WSJ: Mine Closures Hit South Africa Social Programs – The owner of the Burnstone gold mine in South Africa filed for bankruptcy protection in September, and most of the mine’s 1,400 employees were fired. The consequences of this mine closure are more far-reaching, however, as the social-service projects that the miner initiated have been left unfinished. For years, South African authorities have required global miners to support public services, but with “many companies closing mines, rural communities are grappling not only with large-scale job losses, but also with a blow to social services the mining firms supported.” (Devon Maylie)
AP: Flu? Malaria? Disease forecasters look to the sky – Health scientists are increasingly including weather data in their efforts to predict disease outbreaks, using satellite technology and computer data processing to account for factors like temperature and rainfall in their outbreak predictions. Most recently, in east Africa, sea-surface temperatures and cloud density were used to predict rainfall and generate “risk maps” for Rift Valley fever – “a virus that spreads from animals to people and in severe cases can cause blindness or death.” This system can often provide regions with two to six weeks of advance warning. (Mike Stobbe)
Nature: Infectious disease: TB’s revenge – In the early 1980s, TB cases have fallen to such low rates that Western policy-makers often talked of eradication of the disease. In the late 1990’s, however, the HIV epidemic triggered a resurgence of TB. A recent WHO report reveals signs of progress against drug-sensitive cases of the disease, but the report warned that “drug-resistant TB threatens global TB control.” New tools are needed to combat this drug-resistant strain of TB, but there have been no new anti-TB drugs in over 50 years. (Leigh Phillips)
The Hill: SEC brief: Oil payments mandate doesn’t violate First Amendment – Securities and Exchange Commission lawyers are criticizing oil industry claims that “SEC mandates to disclose payments to foreign governments violate companies’ First Amendment rights.” The disclosure rule is aimed at increasing transparency to help “undo the so-called ‘resource curse’” in which some impoverished countries in Africa are plagued by corruption and conflict alongside energy and mineral wealth. (Ben Geman)
