PENTAGON WANTS TO TRY AGAIN WITH SYRIAN PROGRAM THAT TRAINED 150 FIGHTERS FOR $384 MILLION

The U.S. military has requested permission from the administration to restart a halted program to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels, the top commander in the Middle East said Tuesday.

“I’ve asked for permission to restart the effort by using a different approach,” Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command (Centcom), told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing.

The $500 million..

Obama to make ‘historic’ Cuba visit

US President Barack Obama will pay a landmark visit to Cuba next month to enhance ties with the former Cold War adversary, the White House says.

 The White House, making the announcement on Thursday, said Obama is set to visit Cuba on March 21 and 22 to be the first US president stepping foot on the Island to peruse a historic thaw after nearly a century. The last sitting US president to visit Cuba was Calvin Coolidge in 1928.

Meeting between HR/VP Federica Mogherini and Secretary General of the Organisation of the American States, Luis Almagro

Federica Mogherini met with the Secretary General of the Organisation of the American States, Luis Almagro, on the occasion of his visit to Brussels to hold the third EU-OAS Political Consultations. They had a productive exchange of views on Latin America and the Caribbean region. Special emphasis was given to the peace process in Colombia, the recent positive developments in EU-Cuba relations, the political and economic situation in Venezuela, the electoral process in Haiti, as well as other matters of common interest in the Central American region.

PKK terrorists attack oil pipeline in northern Iraq

The PKK terrorist group attacked the Kirkuk-Yumurtalik oil pipeline inside the Turkish province of Sanliurfa, the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government said in a statement late Wednesday.

The KRG Natural Resources Ministry strongly condemned the attack, stating that the Kurdish region is suffering from an economic crisis and selling oil is an important source for the Peshmerga forces’ salaries.

Saudi Arabia 'planning mass executions'

Amnesty International has expressed alarm at reports that the authorities in Saudi Arabia are planning to execute dozens of people in a single day. The newspaper Okaz said 55 people were awaiting execution for "terrorist crimes", while a now-deleted report by al-Riyadh said 52 would die soon.

They are thought to include Shia who took part in anti-government protests. Amnesty said that given the spike in executions this year, it had no option but to take the reports very seriously. The group believes at least 151 people have been put to death in Saudi Arabia so far this year - the highest recorded figure since 1995. In 2014, the total number of executions carried out was reported to be 90.

'Unfair trials'

The Saudi newspaper reports said those facing execution in the coming days included "al-Qaeda terrorists" and people from the Awamiya area. The alleged al-Qaeda militants were accused of attempting to overthrow the government and carry out attacks using small arms, explosives and surface-to-air missiles, Okaz reported. The Awamiya residents were meanwhile convicted of sedition, attacks on security personnel and interference in neighbouring Bahrain, it said. Awamiya is a town in the Qatif region of oil-rich Eastern Province.

Since 2011, it has been the centre of protests by Saudi Arabia's Shia minority, which has long complained of marginalisation at the hands of the Sunni monarchy. Among those at imminent risk of execution were six Shia activists from Awamiya "who were clearly convicted in unfair trials", according to Amnesty.

"It is clear that the Saudi Arabian authorities are using the guise of counter-terrorism to settle political scores," said James Lynch, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa deputy director.

"Three of those six activists were sentenced for 'crimes' committed while they were children and have said that they were tortured to confess."

The three juvenile offenders are Ali al-Nimr - whose case sparked a global outcry earlier this year - Abdullah al-Zaher and Hussein al-Marhoon. On Tuesday, the mothers of five of the six activists wrote to King Salman, imploring him to grant clemency, after learning that their sons had been subjected to a "random" medical examination. They believed it was a sign of impending execution. Four of the five have been kept in solitary confinement, in a wing housing death row inmates, since being moved to al-Hair prison in Riyadh in early October.

"These executions must not go ahead and Saudi Arabia must lift the veil of secrecy around its death penalty cases, as part of a fundamental overhaul of its criminal justice system," Mr Lynch warned.

