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Elizabethkingia, “the mysterious infection that might be behind 17 deaths in Wisconsin has spread to a second state… The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) confirmed Thursday that an older adult from the western part of the state has died after contracting the obscure blood infection, which has sickened more than 50 in Wisconsin.

A former Russian foreign minister recently warned, “The East-West standoff over the Ukraine crisis has brought the threat of nuclear war in Europe closer than at any time since the 1980s” (Reuters, March 19, 2016). “Igor Ivanov, Russia’s foreign minister from 1998 to 2004 and now head of a Moscow-based think-tank founded by the Russian government” also stated, “We have less nuclear warheads, but the risk of them being used is growing’” (ibid.).

On Tuesday, March 22, an ISIS attack at the Brussels international airport and at a metro station killed or injured more than 330 people (Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2016).

“The UN is redoubling efforts to secure emergency food aid for Zimbabwe where a key official… [said] the situation was ‘unprecedented.’ Sixteen million people are now facing hunger across southern Africa… Zimbabwe is facing its worst drought in 25 years. The exceptionally arid weather… has killed around 20,000 cattle over the last few months and left close to three million people facing hunger in the southern African country.

“On February 4th, Dutch Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen signed a new deal paving the way for the full integration of their countries’ naval units” (Huffington Post, February 20, 2016). This agreement “will push Germany and the Netherlands further towards a pioneering model for European defense cooperation” (ibid.).