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U.S., Canada issue joint alert on ‘ransomware’ after hospital attacks

The United States and Canada on Thursday issued a rare joint cyber alert, warning against a recent surge in extortion attacks that infect computers with viruses known as “ransomware,” which encrypt data and demand payments for it to be unlocked. The warning follows reports from several private security firms that they expect the crisis to worsen, because hackers are getting more sophisticated and few businesses have adopted proper security measures to thwart such attacks. “Infections can be devastating to an individual or organization, and recovery can be a difficult process that may require the services of a reputable data recovery specialist,” the two governments said in the alert, distributed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre.

After China vaccine scare, Hong Kong to limit inoculations for non-resident children

Hong Kong is to limit the number of non-resident children getting vaccinations at government clinics, after an illegal vaccine scandal in mainland China raised fears some families would come to the city for inoculations and put pressure on supplies. From April 1, Hong Kong’s Maternal and Child Health Centres will only accept 120 new non-resident children a month.

Global elderly population exploding: US report

The number of people globally aged 65 and over is expected to more than double by 2050 as the world's senior population continues to rocket, a US study says. The global population is aging at an unprecedented rate with 8.5 percent of people worldwide — or more than 600 million — now aged 65 and over, said the US Census Bureau report. If the trend continues nearly 17 percent of the global population, or 1.6 billion people, will be in the 65-and-over age bracket by 2050.

Drug resistance adds to India’s tuberculosis menace

After three years of battling tuberculosis, a disease that claimed the lives of his father and younger brother, Sonu Verma, a patient in northern India, hopes a cure for his illness may be within reach. “Only a few more months and my nightmare will end… it will be my rebirth, free from tuberculosis,” the 25-year-old scrap dealer, who has been left visibly lean and weak by the disease, told AFP. As India marks World TB Day on Thursday, it faces an estimated 2.2 million new cases of the disease a year, more than any other country, according to the World Health Organisation.

Fifth person dies in Guinea Ebola flare-up

A fifth person has died of Ebola in southeast Guinea since March 17, a health official told Reuters on Tuesday, raising concerns that a recent flare-up of the deadly virus could spread. The latest case was detected in Macenta prefecture, about 200 kilometers from the village of Korokpara where the four other recent Ebola-related deaths occurred, said Fode Sylla Tass, spokesman for National Coordination of the Fight against Ebola in Guinea. Burials, where bodies of the deceased are often washed, have been a main cause of transmission of Ebola, which has killed at least 11,300 people in West Africa since 2013 in the worst outbreak on record.

Indonesia’s mentally ill languish in shackles

In a small faith healing centre in rural Indonesia, Sulaiman chanted in a confused fashion, tugged at a chain attached to his ankle, and shifted restlessly on a hard, wooden bench. The emaciated man has been chained up for the past two years, and is one of thousands of Indonesians with a mental illness currently shackled, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released Monday. Chaining up the mentally ill has been illegal in Indonesia for nearly 40 years but remains rife across the country, especially in rural areas where health services are limited and belief in evil spirits prevails, according to HRW.

Italy rescues 910 boat migrants, finds one body

More than 900 migrants were rescued in four separate operations in the Strait of Sicily on Saturday and emergency services recovered one corpse, Italy’s coast guard said. Now into the second year of its worst migration crisis since World War Two, Europe has seen more than 1.2 million people arrive since the beginning of 2015, most of them from Africa and the Middle East. Italy’s coast guard has continued to pick up migrants in trouble in the stretch of water between its southern coast and North Africa, although most people seeking a better life in Europe have taken less dangerous routes to Greece.