Last month, the UK foreign secretary said he did not expect Ali al-Nimr - the nephew of a prominent Shia cleric also sentenced to death - to be executed. Saudi Arabia argues that death sentences are carried out in line with Sharia and with the strictest fair trial standards and safeguards in place./write by BBC News, editing by newsflashv.

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Are they a terrorist?!  What a fault have these children?

Range of Frustrations Reached Boil as Turkey Shot Down Russian Jet

Turkey and Russia promised on Wednesday not to go to war over the downing of a Russian fighter jet, leaving Turkey’s still-nervous NATO allies and just about everyone else wondering why the country decided to risk such a serious confrontation.

The reply from the Turkish government so far has been consistent: Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Though minor airspace violations are fairly common and usually tolerated, Turkey had repeatedly called in Russia’s ambassador to complain about aircraft intrusions and about bombing raids in Syria near the border. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday evening and a Pentagon spokesman later confirmed that before a Turkish F-16 shot down the Russian Su-24 jet, Turkish forces had warned the Russian plane 10 times in five minutes to steer away.

“I personally was expecting something like this, because in the past months there have been so many incidents like that,” Ismail Demir, Turkey’s undersecretary of national defense, said in an interview. “Our engagement rules were very clear, and any sovereign nation has a right to defend its airspace.”

While that may be true, analysts said Mr. Erdogan had several more nuanced reasons to allow Turkish pilots to open fire. These include his frustration with Russia over a range of issues even beyond Syria, the Gordian knot of figuring out what to do with Syria itself and Turkey’s strong ethnic ties to the Turkmen villages Russia has been bombing lately in the area of the crash.

Turkey has been quietly seething ever since Russia began military operations against Syrian rebels two months ago, wrecking Ankara’s policy of ousting the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The Turks were forced to downgrade their ambitions from the ouster of Mr. Assad to simply maintaining a seat at the negotiating table when the time comes, saidSoner Cagaptay, a Turkish analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a nonpartisan research group.

“That would require Turkey-backed rebels to be present in Syria, and I think Turkey was alarmed that Russia’s bombing of positions held by Turkey-backed rebels in northern Syria was hurting their positions and therefore Turkey’s future stakes in Syria,” Mr. Cagaptay said. “So this is also an aggressive Turkey posture in the Syrian civil war to prevent the defeat of Turkey-backed rebels so they can hold onto territory and have a say in the future of Syria.”

But the fate of the particular rebels the Russians were bombing in the mountainous Bayirbucak area where the plane was shot down is more than just a policy matter to the Turks. Mr. Erdogan particularly emphasized the ethnic tie in a speech Tuesday evening, saying, “We strongly condemn attacks focusing on areas inhabited by Bayirbucak Turkmen  we have our relatives, our kin there.”

The Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said as much on Wednesday while dismissing Russia’s explanation that it was fighting a common enemy, the Islamic State. “No one,” he said, “can legitimize attacks on Turkmens in Syria using the pretext of fighting the Islamic State.

The bombing was creating political problems for Mr. Erdogan, Mr. Cagaptay said. “In the days leading up to the incident, many newspapers, especially the pro-government publications, were running headlines highlighting the suffering of the Turkmens, who are closely related to Anatolian Turks,” he said. “I think the government felt that, in terms of domestic politics, it had to do something to ease some of this pressure that had resulted from the Russian bombardment against Turkmens in northern Syria.”

Russia’s bombing of Turkmen villages was to be the principal issue Turkey raised with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, in talks that had been set for Wednesday but were canceled after the shooting down of the plane.

Mr. Erdogan’s emphasis on helping the Turkmens has another important political dimension in Turkey. Mr. Erdogan’s political party emphasized Turkish ethnic identity and Sunni Muslim faith in the campaign leading up to critical elections on Nov. 1, as it competed with one rival party heavily composed of Turkey’s Kurdish minority and another committed to preserving Turkey’s status as a secular society and state.

Mr. Erdogan managed an important victory in that election, preserving his chances of winning legislative approval to change the Constitution and turn the country’s parliamentary system into a presidential one.

Complicating matters further, Turkey and Syria have a longstanding border dispute in exactly the area where the Russian plane, a Sukhoi Su-24, was shot down, and Russia has sometimes voiced support for Syria’s claim. It is a narrow strip of territory, the Hatay Province of Turkey, that runs south along the Mediterranean Sea, deep into Syria.

