KENYA

The worst drought in 60 years in the Horn of Africa has sparked a severe food crisis and high malnutrition rates, with parts of Kenya and Somalia experiencing pre-famine conditions, according to a United Nations report.

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday said long-term efforts to boost food security in the Horn of Africa must accompany the emergency aid to those affected by the drought-related hunger.

The U.N. said it will commence airlifting food to famine-stricken Somalia on Tuesday.

According to a recent study, between 2002 and 2007, the annual average number of chickenpox deaths was the lowest ever reported, with 14 deaths recorded in 2007 and just 13 the year prior, due to a particular vaccine. Chickenpox led to about 105 deaths a year during the pre-vaccine years of 1990 to 1994, researchers say.

Islamist extremist group Al-Shabab has said that international agencies it had banned from its territory would not be allowed to return to help the Somali population with aid for the famine.

The UN declared on Wednesday that famine now exists in two regions of southern Somalia, which have the highest malnutrition rates in the world. You can help by donating time and money to worldwide organizations like UNICEF, The Red Cross and the World Food Program (WFP), or through Facebook and Twitter.

The United Nations has officially declared that there is a famine in Somalia.

Four Kenyans have been granted permission by the High Court to sue the British Foreign Office on charges that they were tortured by colonial officials during the 1950s and 1960s at the time of the Mau Mau rebellion.

A senior United Nations official warned that climate change could become a catalyst for sudden and abrupt shocks worldwide and have far-reaching implications for global stability and security. Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environmental Program, told the U.N. Security Council Wednesday that natural resources are at risk.

Millions of people across Somalia are suffering from drought and famine, but you can help by donating to aid agencies working to bring supplies to the Horn of Africa.

A woman in Kenya was killed on Friday when a Lion entered her home and attacked. Kenya Wildlife Service intensified their search for the lion on Monday as villagers remained panic-stricken.

With no improvement in the overall food security conditions expected before early 2012, about a million of children in drought-ridden Horn of Africa are at the risk of dying from malnourishment.

The United Nations has reported that measles outbreaks in Ethiopia and Kenya have killed dozens of children and sickened thousands of others. Measles are spread through contact with droplets from the nose, mouth, or throat of an infected person and symptoms include bloodshot eyes, cough, fever, light sensitivity, muscle pain, and rash.

Measles, a highly contagious and serious disease, still wreaks havoc on Africa due to poverty and ignorance. A United Nations spokesperson said on Friday that 17,584 people have contracted this disease and 114 have died from it in Ethiopia, reported CBS.

The United Nations has reported that measles outbreaks in Ethiopia and Kenya have killed dozens of children and sickened thousands of others. UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said today that at least 17,584 measles cases were reported by Ethiopian officials in the first half of the year. The outbreaks have results in 114 deaths.

A 9-year study of wild baboons in Kenya by Princeton University and the Institute of Primate Research may turn conventional assumptions of alphas males upside down.

While typically being labeled an alpha male would be seen as a compliment, it now might mean you actually suffer from more stress, according to a recent study.

Healthy HIV-free people could reduce their risk of getting the infection if they take a daily dose of antiretroviral drugs used to treat it, two groundbreaking studies have found.

The two studies were conducted in Africa among heterosexual couples in Kenya, Uganda and Botswana found that daily drugs for the sexually transmitted disease reduced infection rates by an average of at least 62 percent when compared with placebo.

Two HIV studies in Africa have revealed today that taking a daily pill containing antiretroviral drugs can reduce HIV transmission by as much as 75% in heterosexual couples. The results were called so compelling that that larger study was halted, researchers said Wednesday.

AIDS drugs designed to treat HIV can also be used to reduce dramatically the risk of infection among heterosexual couples, two studies conducted in Africa showed for the first time on Wednesday.