By Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Edwina Gibbs 2 June 2018 (Reuters) – Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has told a U.N human rights expert who said the country’s judicial independence was under threat to “go to hell”, warning against interference in domestic affairs. The Philippine Supreme Court voted last month to remove Chief Justice Maria […]
By Jon Gambrell 28 May 2018 DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – The death toll from Cyclone Mekunu that hit Oman and Yemen over the weekend rose to at least 13 on Monday, authorities said, as relief workers and aid arrived to hard-hit areas in the two Arabian Peninsula countries. Flooding and damage remains considerable […]
21 May 2018 (UNODC) – In 2017, opium cultivation in Afghanistan reached a record high with an estimated 328,000 hectares, up 63 per cent compared with 201,000 hectares in 2016.According to the latest survey report released today by UNODC, last year’s record levels of production has led to unprecedented levels of potential heroin production. From […]
By Eric Zerkel 27 May 2018 (The Weather Channel) – Tropical Cyclone Mekunu made landfall overnight Saturday in Oman as a Category 3 hurricane equivalent storm, dumping more than two years’ worth of rain in a single day on one of the country’s most populous cities and killing at least four people there after killing […]
25 May 2018 (NOAA) – The NOAA-20 satellite captured this image of severe tropical cyclone Mekunu nearing the southern Arabian Peninsula on 24 May 2018. The dangerous Category 3 storm rapidly intensified in the warm waters of the Arabian Sea and had sustained winds of 115 mph, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported in its […]
By Michael Greshko 10 May 2018 (National Geographic) – Many of the world’s amphibians are staring down an existential threat: an ancient skin-eating fungus that can wipe out entire forests’ worth of frogs in a flash.This ecological super-villain, the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, has driven more than 200 amphibian species to extinction or near-extinction—radically rewiring […]
2 May 2018 (UN News) – In a call for Member States to take action urgently, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, warned that air pollution “threatens us all, but the poorest and most marginalized people bear the brunt of the burden.”According to WHO’s ambient air quality database, despite some improvements, pollution levels […]
By Neha Jain 4 May 2018 (Mongabay) – Winters in the Himalayas are getting warmer, which is increasing the risk of avalanches, two new studies suggest. The Himalayas, a massive 2,500-kilometre (1,553-mile) arc-shaped stretch of lofty mountains straddling Pakistan, China, India, Nepal, and Bhutan, are home to the largest concentration of glaciers outside of the […]
25 April 2018 (RSF) – The 2018 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), reflects growing animosity towards journalists. Hostility towards the media, openly encouraged by political leaders, and the efforts of authoritarian regimes to export their vision of journalism pose a threat to democracies. [Читать на русском / Read in Russian] […]
By Simon Denyer and Annie Gowen 18 April 2018 (The Washington Post) – Nothing like this has happened in human history. A combination of cultural preferences, government decree and modern medical technology in the world’s two largest countries has created a gender imbalance on a continental scale. Men outnumber women by 70 million in China […]