The province is a melting pot of ethnic Turks and Arabs. It is also a religious mélange, with many Muslims but also a large Christian population, as Hatay includes the biblical city of Antioch. And the province has an acrimonious history.

The League of Nations granted Hatay Province to France after World War I as part of France’s legal mandate over Syria. Ethnic Turks led the province’s secession from Syria and declaration of an independent republic in 1938, and that republic then joined Turkey the next year  much as Texas seceded from Mexico a century earlier, became a republic and soon joined the United States.

Syria has periodically questioned the loss of Hatay over the years. “If you look at Syrian maps, that province, that chunk of territory, is shown as belonging to Syria,” said Altay Atli, an international relations specialist at Bogazici University.

When Hatay seceded from the French mandate of Syria, Hatay’s borders did not encompass all of the ethnic Turks in the area; many Turkmens remained just across the border in what is now northernmost Syria. For decades, it was difficult for families divided on either side of the border by the secession of Hatay to even visit one another. Tensions finally began to ease during the years immediately before the Arab Spring, but they have resumed in the last several years as Turkey has led calls for the removal of Mr. Assad.

The fact that Russia has over the years expressed sympathy for Syria’s claim to Hatay makes the province even more delicate for Turkey, and Tuesday’s incident with the Russian jet even more important, said James F. Jeffrey, a former American ambassador to Turkey who is now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

He questioned whether the Russian jet had strayed into Hatay Province’s airspace accidentally or whether Russia might have been deliberately allowing incursions by its jets during military activities in Syria because of Hatay’s tangled history.

“Turkey was tired of Russia’s intimidating Turkey,” he said.

The Russian and Ottoman Empires battled for centuries for control over the area from the Balkans to the Black Sea, and vestiges of that bloody rivalry keep arising. One of those is reflected in Turkey’s deep concern about Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, said Murat Yesiltas, the director of security studies at the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, a large research group in Ankara with close government links.

Turkey now faces across the Black Sea a much wider arc of territory occupied by Russian forces. Many in Turkey are further upset by Russia’s treatment of the Crimean Tatars, who speak a Turkic language and have opposed the Russian annexation. Most of the Crimean Tatars’ leaders have been forced into exile by Russia, and this week Tatars have been blocking repair crews from restringing crucial power lines to Crimea that were mysteriously blown up over the weekend, producing a nearly total blackout on the peninsula.

“Turkey wants to protect the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Mr. Yesiltas said. Turkey has already provided economic assistance to Ukraine, but it has been reluctant to confront Moscow more publicly because Russia is one of Turkey’s biggest export markets and supplies three-fifths of Turkey’s natural gas.

With President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia saying things about the jet’s downing like, “We will never tolerate such crimes like the one committed today” and warning of “serious consequences,” the biggest question perhaps is what comes next.

Russia on Wednesday announced plans to deploy its most modern air-defense system, the S-400 mobile antiaircraft missile, to its air base outside Latakia. But while most experts and Mr. Erdogan himself, in remarks on Wednesday play down concerns of a wider confrontation, many worry that the biggest losers from Tuesday’s incident could be the Turkmens.

While the jet’s two crew members were able to eject from the plane, Russia said that one of them was killed  possibly by fire from the ground as he floated to earth  as was a marine sent in a helicopter that was shot down by local ground forces while trying to rescue the pilots; the Kremlin said the second crew member had been rescued by Russian special forces.

Several experts warned that Mr. Putin may step up his country’s attacks on the Turkmens in retaliation.

“They’re the real target,” Mr. Jeffrey said. “He can just plaster them.”

Ambassador Alexander Orlov said on Europe-1 radio Wednesday that one of the pilots was wounded, then killed on the ground by "jihadists."

Russia's ambassador to France says a Russian military pilot shot down over Turkey is in the hands of the Syrian army.

Ambassador Alexander Orlov said on Europe-1 radio Wednesday that one of the pilots was wounded, then killed on the ground by "jihadists."

