he year 2011 was one of remarkable and uneven transition in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Mass uprisings in cities in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya brought about changes in governments; protests have quelled in Bahrain, Syria and Yemen; and cautious reforms were introduced in Saudi Arabia. The situation remains very fluid, but there is a consensus that 2011 ushered in a period of f...

We report 15 imported louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) cases in refugees in Bavaria, Germany. One patient died. Epidemiological findings confirmed that all were young males from the Horn of Africa (12 from Somalia), who had similar migration routes converging in Sudan continuing through Libya and Italy. The majority likely acquired their infection during migration. Healthcare workers should b...

The EU anti-migrant smuggling operation in the Mediterranean sea – known as ‘EUNAVFOR Med’ or ‘Operation Sophia’ – is now entering its operational phase, aimed at boarding and seizing on the high seas vessels suspected of being used for human smuggling and trafficking. This follows a first phase of intelligence gathering on smuggling networks and is intended to precede operations due to take pl...

Total solar eclipses (TSEs) offer a good opportunity to look for photons produced in possible radiative decays of solar neutrinos. In this paper we briefly review the physics bases of such searches as well as the existing limits for the ν2 and ν3 proper lifetimes obtained by such experiments. We then report on the observations performed in occasion of the 29 March 2006 TSE, from Waw an Namos, L...