University School of Public Health and one of the study's authors, told Boston's WBUR. "Our rates are comparable to Iran, the Ukraine, and Russia, not countries we generally want to compare our health outcomes to."

As Nora Caplan-Bricker writes for Slate: "Texas, for its part, established a task force in 2013 to study pregnancy-related deaths; it's due to make its first set of recommendations in September. The task force hasn't yet hinted at the contents of its report, but common sense suggests that replenishing the millions of dollars in funding the state has drained from women's health clinics might be a good start."More than 600,000 residents from West Pokot County are in urgent need of food aid after the region was hit by drought associated with the ongoing El Nino weather phenomena. The weather has dried up waterholes and rivers leading to widespread crop failure.

The Kenyan government had promised to release 50 million Kenya shillings ($5 million, 4.4 million euros) to be used to purchase food aid. Despite the pledge, the government is yet to release the funds forcing residents to move to other counties in search of food and water.

The drought started in February as many were preparing their farms for the planting season. In some areas there was insufficient rain which could not support vegetation. North and South Pokot are the worst hit areas. The areas have not