1 ‘Solid’ growth
predicted for Germany (BBC) Economic growth in Germany is set to be
"solid" in the second half of the year, the country's central bank
has said. The Bundesbank said growth in the country would be boosted by both
external and domestic demand. Last week, Germany, Europe's largest economy,
reported that its economy grew 0.4% in the three months to June.
However, the
Bundesbank noted that the China's slowdown could add to uncertainty over growth
prospects for the global economy. "The decision of the Chinese central
bank to allow the yuan to depreciate against the US dollar can be seen as
evidence of the uncertainty."
The Bundesbank
said that Germany would benefit from increases in real earnings domestically,
as well as economic recovery in the eurozone. Accelerating growth in the US and
Britain - two of Germany's key trading partners - would also contribute to
Germany's growth.
2 What you need
to know about Eritrea (Mark Tran in The Guardian) Hundreds of thousands of
Eritreans are voting with their feet and embarking on a perilous journey north
through Sudan and Libya or to Egypt and Israel, their goal to eventually reach
safer destinations in Europe. An estimated 5,000 people leave the small Horn of
Africa country every month, fleeing the highly repressive regime run by
president Isaias Afwerki.
Eritreans have
been leaving the country for years to escape repression, but recent refugees
say they are fleeing an intensified recruitment drive into the mandatory and
indefinite national service. A damning report by the UN commission of inquiry
on human rights in Eritrea said: “They risk capture, torture and death at the
hands of ruthless human traffickers.”
The UN refugee
agency, UNHCR, said they were dealing with 357,406 Eritrean refugees as of last
year, making Eritreans the second largest group after Syrians arriving in Italy
by boat – more than 34,000 people. There are reportedly more than 100,000
Eritrean refugees in Sudan, and a similar number in Ethiopia. No fewer than 50
Eritrean national football players have absconded since 2010.
In its report,
the UN commission found that systematic, widespread and gross human rights
violations are being committed by the Eritrean government: rights and freedoms
are severely curtailed, without the rule of law. The commission also found
violations in the areas of extrajudicial executions, torture (including sexual
torture), national service and forced labour may constitute crimes against
humanity.
The country has
been ruled by Afwerki since ever since independence was won in 1991 after a
30-year war with neighbouring Ethiopia. After the war, Afwerki accumulated more
and more power. In a secret diplomatic cable written in 2009, the then US
ambassador to Eritrea, Ronald McMullen, wrote: “Young Eritreans are fleeing
their country in droves, the economy appears to be in a death spiral, Eritrea’s
prisons are overflowing, and the country’s unhinged dictator remains cruel and
defiant.”
Despite being
one of the world’s poorest countries, Eritrea is one of the few expected to
achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals in health. The UN Development
Programme says infant and child mortality rates have reduced dramatically;
immunisation coverage has increased sharply; malaria mortality and morbidity
have plummeted; and HIV prevalence has almost halved in a very short period of
time. However, critics of the government say these figures are misleading,
suggesting that the findings of the UN staff members in Eritrea were contrary
to well-established facts about the country found elsewhere.
3 French boy
gets 3-D printed hand (Khaleej Times) Maxence was born without a right hand,
but the six-year-old French boy got one through an effort highlighting the
growing use of 3D printing technology to make prostheses. "He is going to
have a superhero hand the colour of his choice, that he can take off when he
wishes," said his mother Virginie. "It will be fun for him on the
school yard with his friends."
The prosthesis
comes through an American foundation called e-NABLE, which since 2013 has been
connecting owners of 3D printers with families of children missing fingers or
hands. More than 1,500 prostheses have already been provided through the
foundation, and the hand for Maxence was the group's first in France.
The device, which
is worn like a glove and attaches with Velcro, can easily be replaced with a
larger model as the boy grows up. It is designed for children who, like
Maxence, have a wrist and a palm. The artificial hand grasps objects when the
user bends his or her wrist, and is attached without surgery. The prothesis
does not allow for more precise activities like tying shoes, but does allow
users to do things like riding on swings or a scooter that are difficult to do
without fingers.
Maxence is among
the roughly 100 children born each year in France with one or more malformed
limbs. His condition is a result of agenesia - the failure of a limb to develop
while a child is in the womb. For the moment protheses like Maxence's have
neither been tested nor approved by France's health authorities.
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