Plague outbreak
The week's news at a glance.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
The totalitarian state of Turkmenistan is suffering an outbreak of plague and has no functional health care system to combat it, the Los Angeles Times reported this week. Dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, a megalomaniac who has ruled the country since it emerged from the breakup of the Soviet Union, in 1991, has fired all doctors with foreign training and declared illegal any mention of infectious diseases such as plague, TB, or AIDS. Meanwhile, aid organizations and opposition groups report that plague, carried by fleas that infest the large gerbils of the Turkmen deserts, has been spreading, although accurate numbers are impossible to come by. The Black Death of the 14th century, the worst global pandemic in human history, originated among Central Asian rodents.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Nepal chooses toddler as its new ‘living goddess’
Under the Radar Girls between two and four are typically chosen to live inside the temple as the Kumari – until puberty strikes
-
October 5 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include half-truth hucksters, Capitol lockdown, and more
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailout
Talking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?