He says the other "managed to escape and be rescued by the Syrian army." He didn't elaborate.

Orlov denied Turkish government statements that the Russian plane had been warned repeatedly about an airspace violation before shooting it down plane.

Orlov accused Turkey of being an "accomplice" of Islamic State extremists and playing an ambiguous role in Syria's civil war.

However he played down concerns of escalation of violence among the international players involved in Syria.

Humans can sleep for days when living alone underground, experiments show

Whenever we've tried to test the effects that living in isolation without sunlight have on the body, a common thread has emerged: much longer sleep cycles.

Now Julie Beck over at The Atlantic has pulled together the findings from a number of different experiments that all saw the participants involved drifting off for days at a time... and suffering some fairly acute mental stresses along the way too.

Take cave explorers Josie Laures and Antoine Senni, for example, who lived underground for months in the 1960s. When they emerged from their self-imposed solitude (having stayed in separate caves), both thought much less time had passed than was actually the case, to the tune of several weeks.

What's more, Senni would sometimes sleep for stretches of 30 hours at a time, then wake up believing he'd just had a short nap.

Researchers on the surface kept in touch with the pair and monitored their vital statistics for any signs of deteriorating health, but they didn't offer any clues as to the passing of time or the cycle of days. It would seem that without the rising and the setting of the sun to guide us, our bodies lose track of just how many weeks and days are going by, and when we should be sleeping.

"I am so happy to have lasted it out, that I have forgotten everything," Josie Laures told the Associated Press at the time.

"I can tell you though that it became very difficult toward the end and I felt terribly worn out... At the start of my stay I read, and then I lost the desire. I didn't suffer from the cold. I was well heated in my little tent. My tape recorder refused to work the first few days, but later I managed to repair it and I listened to music. Outside of that I knitted, and knitted some more, and looked forward to the time when I would finally see the sun."

The experiment was seen as a window into how astronauts might hold up physically and mentally on long, lonely voyages into space, a concern that has recently been brought up again as NASA prepares to send a manned mission to Mars. Sitting in a spaceship isn't quite like sitting in a cave, but there are similarities.

And it seems that when there's nothing else to do, we simply nod off for days at a time. The Atlantic points to further research indicating humans will occasionally stretch out sleep cycles to 48 hours given the chance. If we ever develop some kind of deep, cryogenic sleep system for sending astronauts to the far reaches of space, it looks like our bodies will provide a natural starting point.

Other similar experiments have found loneliness and mental tiredness to be the biggest problems when people are left with no one but themselves for company for months at a time (if you've ever seen Cast Away, you'll remember Tom Hanks making friends with a volleyball). 

More studies of this nature are going to be required if we're to understand the toll that darkness and isolation take on the human psyche, but the experiments undertaken so far make for fascinating reading./article by http://www.sciencealert.com/, posting by newsflashv

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Ovum Forecasts Africa to Reach 1 Billion Mobile Broadband Subscriptions by 2020

The number of mobile broadband connections in Africa will reach one billion in 2020, up from 147 million at the end of 2014, according to new forecasts by Ovum. The rapid growth of mobile broadband in Africa over the next few years will be driven by factors such as the ongoing rollout of 3G W-CDMA and 4G LTE networks on the continent and the increasing affordability of smartphones and other data devices, said Ovum.

As a result, mobile broadband will account for an increasingly substantial share of the overall mobile market in Africa, growing from 17% of the 884 million total mobile subscriptions at the end of 2014 to 76% of the 1.32 billion total mobile subscriptions by the end of 2020. The number is expected to cross the one billion mark during 2016.

On the outlook for its digital services market, Ovum's research tool Digital Media Opportunity Index: Sub-Saharan Africa revealed that South Africa has the most favourable market among the 20 countries surveyed for digital media content such as apps, digital music, digital publishing, OTT video, and video gaming.

