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This paper presents an inexhaustive but thorough review of the evidence of violence against persons with disabilities that came before, or ought to have been known to, the prosecutors of the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. This research demonstrates that despite significant and compelling evidence from investigators, journalists and witnesses, gross violations against persons with disabilities were largely ignored by the prosecution or treated merely as aggravating factors at sentencing. These crimes could instead have been characterized as an "other inhumane act" prosecutable as a crime against humanity, which would have emphasized the gravity of the crimes, provided recognition of the victims' suffering, imposed criminal sanctions on those responsible, and unequivocally condemned violence against persons with disabilities during armed conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human settlement in New Zealand is relatively recent compared with that of many countries and extends back ≅800 years to when early Polynesian explorers first arrived (1). A wide variety [...]

The current COVID-19 pandemic emphasises the dramatic consequences of emerging zoonotic pathogens and stimulates the need for an assessment of the evolution and natural cycle of such microbes in a "One Health" framework. A number of recent studies have revealed an astonishing diversity of bat-borne coronaviruses, including in insular environments, which can be considered as simplified biological systems suited for the exploration of the transmission cycles of these viruses in nature. In this work, we present two new lineages of Alphacoronaviruses detected by screening the only two extant New Zealand bat species: the lesser short-tailed bat (Mystacina tuberculata) and the long-tailed bat (Chalinolobus tuberculatus). Infection prevalence reaching 60% in long-tailed bats makes this host-pathogen model relevant for the investigation of maintenance mechanisms in a bat reservoir with peculiar physiological adaptations to temperate climates. A phylogenetic analysis shows that these viral lineages do cluster with coronaviruses hosted by bat sister species from Australia, supporting co-diversification processes. These patterns provide an interesting framework for further research aiming at elucidating the natural history and biological cycles of bat-borne coronaviruses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]