Conflict

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — At least two police officers were killed and a dozen people wounded on Monday when a bomb went off near a health care facility where polio vaccines were being dispensed outside this northwestern Pakistani city, officials said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross presents this event, which includes a briefing by Pierre Gentile, Head of Unit for Protection of Civilian Populations, on ICRC’s Health Care in Danger initiative. Increasing attacks on health care workers have impacted millions of people worldwide.

LANKIEN, South Sudan—The wounded started arriving in the evening. A rusted-out pick-up truck dropped off four young men with gunshot wounds, two with life-threatening wounds to the abdomen and the others with leg injuries, at the 100-bed Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital here. Just hours earlier, the hospital’s team and local residents had been playing volleyball as the sun began to set on a 106-degree day.

The AMA Federal Council has adopted the World Medical Association’s WMA Regulations in Times of Armed Conflict and Other Situations of Violence as formal AMA policy. The Regulations outline the duties of doctors working in armed conflict and other situations of violence and address the obligations of Governments, armed forces, and others in positions of power to allow health care personnel to fulfil their ethical duties to care for the sick and wounded, and to provide protection for health care personnel and facilities such as hospitals.

The United States and the international community should take immediate steps to respond to reports of the largest scale usage of chemical weapons in Syria, a group of civil society leaders said today. Numerous reports have indicated that coordinated chemical weapons attacks occurred on Wednesday, August 21, 2013 in the East Ghuta area of the Damascus suburbs in Syria, reportedly killing up to 1300 and injuring tens of thousands more.