Tomb Raider movie reboot sets writer and director

Lara Croft's gaming adventures aren't the only element of Tomb Raider about to get a reboot - a cinematic refresh has been in the works for more than five years, though progress has been slow. Well now the esteemed archaeologist-turned-survivalist is edging closer to that big screen return, with a director and writer now attached to the project. Norwegian director Roar Uthaug will be guiding Lara's next adventure, while relative newcomer Geneva Robertson-Dworet is set to write. The film will be developed by movie studios MGM, Warner Bros., and GK Films. Although neither director nor writer are household names, Uthaug impressed audiences with Scandinavian disaster movieThe Wave, showing a real talent for capturing the sweeping vistas and impressive real-world locations Lara might visit. Robertson-Dworet is fast making a name for herself in Hollywood too, set to pen the fifth Transformers movie, and developing sci-fi scripts for producers Roland Emmerich and Jerry Bruckheimer. Plot details are scarce at present, but the new film is set to tell the story Lara's first adventure. Whether this means an on-film remake of Square Enix's 2013 series reboot remains to be seen, but Rhianna Pratchett's script for the game certainly offered enough cinematic moments to aid the transition.The new movie has been in the works since at least 2011, when GK Films picked up the film rights to Tomb Raider, placing its development in rough synchronicity with the new games' continuity. How close the two hew is unknown, but with the very positive reception to both "New Lara" releases so far, it's likely Square Enix will want to maintain some connection. Angelina Jolie previously appeared as Lara Croft in two Tomb Raider movies, the first in 2001 and a sequel, The Cradle of Life, in 2003. Both were poorly received by critics and audiences, but did respectably at the box office, making $274 million and $156 million globally.

The new African gas producers

The discovery in 2010 of enormous natural gas reserves offshore Mozambique and Tanzania (120tcf and 47tcf of recoverable gas reserves, respectively) represents a potential economic game changer for the two countries. While large- scale production is still years away, government revenues from liquefied natural gas (LNG) alone could generate some $7bn a year over a 30-year period (assuming six LNG trains) for Mozambique, according to Standard Bank — with perhaps about half of that amount for Tanzania, depending on the number of trains, pricing and contracts.

These are enormous sums relative to the size of these countries’ economies; notably for Mozambique, whose GDP stood at $16bn in 2014. And therein lies the challenge. For while large additions to GDP and government revenues create a chance to fight poverty (60% of Mozambicans live on under $1.25 a day), such cash inflow — and the temptations it creates — has led more than one emerging economy astray, victim of the infamous “resource curse”.

One obvious risk is corruption. This is a challenge Mozambique and Tanzania are working to address. Since 2012, both countries have been compliant members of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which requires governments to “disclose information on tax payments, licenses, contracts, production and other key elements around resource extraction”. Tanzania’s Extractive Industry (Transparency and Accountability) Act of 2015 also mandates that new contracts, concessions and licences be published. While these are positive steps, more work lies ahead –  both countries rank poorly on Transparency International’s Global Corruption Perceptions Index, for example.

Lack of economic diversification is another challenge, exposing budgets to commodity price swings and constraining the economy to low-added-value activities that offer limited employment opportunities. Planning for industry linkages and local-content laws can help address this challenge. Mozambique’s Gas Master Plan, for example, envisions making use of some of the gas for domestic industrialisation and power generation — gas accounts for just 8% of total electricity generated at the moment.

Such diversification can take decades to achieve, however.  Malaysia needed nearly 40 years to establish a viable local supply chain for its natural gas sector, for instance. A more pressing concern for emerging producers is often how to manage the rise in revenues in economies with limited absorptive capacity. Overspending can, in fact, lead to currency appreciation that adversely affects export industries. An effective way to address this risk is to establish a sovereign wealth fund — a strategy both Mozambique and Tanzania have decided to pursue.

Last but not least, of course, is how the funds are spent. Tanzania’s Oil and Gas Revenues Management Act of 2015, for instance, aims to spend the money on maintaining macroeconomic and fiscal stability, on guaranteeing investment in oil and gas, on enhancing economic and social development and on safeguarding the resource for future generations. Keeping the balance among these objectives over time can prove difficult. One country that is widely seen as having succeeded is Botswana. Its use of a sustainable budget index (SBI), which tracks the balance between investment and non-investment spending and locks in spending on education and health, has notably helped the country to keep its focus on the investment side for the past three decades while increasing its human development index by 45% during the same period. A similar approach could help new producers like Mozambique achieve these goals, says Peter Bechtel, independent consultant to the IFC in Maputo, Mozambique.

