday launched a major initiative to restore 300,000 kilometers of rivers by 2030, as well as lakes and wetlands degraded by human activity.  The "Freshwater Challenge," led by a coalition of governments that includes Colombia, the Democratic Republic…

Tuberculosis, or TB, a bacterial infection of the lungs, is one of the world's deadliest diseases. After decades of progress, cases are on the rise once more. March 24 is World TB Day — and as Henry Ridgwell reports, there are hopes that a vaccine…

A federal judge is expected to rule soon on the fate of a pill that leads to a medication abortion. The drug in question, mifepristone, has been on the market for 20 years, but opponents of abortion rights say it is unsafe. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti…

Nearly 200 years after Ludwig van Beethoven's death, researchers pulled DNA from strands of his hair, searching for clues about the health problems and hearing loss that plagued him. They weren't able to crack the case of the German composer's deafness or severe stomach ailments.…

Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera is appealing for additional humanitarian assistance for thousands of Malawians displaced by Cyclone Freddy, which has killed more than 500 people in the country. Chakwera made the urgent request to Malawi’s parliament on Wednesday, when he was presenting an assessment of…

More than 119,000 people have been injured by tear gas and other chemical irritants around the world since 2015 and about 2,000 suffered injuries from less lethal impact projectiles, according to a report released Wednesday. The study by Physicians for Human Rights and the International…

China has approved its first domestically developed mRNA vaccine against COVID-19, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd 1093.HK said on Wednesday, a major achievement in a country that has declined to use Western COVID shots to support domestic research.  China, whose home-grown vaccines are seen as less…

The U.N. secretary-general called for significant commitments and investment Wednesday to avert a growing global water crisis at the start of a major conference on the issue.   “Water is a human right — and a common development denominator to shape a better future,” Antonio…

Tanzania's Ministry of Health has confirmed five people died in a first-ever Marburg virus outbreak near the border with Uganda. The virus causes a severe hemorrhagic fever and is deadlier than the related Ebola virus, which was first suspected in the deaths. Tanzanian health officials…

As part of World Water Day, March 22, the United Nations is holding its first conference devoted to water issues since 1977. For VOA, Matt Dibble introduces us to a Native American engineering student who will share at that conference her tribe’s successful campaign to…

U.S. cases of a dangerous fungus tripled over just three years, and more than half of the country's 50 states have now reported it, according to a new study.  The COVID-19 pandemic likely drove part of the increase, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control…

President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan bill Monday that directs the federal government to declassify as much intelligence as possible about the origins of COVID-19 more than three years after the start of the pandemic. The legislation, which passed both the House and Senate without…

Astronomers on Monday warned that the light pollution created by the soaring number of satellites orbiting Earth poses an "unprecedented global threat to nature." The number of satellites in low Earth orbit has more than doubled since 2019, when U.S. company SpaceX launched the first…

French medical aid group Doctors Without Borders has launched the first Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination drive for schoolgirls in Malawi. They aim to reduce cervical cancer in Malawi, which has the world's second-highest death rate from the disease. Lameck Masina reports from Machinga district, Malawi.       ...

A Pentagon study has found high rates of cancer among military pilots and for the first time has shown that ground crews who fuel, maintain and launch those aircraft are also getting sick.  The data had long been sought by retired military aviators who have…