Quite a programme, then, lies ahead before the first dollar from LNG exports is realised. But with LNG likely to face a competitive pricing environment as new projects in other parts of the world come online, it will be more important than ever for Mozambique and Tanzania to get their framework right if they want to achieve long-term economic development.

Countries with the most and least road traffic deaths

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released its Global Road Safety report 2015, and named Libya as the nation with the highest rate of road traffic deaths – some 73.4 deaths per 100,000 people every year.

Following Libya in second place is Thailand, with a rate of 36.2 – more than half Libya’s. The top three is completed by Malawi, with a rate of 35 deaths per 100,000.

African nations dominate the list, with the WHO highlighting the gap between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries. Of all road traffic deaths, 90% occur in developing countries, despite them having just 54% of the world’s vehicles.

The other end of the scale is illustrated in the chart below, with the fewest deaths taking place in the Federated States of Micronesia, which has a rate of just 1.9 deaths per 100,000 people.

Second on the list is Sweden, with a rate of 2.8. The United Kingdom completes the top three, with a rate of 2.9 deaths per 100,000 people.

A number of other European nations feature in the top 10, with Switzerland in fifth, the Netherlands in sixth and Denmark in eighth. Smaller nations with low numbers of vehicles feature across the list – including Micronesia, Kiribati and the Maldives.

WHO multi-country survey reveals widespread public misunderstanding about antibiotic resistance

As WHO ramps up its fight against antibiotic resistance, a new multi-country survey shows people are confused about this major threat to public health and do not understand how to prevent it from growing.

Antibiotic resistance happens when bacteria change and become resistant to the antibiotics used to treat the infections they cause. Over-use and misuse of antibiotics increase the development of resistant bacteria, and this survey points out some of the practices, gaps in understanding and misconceptions which contribute to this phenomenon.

Almost two thirds (64%) of some 10 000 people who were surveyed across 12 countries say they know antibiotic resistance is an issue that could affect them and their families, but how it affects them and what they can do to address it are not well understood. For example, 64% of respondents believe antibiotics can be used to treat colds and flu, despite the fact that antibiotics have no impact on viruses. Close to one third (32%) of people surveyed believe they should stop taking antibiotics when they feel better, rather than completing the prescribed course of treatment.

“The rise of antibiotic resistance is a global health crisis, and governments now recognize it as one of the greatest challenges for public health today. It is reaching dangerously high levels in all parts of the world,” says Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, in launching the survey findings today. “Antibiotic resistance is compromising our ability to treat infectious diseases and undermining many advances in medicine.”

The survey findings coincide with the launch of a new WHO campaign ‘Antibiotics: Handle with care’—a global initiative to improve understanding of the problem and change the way antibiotics are used.

“The findings of this survey point to the urgent need to improve understanding around antibiotic resistance,” says Dr Keiji Fukuda, Special Representative of the Director-General for Antimicrobial Resistance. “This campaign is just one of the ways we are working with governments, health authorities and other partners to reduce antibiotic resistance. One of the biggest health challenges of the 21st century will require global behaviour change by individuals and societies.”

The multi-country survey included 14 questions on the use of antibiotics, knowledge of antibiotics and of antibiotic resistance, and used a mix of online and face-to-face interviews. It was conducted in 12 countries: Barbados, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Russian Federation, Serbia, South Africa, Sudan and Viet Nam. While not claiming to be exhaustive, this and other surveys will help WHO and partners to determine the key gaps in public understanding of the problem and misconceptions about how to use antibiotics to be addressed through the campaign.

Some common misconceptions revealed by the survey include:

·         Three quarters (76%) of respondents think that antibiotic resistance happens when the body becomes resistant to antibiotics. In fact bacteria—not humans or animals—become resistant to antibiotics and their spread causes hard-to-treat infections.

·         Two thirds (66%) of respondents believe that individuals are not at risk of a drug-resistant infection if they personally take their antibiotics as prescribed. Nearly half (44%) of people surveyed think antibiotic resistance is only a problem for people who take antibiotics regularly. In fact, anyone, of any age, in any country can get an antibiotic-resistant infection.

·         More than half (57%) of respondents feel there is not much they can do to stop antibiotic resistance, while nearly two thirds (64%) believe medical experts will solve the problem before it becomes too serious.

Another key finding of the survey was that almost three quarters (73%) of respondents say farmers should give fewer antibiotics to food-producing animals.

To address this growing problem, a global action plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance was endorsed at the World Health Assembly in May 2015. One of the plan’s 5 objectives is to improve awareness and understanding of antibiotic resistance through effective communication, education and training.

Key findings of the survey by country

Barbados (507 face-to-face interviews)

Only 35% of respondents say they have taken antibiotics within the past 6 months—the lowest proportion of any country included in the survey; of those who have taken antibiotics, 91% say they were prescribed or provided by a doctor or nurse.

Fewer than half of respondents (43%) have heard of the term ‘antibiotic resistance’; and fewer than half (46%)—less than any other country in the survey—believe that many infections are becoming increasingly resistant to treatment by antibiotics.

Only 27% of respondents agree with the statements ‘Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest problems the world faces’ and that ‘Experts will solve the problem’—the lowest proportion of all participating countries for both questions.

China (1,002 online interviews)

57% of respondents report taking antibiotics within the past 6 months; 74% say they were prescribed or provided by a doctor or nurse; 5% say they purchased them on the internet.

More than half (53%) of respondents wrongly believe that they should stop taking antibiotics when they feel better, rather than taking the full course as directed.

61% of respondents think, incorrectly, that colds and flu can be treated by antibiotics.

Two thirds (67%) of respondents are familiar with the term ‘antibiotic resistance’ and three quarters (75%) say it is ‘one of the biggest problems in the world’.

83% of respondents say that farmers should give fewer antibiotics to animals—the highest proportion of any country in the survey.

Egypt (511 face-to-face interviews)

More than three quarters (76%) of respondents say they have taken antibiotics within the past 6 months, and 72% say they were prescribed or provided by a doctor or nurse.

55% of respondents incorrectly think that they should stop taking antibiotics when they feel better, rather than taking the full course; and more than three quarters (76%) wrongly believe that antibiotics can be used to treat colds and flu.

Less than one quarter (22%) of respondents have heard of the term ‘antibiotic resistance’—the lowest proportion of any country included in the survey.

India (1,023 online interviews)

More than three quarters (76%) of respondents report having taken antibiotics within the past 6 months; 90% say they were prescribed or provided by a doctor or nurse.

Three quarters (75%) of respondents think, incorrectly, that colds and flu can be treated with antibiotics; and only 58% know that they should stop taking antibiotics only when they finish the course as directed.

While 75% agree that antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest problems in the world, 72% of respondents believe experts will solve the problem before it becomes too serious.

Indonesia (1,027 online interviews)

Two thirds (66%) of respondents report having taken antibiotics in the past 6 months; 83% of respondents say they were prescribed or provided by a doctor or nurse.

More than three quarters (76%) of respondents know that they should only stop taking antibiotics when they have taken all of them as directed, but 63% incorrectly think they can be used to treat colds and flu.

84% of respondents are familiar with the term ‘antibiotic resistance’ and two thirds (67%) believe that many infections are becoming increasingly resistant to treatment by antibiotics.

Mexico (1,001 online interviews)

Three quarters (75%) of respondents report having taken antibiotics within the past 6 months; 92% say they were prescribed by a doctor or nurse; and 97% say they got them from a pharmacy or medical store.

The majority of respondents (83%) accurately identify that bladder/urinary tract infections (UTIs) can be treated with antibiotics, but 61% wrongly believe that colds and flu can be treated with antibiotics.

89% of respondents in Mexico say they have heard of the term ‘antibiotic resistance’ and 84% believe many infections are becoming increasingly resistant to treatment by antibiotics—a higher proportion than any other country included in the survey on both questions.

Nigeria (664 face-to-face interviews)

Almost three quarters (73%) of respondents report taking antibiotics within the past 6 months; 75% of respondents state they were prescribed or provided by a doctor or nurse; 5% say they bought them from a stall or hawker.

More respondents in Nigeria than any other country included in the survey correctly identify that antibiotics do not work for colds and flu (47%), however 44% of respondents think they do.

Only 38% of respondents have heard of the term ‘antibiotic resistance’—the second lowest proportion of all the countries surveyed.

Russian Federation (1,007 online interviews)

A little more than half of respondents (56%) report having taken antibiotics within the past 6 months; the same proportion (56%) say their most recent course of antibiotics was prescribed or provided by a doctor or nurse—the lowest proportion of any country included in the survey.

Two thirds (67%) of respondents incorrectly think colds and flu can be treated with antibiotics, and more than one quarter (26%) think they should stop taking antibiotics when they feel better rather than taking the full course as directed.

Awareness of the term ‘antibiotic resistance’ was high among respondents at 82%.

71% think antibiotics are widely used in agriculture in their country and 81% say that farmers should give fewer antibiotics to animals.

Serbia (510 face-to-face interviews)

Fewer than half (48%) of respondents say they have taken antibiotics within the past 6 months; 81% say they were prescribed or provided by a doctor or nurse.

The majority of respondents (83%) accurately identify that bladder infections/UTIs can be treated with antibiotics, but more than two thirds (68%) wrongly believe that colds and flu can be treated with antibiotics.

Only 60% of respondents in Serbia have heard of the term ‘antibiotic resistance’ and only one third (33%) think it is one of the biggest problems the world faces.

81% of respondents say that farmers should give fewer antibiotics to animals.

South Africa (1,002 online interviews)

65% of respondents say they have taken antibiotics within the past 6 months; a higher proportion of people than any other country included in the survey (93%) say their last course of antibiotics was prescribed or provided by a doctor or nurse, and 95% say they had advice from a medical professional on how to take them.

87% of respondents know they should only stop taking antibiotics when they finish the course of treatment—a higher proportion than any other country included in the survey.

The same proportion (87%) of respondents—and again more than any other country in the survey—recognize that the statement ‘It’s OK to use antibiotics that were given to a friend of family member, as long as they were used to treat the same illness’ is false. It is a practice which can encourage the development of resistance.

Sudan (518 face-to-face interviews)

More than three quarters (76%) of respondents report having taken antibiotics within the past 6 months; 91% say they were prescribed or provided by a doctor or nurse.

62% of respondents incorrectly think they should stop taking antibiotics when they feel better—more than any other country included in the survey—and 80% think antibiotics can be used to treat colds and flu. Both of these statements are incorrect. These are practices which encourage the development of antibiotic resistance.

94% of respondents agree that people should use antibiotics only when prescribed, and 79% believe that antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest problems the world faces—the highest percentages on both questions of any of the countries where the survey was undertaken.

Viet Nam (1,000 online interviews)

71% of respondents state they have taken antibiotics within the past 6 months; three quarters (75%) report they were prescribed or provided by a doctor or nurse.

86% of respondents think that the body becomes resistant to antibiotics (whereas in fact it is bacteria)—a higher proportion than any other country included in the survey.

83% think that many infections are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics.

70% of respondents think that antibiotics are widely used in agriculture in their country and almost three quarters (74%) agree that ‘antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest problems the world faces’.

  

Notes to editors

About the survey

The multi-country survey was limited to 2 countries per WHO Region, 12 countries overall. Data cannot be considered to be representative of each Region, nor of the global situation. Fieldwork was carried out by research agency 2CV between 14 September and 16 October 2015. A total of 9772 respondents completed the 14 question survey either online or during a face-to-face street interview.

Document with key findings:  Multi-Country Public Awareness Survey on Antibiotic Resistance

About the ‘Antibiotics: Handle with care’ campaign

WHO is launching a global campaign, ‘Antibiotics: Handle with care’, during the first World Antibiotic Awareness Week, 16-22 November 2015. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness and encourage best practices among the public, policymakers, health and agriculture professionals to avoid the further emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance. For more information and to download campaign materials: World Antibiotic Awareness Week